Gates funds “green” milk

Billionaire Bill Gates’ investment fund, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, is leading a $12 million investment in Neutral Foods which tracks greenhouse gases from milk production.

Other investors in Neutral Foods include Mark Cuban, National Basketball Association stars LeBron James and Kevin Love, Tobias Harris, and musicians John Legend and Questlove.

Neutral Foods buys carbon credits to compensate for the milk-production emissions. 

Breakthrough Energy Ventures has segmented global emissions into five categories, and agriculture is the third worst offender, responsible for 19 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions, behind manufacturing (31 per cent) and electricity (27 per cent), but ahead of transportation (16 per cent) and buildings (seven per cent).

Neutral Foods milk is in about 2,000 grocery stores and it’s planning to expand into butter, and eventually meat.

“It’s clear that consumers are hungry for sustainable, climate-forward options and they’re reflecting that in their purchasing decisions, especially when it comes to buying food and beverages,” Carmichael Roberts, one half of the investing committee at Bill Gates’ investment fund, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, told CNBC television.

Neutral Foods measures the carbon emissions of the entire lifecycle of its products and purchases carbon offsets for the measured emissions, Ann Radil, the Head of Carbon Reduction at Neutral Foods, told CNBC.

Carbon credits are permits that businesses buy to certify greenhouse gasses have been removed from the atmosphere. While not all carbon credits are reliably policed, Neutral Foods says it uses only offsets verified by Climate Action Reserve which it says are quite strict. Its offsets are “real, additional, permanent, verifiable, and enforceable,” said Lauren Brown, senior manager of carbon reduction data and analytics for Neutral Foods.

Long-term, the company’s plan is to work with farms to reduce their greenhouse emissions directly. Currently, Neutral Foods has eight distinct projects underway at farms it works with and 30 projects in some phase of development, Radil told CNBC.

Those projects include changing what cows eat and changing how cow manure is managed.

Separating and composting manure “alone can reduce manure-related GHG emissions such as methane and nitrous oxide by 19 to 50 percent,” Radil told CNBC. 

Also, Neutral Foods is working with farms to change the way they plant things on the farm to improve the amount of carbon that gets absorbed by the soil.

Pivot Bio offers on-seed nitrogen-fixing product

Pivot Bio is offering on-seed nitrogen-producing bacteria for corn and spring wheat.

The technology boosted nitrogen by 14 per cent in plants, the company said of results from trials on 1.3 million acres.

“Our mission is to replace synthetic nitrogen with a better source of nitrogen for our growers,” said Keith O’Bryan, director of seed treatments for Pivot Bio. It’s Canadian operations are based in Regina.

The on-seed nitrogen is being marketed as Proven 40 On-Seed (OS) for corn and Return On-Seed for small grains.

“This has never been done before,” O’Bryan says. “It's so exciting because it brings together the combination of an innovative product formulation with a process for application of the microbe onto the seed very safely, yielding a consistent form of nitrogen for the customer.” 

“Having an on-seed nitrogen option is huge, because it opens the door for every grower out there,” adds Matt Kestel, Pivot Bio territory sales manager in northwest Iowa. 

 

For 2023, farmers can choose between two nitrogen application methods – in-furrow or on-seed.

Emergency mental help number coming

Canadians who need mental health rescue will be able to dial 9-8-8 for emergency help, beginning in November next year.

It’s particularly relevant in cases of suicide attempts.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission made the announcement recently, responding to federal legislation passed in December, 2020.

The United States has had national 9-8-8 service since July.

Canada’s fall 2023 target gives communities in Newfoundland and Labrador, northern Ontario and Yellowknife enough time to transition to 10-digit local dialing. These areas still use seven-digit dialing, the CRTC said.

“We are taking a significant step in making mental health and suicide prevention resources more accessible to everyone in Canada,” said Ian Scott, chairperson and chief executive officer of the CRTC.

 “A single, easy to remember point of contact will provide much-needed help to those in crisis and will be crucial to saving lives. Although much work is left to be done to bring help to people who need it, we have set accelerated timelines to ensure that 9-8-8 is implemented as quickly and as efficiently as possible.”

Todd Doherty, the MP for Cariboo-Prince George, introduced a bill in December 2020 to establish 9-8-8 and it quickly received unanimous approval.

Ontario yields looking good

Corn and soybean yield prospects look good, according to a province-wide tour by Moe Agostino and Greg Stewart.

They estimate corn will yield an average 186.6 bushels an acre which would be the second-best on record. Last year set the record at 200 bushels an acre.

Soybeans were more prone to drought challenges and the outlook is for a yield of 50.3 bushels per acre, yet that’s the fourth-best on record.

The 2022 Great Ontario Yield Tour is hosted by Farms.com. Agostino is the company’s risk management chief commodity strategist. Steward works for Maizex seed company.

“It’s a good crop, but it’s nothing too exciting,” Stewart said of soybeans. 

Dry weather in late June and early August hurt beans more than corn.

“On June 10th, there was some who thought it would be a record corn crop—I said wow, this was going to be amazing considering the record we set last year, but across almost all of Ontario, the weather was hot and dry in July,” said Stewart.

Sunlight-reaction genes boost yields

A researcher has found that genes that control plants’ reaction to changes in sunlight could boost soybean yields by 25 per cent.

Steve Long, a professor of crop science and plant biology at the University of Illinois, began genetic engineering studies with tobacco and was able to boost yields by 20 per cent by adding genes from the Arabidopsis plant.

The genes keep the plant open to sunlight photosynthesis instead of taking time to transition when the plants go from full sunlight to shade. 

Under full sunlight, there is more energy than plants need so they convert some to heat which they get rid of. But when they go into shade, it takes time to turn off the sunlight-suppression system. The transferred genes shorten this transition period.

“These are small plot trials. We don’t know that we would get such a big increase in a farmer’s field,” Long said.

But because the gene transfer worked for both tobacco and soybeans, it might work for all farmed crops.

                           

But, oh my, it's genetic engineering. And the hand-wringing critics will be out there trying to prevent adoption of technology that could make the difference between health and starvation for millions of people.

Canada drops canola complaint against China

Canada and China have agreed to suspend proceedings against Chinese measures affecting the importation of Canadian canola  from Richardson and Viterra in March, 2019.

Canada complained that China had no justification for the suspension. Many news media outlets viewed the ban as Chinese retaliation after Canada acted on an extradition request from the United States for Meng Wanzho, a senior officer of Huawei  company which makes internet equipment.

Canada began the trade challenge process in September 2019, seeking bilateral consultations with China at the WTO.

 Wanzhou was released from house arrest in September last year and returned to China after reaching a deal with U.S. prosecutors.

China lifted its ban on the two affected companies’ canola in May.

So no penalty! What's to stop China from doing this again? 

Spice on recall

A rash of serious food poisonings of patrons of a Markham restaurant has prompted the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to issue a recall for Keampferia Galanga Powder which was used as a spice

It contained aconitine, a spice that comes from the roots of a Monkshood, also known as Wolfsbane, or Keampfeira, which is a poisonous plant.

A dozen people became ill and four ended up in hospital in intensive care.

York Region health unit issued a warning about the contaminated spice days before the CFIA posted a recall on its website.

The CFIA said food contaminated with aconitine may not look or smell spoiled but can still make you sick. 

Symptoms can include nausea, vomiting, dizziness, weakness, irregular heart beats, and in severe cases, death. 

The onset of symptoms is rapid.