Video by: Stefan Morel

From the filmmaker:

The Vancouver Convention Centre was minted as the city’s newest architectural wonder, at the opening of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The greenest public structure on Vancouver’s ever-rising urban skyline, the VCC was engineered with a host of sustainable features: a green roof with “resident” bees (and beekeeper), reclaimed BC timber, watershed preservation systems, etc.

Just Another Worker….

When asked about what it was like filming all those bees, Stefan said:

When I filmed the bees+hives, I wasn’t wearing any protective gear: no beekeeper suit, no hat, no net…and despite the intense summer heat, the sweat dripping down my face and the stress of the bees on my lens…I didn’t get stung once! Just goes to show you: if the bees understand that you mean them no harm, and you can relax into their buzzing environment, they’ll welcome you into their hive. I was perceived as just another worker:)

To view additional work from the filmmaker visit: stefanmorel.com

About Harvest, LLC shares stories about food and agriculture. Subscribe to receive stories about the science, history and relevance of agricultural crops grown and harvested around the world.

]]> http://aboutharvest.com/2012/05/3843-bees-vcc-the-greenest-public-structure-in-vancouver/feed/ 0 http://aboutharvest.com/2012/04/we-farm-a-worldwide-peer-to-peer-knowledge-sharing-network/ http://aboutharvest.com/2012/04/we-farm-a-worldwide-peer-to-peer-knowledge-sharing-network/#comments Mon, 30 Apr 2012 14:17:24 +0000 Nancy O'Mallon http://aboutharvest.com/?p=3662 A Worldwide Peer-to-Peer Knowledge Sharing Network

For more information visit: wefarm.info

Vert is a project that was created as a submission for the Dell Social Innovation Challenge. It’s creators shared with us that their motivation for starting the project where not financial, that rather they hope to “contribute to the debate on agriculture, technology and food security” adding that it also explains “quite nicely” what they aim to accomplish.

From the filmmakers:

Vert is a social enterprise that will (1) promote food security and economic development in Africa; (2) stimulate fair and responsible off-farm employment opportunities in Nepal and Chad; (3) reduce the use of environmentally hazardous plastic bags in Europe and the U.S.; and (4) raise awareness amongst European and U.S. consumers of the food security challenges faced by African farmers. Overall, this project will result in greater quantities of better quality food for small-scale farmers in Africa, less pollution from disposable plastic bags in Europe and the U.S., and improved livelihoods in Africa and Nepal.

To learn more about Vert visit: dellchallenge.org/projects/vert

Facebook: facebook.com/VertBags

Trailer & film by: 1080 Films From the Mark Dodd, the filmmaker:

Winner of 7 international film awards, The Man Who Stopped the Desert is a one hour feature doc telling the story of Yacouba Sawadogo, an African peasant farmer who has pioneered a technique that reverses the process of desertification. Made by Mark Dodd, 1080 Films.

Video by: MU News Bureau and Nathan Hurst

From the MU News Bureau:

Researchers at MU are studying all aspects of food production through a collaborative effort called “Food for the Future.”

Food for the Future is one part of a larger initiative called Mizzou Advantage, which brings together experts from all corners of MU’s many different schools and colleges to research and collaborate.

For further information visit: www.missouri.edu

Sustaination is a UK based start-up with some very big ideas on how to simplify food distribution. View the video below to learn all about this unique business proposition.

“Business supply 99.9% of what we eat. The easier it is for them to find and buy local, the easier it is for us to eat and support local”

About Harvest interview with the creator of Sustaination, Mr. Ed Dowding:

Listen here:

To learn more please visit their website at: http://app.sustaination.co.uk/ and/or their twitter page: @Sustaination

Video by: Making Connections News

From the filmmakers:

A portrait of Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton, farmers in Scott County, Virginia, who have used the Internet to create a thriving market for their invention, the Avian Aqua Miser.

This innovative device provides a steady source of water to chickens without creating an unsanitary mess. Their story underlines the importance of access to high speed Internet to economic development in Appalachia and other rural regions.

To learn more visit: makingconnectionsnews.org

Last week The Howard G. Buffett Foundation and the Norman Borlaug Institute at Texas A&M announced a new collaboration based in South Africa at the Ukulima Farm Research Center to advance African Agriculture and Fight Hunger.

“It is my hope this collaboration will improve agricultural productivity across the African continent” said Mr. Buffet, “particularly for Africa’s poorest farmers.”

Interview with Dr. Edwin Price, Director of The Borlaug Institute:

Dr. Edwin Price at Ukulima Farm

AH: Is this a brand new initiative?

DP: No, Mr. Buffet has been involved in Africa in resource conservation and farming for quite a long time. He initially began largely focused on natural wildlife conservation, came to the conclusion that conserving wildlife, preserving wildlife in Africa was going to require feeding people. So he increasingly engaged in supporting agriculture research and agriculture development projects in Africa for that purpose. He began the farm that was announced yesterday as much as five years ago in the earliest stages of it and he brought it up to an operating level and attracted early collaborators and partners from various private research organizations as well as Universities and international research centers. So that group of partners has been working for three years or so. He’s asked that Texas A & M University, specifically the Borlaug Institute, with which we share the vision for Africa to become more involved in the management of the farm. And so what was announced yesterday was the new designation of the Borlaug Institute as the management entity for the nature conservation trust of South Africa, which is the operator of Ukulima farm.

AH: What are the goals?

DP: The goals are really to develop technology, usable by small African farmers to get their productivity up, to get their yields up. Maybe even to introduce resource saving technologies, energy saving technologies possibly. Working with minimum tillage, conservation farming. As well as advanced techniques – we really haven’t taken anything off the table in terms of looking at all the possibilities there are for improving small African farm productivity. We know that the need is there to improve small farm productivity in Africa and in a lot of places. We’ve been working cooperatively in other regimes in the Middle east for example where they face some of the same problems. Nevertheless we’re focused in this case through Ukulima Farm on small African farmers.

Our namesake, Dr. Norman Borlaug passed away a couple years ago but had made his early breakthrough in modern agricultural productivity in developing countries of Asia. He had enormous impact. At the time of his death he recognized, and despite his ten years of effort in Africa that the job still had to be done. In fact his parting wishes with colleagues was: “Don’t forget about Africa, I want you guys to carry on my work in Africa. So in that regard he felt that Mr. Buffets’ objectives and our objectives were highly consistent. And we are very pleased to have a partnership with him.

AH: How much of the work is this organization having to focus specifically on contending with water issues?

DP: Water issues are major. Both water quality and water availability. And also making sure you don’t impair water quality or availability through your technologies. So it’s both a problem for the input as well as what you leave for others, so it’s definitely a concern for the work. And we have some really good scientists who are coming on board to work with us on the hydrology and all about water use. Of course, our partners we’re working with now, for example Penn State University who was working there actually before we came on board is doing some very advanced work. For example on the root structure of plants – how root structures have an impact on the efficiency of that plant in utilizing water. That is really one of the foremost projects being undertaken on the farm right now. So yes, water is a major concern. Soil nutrients, natural processes in the soil that help to conserve soils’ fertility and feed plants at the same time are also a concern. So it’s not only a matter of the water. In fact Mr. Buffet has been party to recent discussions of something they call the Brown Revolution. And that is gaining a better understanding on soil management in tropical and underdeveloped countries.

AH: For those who would ask: Why focus on Africa, why not focus on the US, or why not focus on other areas, how would this organization respond?

DP: We think we’ve got to be working on these issues everywhere. In fact, the resources that we bring to the table from Borlaug Institute are the resources of Texas agriculture Agrilife research. We have 15 research experiment stations in the state of Texas in different regions faced with water concerns, flow, quality concerns, pest concerns all of that. So we regard the work in Africa as part of a worldwide fabric of effort to confront the problems of food security, water use and soil improvement in sustainability. And as far as Mr. Buffet, he is a farmer in the US himself. In fact, almost everything he does on the farm in Ukulima he has a companion project of the exact same treatments being undertaken on his farms in Illinois.

The Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture webpage: http://borlaug.tamu.edu/

No matter how large or small, every farmer thinks about how to manage agricultural water. They think about how they’ll get it, how they’ll conserve it, and how they’ll be able to produce more crops with less water. In this video by ABC Open, we see how one farmer struggles with water daily.

From ABC Open:

Kyle Wohling lives on a farm 50km north east of Esperance. To keep the crops growing and the stock alive water is critical. The past year has been unseasonally dry which has meant Kyle has had to cart water daily to ensure the sheep have enough water to survive.

Video by: CUNY J-School Video Storytelling

From the filmmakers:

Ben Schwartz, 32, always loved to farm from an early age. He spent his childhood in Nyack, New York, but his grandparents actually hail from the South Bronx. They left in the ‘60s, during a period of white flight, and Ben always wanted to go back and “deal with some of the problems they fled.”

Those problems are grave. In a 2011 report, the Food Research Action Center found that 32.7% of South Bronx residents experience “food hardship,” or difficulty paying for food. Mott Haven and Hunts Point have the highest proportion of diabetes in the city. One in four adults in Hunts Point and Mott Haven are obese, compared with one in five citywide. Schwartz reasoned that the combination of lack of income and obesity would undoubtedly lead to untreatable illness.

“I figured out by listening to the community the best way to support the folks in these neighborhoods was through medicinal herbs,” said Schwartz. “You can get a lot more out of your money by buying a three dollar bag of burdock than you could buying a 50 dollar bottle of pharmaceuticals.”

Now he and his team go down to the South Bronx once a week selling the herbs. They are partially funded by donors, but money is tight and many people on staff at the farm are volunteers. Schwartz admits that it’s not ideal, but maintains that there aren’t a lot of sources of revenue for small farmers in a market dominated by corporate-owned farms.