Hydroponic Gardening News

COVINGTON - There are plenty of numbers within the economic impact study released last week for the proposed Times Star Commons project in downtown Covington.

Estimates on the total number of visitors (2.25 million), annual job creation (469), gross retail sales ($464.5 million over 10 years), and tax revenues for local and state governments ($12.13 million over 10 years) are some of the more eye-popping figures detailed in the 23-page report.

Supporters of the project hope that the study's findings go a long way in convincing state lawmakers of its worth.

Because when it comes to the future of the planned retail development project - which includes an indoor/outdoor regional farmers' market, residential condos, a 500-seat amphitheater, and ample green space - the most important number of all is $17 million.

Why? Because that's how much money needs to come from Frankfort in order to get the estimated $32.5 million project off the ground. The other half would come from private investors.

State Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, is a leading advocate of the project and will help push for state dollars when the General Assembly convenes next month.

Thayer describes the project as not only an avenue for urban renewal, but also as a way to help farmers in NKY and outlying counties.

Senator is "Cautiously Optimistic"

After years of lobbying unsuccessfully for a regional farmers market, Thayer thinks that this time around might be different now that the market is part of a large-scale project like Times Star Commons.
He's "cautiously optimistic" about securing the necessary funding.

"This is going to be a difficult budget cycle because of stress that Medicaid and corrections are placing on the state budget," said Thayer. "We've got more and more people who are on Medicaid and more and more people who are in our jail system due to the drug problem we have in Kentucky."

Money for viable infrastructure investment is going to be hard to come by, he said.

Nevertheless, Thayer has encouraged Gov. Ernie Fletcher to include funding for the project in his executive budget.

"That would make a strong statement on the importance of the project," said Thayer.

Larry Maxey, chairman of the NKY Regional Farmers Market board of directors, envisions the development - planned for the city block between Fourth and Fifth streets, and between Madison Avenue and Scott Boulevard - as a destination point.

Many Kentucky farmers within the immediate 11-county area are interested in the project, he added, noting that the year-round market would be complemented by a specialty grocery and other businesses, possibly a butcher shop and bakery.

More Kentucky farmers will also look into new technology, such as hydroponics, in order to produce fruits and vegetables out of season to sell at the market, said Maxey.

It's estimated that the farmers' market could yield $11.5 million in annual sales, with $6.5 million going directly to farmers.

"If you provide an outlet for them and you can provide the vision, you can say, 'Here's an opportunity for you.' Because it all boils down to that," said Maxey. "It's an opportunity. They're not going to do it unless it's profitable."

Summarizing the study last week, Pat Baxter, director of community development for Corporex Cos. of Covington, pointed out the project's economic benefit for farmers (a new outlet to sell their goods), city residents (improved quality of life), downtown businesses (more customers), and the state (larger tax base).

The project is a joint venture between Corporex, the NKY Regional Farmers Market, and the city of Covington.

"We have a lot of positive momentum on this project," said Baxter, who distributed copies of the study to the governor and state legislators early last week.

Project organizers have said they'd like the city of Covington to contribute about $2 million to the project.

But, "With our current financial situation, we're not able to contribute $2 million at this point," City Manager Jay Fossett said.

Fossett said it is possible that Covington will appropriate money in the future, but declined to say when or how much.

"It won't be until we get our finances squared away," he said. "We're negotiating with our three unions, so it's hard to even predict."

But Fossett said city officials already are investing a lot of time studying and lobbying for the project.

He said he and two other city officials recently traveled to Washington, D.C. to attend a conference on public markets. They toured four markets in the nation's capital and four more in Baltimore, talking to the people behind successful public markets.

Covington officials also have traveled to Frankfort to lobby the state Governor's Office for Local Development.

"We talked to Commissioner Ellen Williams about this project and the need for it in Covington," Fossett said. "It would serve a need we have to establish a place downtown to shop for food, and it would also become a meeting place - kind of like our Fountain Square in Covington."

While the project will require the reconstruction of nearly an entire city block, Baxter said the goal of the development is to be as inclusive as possible, meaning long-time Covington businesses like Bessler's Economy Meats Market will be invited to be part of the development.

"The object of this project is not to run people out of Covington. It's to encourage businesses to stay and work with us. It takes a partnership to do that. That's what we're trying to accomplish," said Baxter.

"We hope to have a united front with the Northern Kentucky legislative caucus," he added.

As part of the Senate Republican majority caucus, Thayer said he would work with colleagues to secure funding.

"Northern Kentucky did well in the last budget cycle, and it should continue to do well. We are part of the strong economic engine that's driving the economy in Kentucky. As a net payer of taxes to Frankfort, we certainly deserve our fair share coming back for efforts like Times Star Commons," he said.

By Jason Feldmann
The Sunday Challenger
-- Reporter Jeanne Houck contributed to this story.

About Times Star Commons

Description: The proposed development features a regional farmers' market in the block between Fourth and Fifth streets and Madison Avenue and Scott Boulevard in Covington; it would also include residential and office condominiums, a 500-seat outdoor amphitheater and much more.

Cost: $32.5 million

* $17 million from state

* $15.5 million from private investors / local governments

Economic Impact:

10-year tax revenues....................$12.13M

NKY rest of Kentucky

Jobs created during construction...............454 150

Annual new job creation, first 10 years.....378 91

10-year projected cash flow................$386.38 million $78.16 million

10-year projected earnings...................$88.45 million $29.32 million

Next Steps:

* Gov. Fletcher will decide whether or not to put the project in his executive state budget proposal.

* The General Assembly will then consider whether the project belongs in the state budget.

Source: "An Economic Impact Analysis of the Times Star Commons Project, Covington, Kentucky," Dec. 15, 2005, prepared by Dr. Lynn Burbridge, regional economist, and Dr. Gary E. Clayton, professor and chair of economics and finance, both at Northern Kentucky University; and Dr. Robert Premus, professor of economics, Wright State University

Hydroponic farm provides tomatoes to Kansas City area

ST. JOHN, Kan. — They’re loaded with antioxidants, vitamin C and good, homegrown sour-sweet flavor.

“They” are tomatoes grown at 4 Star Hydroponics in St. John. No soil is used to grow the tomatoes, which are sold in Kansas City area stores.

Rita Taylor’s greenhouse controls everything about the plants’ feeding, including the inside temperature.

“We make our own fertilizer, and we control how the tomatoes taste — the food they get, how much and what,” Taylor said.

The plants are in a medium of vermiculite and persolite. Persolite is used in potting mixes to facilitate aeration.

The medium lets air get through to the plants, and stabilizes them, but it provides no nutrition. The persolite is actually Styrofoam, of greenhouse grade.

“They could grow just in a bucket of water,” said Taylor, who produces tomatoes year-round, even in December and January. “We feed them very well and pick them ripe.”

The greenhouse environment is controlled by a computer system. Sensors constantly gauge the temperature of the growing medium. It is good not to have more than 3 degrees’ variation from the north to the south end of the greenhouse, to ensure uniform growth.

Three greenhouses, all connected with “one environment,” total more than 14,000 square feet, Taylor said. The plants are hybrids, from seed from Holland, where hydroponic growing had its start.

“Everything grows there,” she said. “Peppers, eggplant, potatoes, squash, lettuce, herbs. … But it actually goes back to Babylon’s Hanging Gardens and the lack of soil in some localities.”

Taylor started 4 Star in 2000. She and her husband, Don, had seen hydroponic gardens many years earlier at the Epcot Center in Florida. “It was very interesting.”

After doing some Internet research, they found a greenhouse for sale in Fountain, Colo. A couple had owned it, and the husband had died. The Taylors bought it, disassembled it, took it to St. John and reassembled it.

As for tomatoes, they asked themselves: “Can we grow them, and can we sell them?”

After some first-year disasters, she said, “the second year was a lot better.”

“We found we could grow them, and that we could sell all we could grow.”

A boiler heats water, and there are heating tubes in the aisles between rows of plants. A heat curtain keeps cool air out, and several cats curb the mice population. Plastic in the greenhouse has been replaced with Dynaglass, a corrugated plastic that won’t yellow. It’s very good at defending against wind and hail.

Plants get their heat from the bottom up. The gas bill for the greenhouses can reach $20,000 in the winter, for a three- to four-month period.

The Grace variety is a favorite at 4 Star. “They are better-tasting, and are a more vigorous plant, with larger tomatoes and more pounds per plant,” Taylor said.

Hybrid bees pollinate the plants. The bees are fed sugar water, because the plants don’t produce enough nectar.

“This started as a hobby, but now it’s a pretty big business for us. We’re in a lot of large Kansas City area stores. We take a truckload of tomatoes each week to Kansas City. Hy-Vee, Price Chopper and Hen House are among our customers,” Taylor said.

Sometimes they take as many as 600 boxes of tomatoes at a time — 15 pounds to a box — to the Hen House warehouse.

Three thousand plants are growing at any one time in the greenhouses in St. John.

At first the business embodied a partnership of four women, hence the 4 Stars name. Partners were Rita, her daughter-in-law Michelle Taylor, of St. John, and two other women.

Michelle, a certified public accountant, remains a partner and does the bookkeeping.

“It’s very labor-intensive,” Rita Taylor said. She does all the marketing and selling, and works in the greenhouse.

Trust Not is another variety of tomato the Taylors have grown, but Taylor thinks Grace is the best. Tomatoes should never be refrigerated, she added. Refrigeration causes loss of flavor. Keep them at 65 degrees, she said, and they’ll keep a long time.

“We guarantee two weeks’ shelf life.”

By JERRY BUXTON
Great Bend Tribune

The Acreage · Jamie Edelstein's black marble composition book is fast filling up with hand-drawn sketches and observations from the hippest high school lab in Palm Beach County.

In weekly experiments since August, the 14-year-old Loxahatchee girl and her classmates are discovering the raw science behind cheese-making, fighting lactose-intolerance and sorting out stomach contents.

"It's better than sitting and doing book work and not getting good experience," Edelstein said while dropping sodium hydroxide into a test tube of milk on a recent morning. "It's a lot of fun."

That's the reaction teacher Lyn Slygh says she hears all the time about Seminole Ridge High School's $1.6 million biotechnology academy. It opened four months ago to enormous expectations: It is the only school of its kind in Florida, and it has an instant partnership with the emerging East Coast hub of world-renowned biotech giant The Scripps Research Institute of California.

The sprawling rural high school was under construction on former orange groves in late 2003 when Scripps announced its intention to open a branch in the county that also would attract leading biomedical firms.

Educators moved fast to design and build the biotech career academy -- think science class on steroids -- as a complement to Scripps Florida's original location of Mecca Farms just a few miles north.

Despite increasing uncertainty over a permanent Scripps campus in the county, the district's long-term commitment to biotech education is unwavering. Superintendent Art Johnson calls it a "sexy" subject with a wide appeal.

A second academy will be built next year as part of a $14.8 million expansion of Palm Beach Lakes High in West Palm Beach. A third such program, which could have a $3 million price tag, is envisioned for Spanish River High in Boca Raton. There's also a biotech-themed charter school expected to enter the landscape in August. Once these so-called choice programs are established, students across the county may apply if they have a minimum 2.5 GPA and three teacher recommendations.

About 90 students, mostly freshmen, are enrolled in four Biotech 1 introductory classes. As they move on to the second, third and potentially fourth years of the program, the academy will grow with them.

One spacious unused laboratory, awaiting next year's Biotech 2 and 3 students, features centers on robotics, agri-biotechnology, forensic science and genetics. An outdoor path leads to a hydroponics greenhouse -- damaged by Hurricane Wilma -- that is a small replica of the version known to tourists at Walt Disney World's Epcot pavilion called The Land. Students will learn to grow plants without soil.

And the academy holds a large walk-in chemical storage and equipment room, a freezer that chills to minus 60 degrees, compound light microscopes and various chemical testing gadgets.

"It is something to behold," Johnson said.

By Marc Freeman
Education Writer

DEERFIELD TWP. -- The township's setting aside a big area of redevelopment for possible greenhouse pepper plans.

After a second reading and public hearing, the township committee approved final passage of an ordinance adopting a redevelopment plan for the Township of Deerfield redevelopment area.

In the plan, the township is designating 226 acres (nine parcels) of land located at Morton Avenue and Lebanon Road and preparing it as a redevelopment zone.

"This gives us the ability to compete with (Cumberland) Empowerment Zone money," Committeeman John Stanzione said.

In conjunction with the redevelopment area, Mayor Carol Musso said that talks have resumed with a company that may be interested in the land.

The multi-phase project includes the construction of a hydroponics greenhouse and distribution facility, encompassing 910,000 square feet.

The developer's name is still mum, but if talks are fruitful, the completed project would yield 3 million peppers a year and employ 50 to 120 people.

Cumberland County Improvement Authority's Steve Wymbs met with the company's negotiator and talked about the land.

Land negotiations must be completed before the project is approved.

Musso said that one of the developers' officials is still overseas in Iraq.

The township committee is looking for more discussions in the near future.

"Hopefully, by next year, they will be talking about (the project)," Musso said.

Hydroponic plant production, done locally in Ithaca, N.Y., and on display for visitors at Walt Disney World's Epcot Center in Orlando, Fla., is now coming to Bradford County.

The Northern Tier Solid Waste Authority, which is moving forward with plans to build a greenhouse to be run by waste heat from the authority's electrical generating unit at its landfill in West Burlington Township, will use a hydroponic system for the facility. Hydroponics is a way of growing plants without soil.

David Terrill, executive director of the authority, said the plants at the authority's greenhouse will "either be sitting or floating on the water."

"We're leaning toward floating hydroponics," he said. Kathy Strong, staff engineer, said the authority is looking at a system that uses Styrofoam boards. Holes would be drilled into the boards, and a medium placed into the holes. Seeds would be placed in the medium, and as the plant grows, it roots would be fed by nutrient-rich water.
"We wanted to grow a product that would be fast-growing and the hydroponic process lent itself toward plants that would be fast-growing; you can get multiple harvests throughout a growing season," Terrill said. "It was also cleaner.

"And it's kind of a catchy title," he said.

First, however, the authority needs to secure a grower for the greenhouse.

Currently, Terrill said, the authority is in negotiations with a local grower.

He said "greens" are being looked at as the crop, adding that they won't compete with anything grown in the county.

"We have a person that is definitely interested," he said. Terrill said the grower would raise the crop, which would be marketed through an existing market brand network.

Terrill said progress on the greenhouse has been slower than anticipated. With the weather, he said, construction is impossible. He said the authority is looking at beginning construction in the spring.

"It's not as quick as we would like it, but that's how these things work," he said. "It takes a lot of time and it's best to be cautious."
Locally, Finger Lakes Fresh in Ithaca, N.Y., uses hydroponics. The operation is run by Challenge Industries Inc., a vocational rehabilitation center that works with people with disabilities in helping them get work.

Patrick Sayer, vice president of Challenge, noted the organization raises lettuce, including a "salad bouquet," with hydroponics there, using the Styrofoam board system described by Strong. Sayer said the lettuce is placed in the Styrofoam boards on ponds of water. The organization had taken over the operation from Cornell University.

"It's very clean; it's not like you're pulling it out and it's covered with dirt," he said of the lettuce. "It has a great shelf life because we package it with the roots on it."


By: Eric Hrin

A man has been arrested and charged with possession of more than 10 pounds of marijuana with intent to distribute and maintaining a common nuisance in the basement of his home in the 500 block of Kent Drive in New Albany, Ind.

Floyd County Police Chief Frank Loop said Donald D. Beatty, 35, had 306 marijuana plants growing in his basement that were 3 to 4 feet tall.

The basement also had a starter room for new plants and a growing area equipped with lighting and hydroponics to maintain the plants. Loop said such plants can produce a pound of marijuana every 90 days. He valued the operation at more than $500,000.

Officers of the Floyd County sheriff's department and the Southern Indiana Drug Task Force arrested Beatty at his home.


Copyright 2005 The Courier-Journal.

Havana, Dec 22 (AIN) The head of the National Group of Urban Agriculture said production in the cities should be enhanced further in Cuba.

Rodriguez pointed out that important goals of the urban agriculture movement include the prevention of the closing of organic gardens and hydroponics because of the lack of water and the increment of home produce gardens.

"The provinces of Havana City, Sancti Spiritus, Ciego de Avila, Holguin and Granma, should work harder to meet the production goals of vegetables and fresh condiments for the year 2006," said Rodriguez.

Agriculture in Cuba is completely organic, explained the official. He highlighted the importance of the system as 3 million tons of fresh vegetables are grown in 30,000 hectares. Urban agriculture green areas in the cities have increased and
they provide new sources for social integration.

In the year 2002, the Cuban government decided to close most sugar mills and dedicate the land used in sugar cane plantations to grow food because of the drop in sugar prices of in the international market. Only the highest-producing mills remained functioning. The plan is known as the Alvaro Reinoso program.

The plan is aimed at bringing down sugar production costs, while increasing the production of food and developing sustainable agriculture. In the meantime, the sugar mill workers have joined paid re-education programs.


Copyright ©2004 National News Agency CUBA (AIN) All Rights Reserved

AGRICULTURE MINISTER Roger Clarke said the government has put together an enterprise team to examine proposals of interest for the Bernard Lodge and Long Pond sugar factories that are to be taken out of operations.

Minister Clarke said the team was currently examining proposals from interested parties in Brazil, India and Canada. "We are sifting those through to see which one or ones can be accommodated (and which are) consistent with the parameters set by the Prime Minister," the Agriculture Minister said at a luncheon held at the Courtleigh Hotel yesterday to review the performance of the agricultural sector.

CANE FARMERS CONSIDERED

He said the government was also willing to examine a proposal from cane farmers who have requested that the operations of the sugar factories be turned over to them. The minister pointed out that the government was not opposed to participation from any group.

Prime Minister P.J. Patterson had announced the closure of the Bernard Lodge sugar factory in St. Catherine and the Long Pond sugar factory in Trelawny as part of restructuring the ailing sugar industry.

In the meantime, Mr. Clarke announced a $200 million package for the development of the agricultural sector which suffered significantly from the effects of several hurricanes, floods and drought in the past year. The Minister said the money would be spent to enhance the country's food security by expanding agricultural production, create employment opportunities and increase export earnings.

He said the ministry has identified eight priority areas to achieve its objective. These areas include apiculture, sheep and goat rearing, ornamental fish and pimento production, irrigation, hydroponics and greenhouse production and a computerised farmers' registration system (ABIS).

MARKETING ARRANGEMENT

The Agriculture Minister said a serious effort would be made to strengthen the ministry's marketing and export departments to improve the marketing of agricultural produce. "We want to see how we can dovetail those agencies into what the JAS (Jamaica Agricultural Society) is doing and let us see how we can consolidate it around putting together a comprehensive marketing arrangement arm for agriculture in the coming year," Mr. Clarke said.

In the meantime, he said the registration of farmers was proving to be a challenge in terms of verifying farmers in the process.


By John Myers Jr., Staff Reporter

Space travel now, even going to the moon, is like a camping trip, says University of Illinois Professor Luis Rodriguez.

You pack up food, water, oxygen and everything else you need and take it along with you.

If you're on the space station, you might get supplies from a space shuttle periodically, or a care package in the form of a Soyuz capsule from Russia.

You don't have to grow your own tomatoes.
But astronauts on a trip to Mars, something the Bush administration envisions happening in the next 25 years, may need a green thumb.

Rodriguez, a UI agricultural and biological engineering professor, is one of the scientists working with NASA to figure out how a Mars mission could grow at least some of its own food for what likely would be a three-year round trip. It takes six months to get to the Red Planet and another two years for the Earth and Mars to align again for the six-month trip back.

In addition to gardening in space, Rodriguez and colleagues are studying water- and waste-recycling systems designed to reuse, well, pretty much everything. A four- to six-person Mars crew would likely need to turn its wastewater back into potable drinking water.

Some of the technology also should be of use in static moon or Mars bases and to earthbound farmers, who face challenges similar to those of space travelers, Rodriguez said recently.

"We're constantly under pressure here to do more with less, increase production, reduce costs," he said.

And on less acreage as more and more farmland is converted for development.

Rodriguez was a research scientist at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston before joining the UI faculty this fall. His lab studies complex systems, especially involving biological, chemical and physical components, by taking advantage of computing power to model them in detail as never before.

The UI researchers, in a NASA-funded program, are looking at such questions as what systems on a Mars flight would absolutely need to have a backup, and how long it would take to fix those that break down, for example to regrow a bacterial culture being used for waste treatment.

Reliability is a key factor. Three months out and halfway to Mars, travelers wouldn't have the option to abort to Earth.

In the computer models, the researchers can study how different parts integrate with each other and inject failures to see how the systems might recover, among other things.

Rodriguez said there are good reasons for wanting to grow stuff en route, or on a moon or Mars base in preparation for a trip, not the least that it's hard to conceive of hoisting enough material from Earth by rocket to supply a three-year journey.

Plants also can use up some waste, as fertilizer, and consume toxic carbon dioxide while producing life-giving oxygen.

Moreover, from a reliability perspective, crops and other biological components like bacteria used in waste processing have the advantage of being resilient. They can take some environmental instability and bounce back, Rodriguez said.

In addition, there could be psychological benefits from having plants, a link to home and a source of fresh food, along on the trip.

But crops require resources such as light, water, temperatures like those on Earth, day and night cycles – a lot of them in short supply, if not unavailable, in space. Some things you might grow, like corn or wheat, also require processing before they're eaten. All of that is subject to payload and power limitations.

NASA is looking more at pick-and-eat produce, in essence "a salad machine type system as opposed to a calorie crop type system," Rodriguez said.

He and other researchers for the space agency are examining ideas ranging from greenhouses employing hydroponics and supplemental lighting to completely enclosed growing chambers, "a box that can mimic Earth."

By GREG KLINE
© 2005 THE NEWS-GAZETTE

When Steve Monday first enrolled at West Virginia State College in 1981, he didn't know it was the beginning of a student career that would last 24 years.

This weekend, Monday will be one of the first four students of that institution to receive a graduate degree. West Virginia State College became West Virginia State University in 2003 and began offering master's degrees in arts, biotechnology and media studies.

Monday, a former senior lab technician at Union Carbide and researcher at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in New York was the first to join the graduate biotechnology program to work toward a master's of science degree.

"I quit my job to go back to school full time," he said. "Financially, it was a disaster. My wife is the only reason I finished."

Monday will be the student speaker at commencement Sunday at the Charleston Civic Center. The ceremony begins at 2 p.m. Approximately 300 people from WVSU and West Virginia State Community and technical College will graduate at the mid-year commencement with either bachelor's or associate degrees.

Along with Monday, three others will receive graduate degrees. Richard S. Ndunguru and Abigail C. Price will receive master's degrees in media studies and Param Kaur will receive a master's in biotechnology.

"My wife says I'm done," said Monday, when asked if his student days are truly over. "Now it's time for me to get a job and make some money."

Monday also has a Regents Bachelor of Arts degree in education -- a college degree based on real-life work experience -- and a bachelor's of science in chemistry.

"This is my third degree from West Virginia State," he said. "I've had a blast. I've just done it one class at a time, semester by semester. And I've watched this school excel through the last two years."

He worked for 17 years at Union Carbide, where he also taught classes in lab techniques, and he has been a volunteer firefighter and a paramedic. He spent four years in the military, has taught cardiopulmonary resuscitation courses for the Red Cross and instructed other firemen and emergency medical personnel.

A Charleston native, Monday said his decision to go back to school came when he was hired in a job that paid $50,000 a year.

"They hired a girl a week after me for $65,000 a year with no experience," he said. "But she had her master's degree."

Since June he has been working in the Research and Development Corp. associated with W.Va. State. His research in an on-campus lab has been the basis of his thesis.

"I'm an analytical chemist for the bioplex," he explained. "We do agricultural and environmental research projects."

Monday has spent six months since finishing classes last May researching how chicken waste is turned into methane, carbon dioxide, a soil amendment and a liquid used in hydroponics.

During the commencement, Gov. Joe Manchin will be awarded an honorary Doctor of Law degree. Manchin also will be the commencement speaker.

By Cheryl Caswell, Daily Mail

A cloud crosses the sun. The temperature drop in the thin air is like a slap in the face. High in the Andes, it is springtime and, while the chill is sudden, it is nothing to what last winter brought.

Apolinar Tayro Mamani is an engineer who has been working with the indigenous alpaca farmers in Peru's highlands and had never seen anything like it. "When the blizzards came they were so strong," he said. "The snow fell for a full day and a full night without stopping. It stopped snowing, the skies opened and it was completely clear. Then ice fell from the sky in big shards like glass, and the cold front hit us."

The Quechua people, descendants of the Incas, living at altitudes of up to 4,500 metres, are used to harsh weather. But what they call the friaje is a new phenomenon, believed to be driven by climate change. Last year it sent temperatures plummeting to -35C, killed 50 children and left up to 13,000 people suffering from severe bronchitis, pneumonia and hypothermia. The snow killed all vegetation. And the animals on which the communities depend, the hardy Andean camel, the alpaca, died in their thousands.

Sabino Huillca Huallipe keeps a herd of several hundred alpacas. He was one of the first to join with the British charity, Practical Action, in a project to build shelters for the animals. Practical Action is one of the three charities being supported in The Independent's Christmas Appeal. The simple structures can each house up to 50 alpacas.

There are few climate- change sceptics at this altitude. "The temperature shifts here are getting more extreme," says Huallipe. Cold winters are followed by hot, dry summers and, recently, electric hail storms. "We are peasants, we didn't know what to do about these things."

Climate change can be beautiful as well as sinister. It has smudged a red stripe across the peaks of the Sierra. Less than a generation ago, the highest of these mountains were snow-capped all year. Apolinar, who works for Practical Action, says the people thought the end of the world had come last winter.

These communities depend entirely on the alpaca. The Andean camel, a relative of the llama, provides milk and cheese rich in essential nutrients. Its dense wool offers exceptional insulation. The rest is sold to pay for schooling and whatever can't be farmed.

Alpacas struggle to find food in the snow and ice. Pregnant animals miscarry, and those that survive are exhausted and prone to disease. Without the alpacas, farmers have no means of transporting their only goods to market.

Huallipe is already bracing for the next friaje. His small farm huddles into the side of the valley. Now it lies empty, soon to be filled during shearing season. At either end of the courtyard are two tiny rooms. To keep the warmth in, the rooms have to be claustrophobically small. Inside, the sickly scent of alpaca skins is overwhelming. Hanging from the thatched roof are two dried skeletons. They are alpaca embryos, which hang there, Huallipe says, as a handy insurance against a poor harvest. It is a custom unchanged for hundreds of years. Out through the doorway, the afternoon light reflects off a satellite dish, a modern assurance against being cut off from outside help by a new cold snap.

"It means we can telephone down to the town to get relief," says Huallipe. The solar powered dish, provided by Practical Action, is flanked by an alfalfa patch, laced with purple flowering potato plants. The charity has been teaching the community to use hydroponics to grow blocks of barley feed when the cold sets in. Hydroponics systems need just water and sunlight to grow food.

High above the valley, the wild vicuna make a fleeting appearance. The rare deer-like animal offers an annual bonanza to the Quechua. Once a year, the local people hunt a sustainable number of the animals, which die if they are kept in captivity or farmed.

Black scars mar the paths leading between the farms. Apolinar explains that they burn tyres to ward off lightning from the electric storms. The more traditional weather managers blast fireworks into the clouds, believing they will push the weather away. Ancient or modern, in the face of a changing climate, these people need all the help they can get.

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VISTA – A judge chose probation over prison yesterday as the sentence for an Oceanside man convicted of growing marijuana he said was for medicinal use.

Superior Court Judge Harry Elias said it was the first time a defendant used Proposition 215 as a defense in a criminal case at the North County courthouse.

The state law, approved by voters in 1996, allows users of medical marijuana to cultivate and possess a drug that is otherwise illegal without a doctor's prescription.

Later, in 2003, the legislature passed a law requiring counties to create a program to enroll medical marijuana users in a state registry and to issue identification cards designed to protect users from arrest.

Dean Alan Childers, 38, was arrested April 14 when police found 40 fully grown marijuana plants inside a Fallbrook house he rented to cultivate the drug, according to a probation report prepared for his sentencing.

He told police the marijuana was being grown for his personal use to deal with pain from a lower back injury.

But the number of plants exceeded the number allowed under the law regulating medical marijuana and Childers was tried and convicted on felony charges of possessing and cultivating marijuana and a misdemeanor count of possessing over an ounce of the drug.

The state's medical marijuana law has been the subject of much controversy because of conflicts with federal law and the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, which last month voted to sue the state and challenge the law requiring the county to issue the identification cards.

And on Monday, federal agents raided 13 medical marijuana dispensaries around the county after an investigation in which undercover agents bought marijuana without showing the paperwork required by the state law.

In Childers' case, Riverside authorities noticed the former contractor purchasing equipment to grow plants indoors and followed him to the home on Clemmens Lane in Fallbrook, according to the probation report.

On April 8, drug agents brought a drug-sniffing dog to the front door, which alerted them to the possibility of drugs inside, according to the report. Authorities obtained a warrant and searched the home six days later and found the marijuana plants growing underneath the hydroponics equipment.

Childers arrived at the house during the search and was arrested.

During his trial, Childers' defense attorney argued the plants were grown for medicinal purposes, according to the report.

Since Oct, 2002, Childers has been on disability after suffering a lower back injury at work and surgery and medications did not ease the pain, causing Childers to get a prescription for marijuana from a Los Angeles doctor in January 2005, according to the report.

But the cost of purchasing medical marijuana was too expensive, so Childers and two friends decided to grow it on their own and Childers found guidelines for growing medical marijuana on the city of San Diego's Web site that said each adult can have 12 plants, according to the report.

Fallbrook is unincorporated, county ordinances only allow six plants and Childers exceeded that amount, the report said.

Childers denied selling the marijuana for profit and his attorney cited testimony from drug agents that they did not find evidence of drug transactions during the search.

On Nov. 14, Childers was jailed after being convicted by a jury. He hired a new attorney, David Thompson, for the sentencing and the lawyer argued that Childers should receive probation.

"His conviction and the court's decision to place him in immediate custody has saddled (Childers) and his family with Herculean complications," Thompson wrote to Judge Elias. "He is through with marijuana and the entire medical marijuana mess."

Elias, who could have sent Childers to prison for three years, released him from jail yesterday.

By Jose Luis Jiménez
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

Visit to top tourist center also includesbudget discussion

There were some unusual activities on Gov. Bob Riley's agenda Wednesday, including taking a spacewalk and landing the Space Shuttle Discovery.

He did both and more during a visit to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.

"We're doing good," Riley said from the right seat of the space shuttle simulator, as Discovery's "wheels" touched the centerline of the computer-generated runway rolling by in the windshield.

The Republican governor, who was in Huntsville for a campaign fundraiser and other events, has visited the Space Center before, but on this trip he learned more about its education programs and facilities for students and teachers, said Space Center CEO Larry Capps.

Riley toured the Space Camp training center floor, rode the Five Degrees of Freedom spacewalk simulator and toured the hydroponics and other laboratories. He also visited the new Education Training Facility that the Space Center shares with Marshall Space Flight Center.

And, amid all the simulated space fun, Riley discussed some down-to-earth matters with Capps and a few members of the Space Center board, including plans for next year's session of the Legislature and the state's finances.

"Now's probably the appropriate time to do this since we're building our budget for the year," Riley said. "It's given us an opportunity to talk about what the needs are up here and just try to understand it a little more."

The Space Center got $305,000 from the state in the current budget year to help offset the costs of bringing in Alabama students for the Spotlight on Technology program and museum field trips, Capps said.

"We are a very small piece of the state Education Trust Fund budget," he said.

The fund, which supports public schools and colleges, had $4.97 billion for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30.

A state stipend of at least $500,000, Capps said, would go a lot further to having that program pay for itself. The center gets no other state money for its operating budget, and officials also took advantage of Riley's visit to let the governor know about the need for money for newer programs, equipment and buildings at the 1970s-vintage Space Center, the state's No. 1 tourist attraction.

"So, what do they actually do here?" asked Riley, stopping in front of a bank of computer monitors in one of the Mission Control rooms.

Michael Flachbart, director of space programs, explained how each mission is age-specific, allowing students to learn about life sciences, chemistry, physics, math and more as they learn about spacecraft systems. They also learn about teamwork and group problem-solving as they face unforeseen challenges during their missions, which last anywhere from one to 24 hours.

"We're making a real push with our math, science and technology programs" in public schools, Riley said. "Things like this would be just an absolutely natural fit for so many teachers."

He said the state is spending $10 million to $12 million this year in math, science and technology programs and may spend more next year.

"We're going to look at maybe the possibility of some cooperative relationships between that math and technology initiative and what they're doing here," he said. Budget planners will look at how much they can devote to it, and how many students and teachers might be able to come.

"It's a great program," Riley said. "It's something that we ought to, if we can, try to expand on."

By KENNETH KESNER

Shops that sell hydroponics equipment – often used in illegal marijuana grow ops – should have to keep a records of their customers, Edmonton's drug police say.

The Green Team has made a number of large grow op busts this week, seizing almost 4,000 plants worth millions of dollars.

RCMP Cpl. Lorne Adamitz says most of the equipment is bought at hydroponics stores, and believes they should have to keep track of their customers, the same way pawn shops do.

"We are not trying to prevent legitimate users from using equipment for legitimate purposes, but a lot of these shops thrive on the illegal marijuana market," he said. "Maybe they should leave a driver's licence number or some type of identification.

"That would eliminate a lot of the illegal users."

Coun. Karen Leibovici says she's not sure a list of customers would achieve anything, since equipment used in grow ops can also be purchased in hardware stores and greenhouses.

"There are any number of places you can get the fertilizer and to get the chemicals and to get the tubing and the overhead lights that are required," she said.

She says the best approach to halting grow ops is to encourage neighbours to report suspicious activities to the police.

From CBC News

AN ELTON farmer was landed with a £32,000 fine after hydroponic cannabis was grown on his property.

Now Derbyshire police are warning criminals that they face having their assets seized under a tough new law which empowers them to confiscate ill-gotten gains.

Jeremy Yeomans, 42, of Elton House Farm, Moor Lane, Elton appeared before Derby Crown Court last Friday and was fined £15,000 for permitting the production of a controlled Class C drug on his premises.

A financial investigation mounted by Derbyshire police revealed that Mr Yeomans had profitted from the criminal activity and a confiscation order of a further £17,000 was imposed.

If Mr Yeomans cannot pay he faces up to two years in prison.

The investigation linked Mr Yeomans to assets which included a number of motor vehicles, monies held in bank accounts and the ownership of a farmhouse.

Yeomans was arrested on Wednesday, May 25 this year following a search of his farm house.

Officers from the Buxton Volume Crime Unit searched an outbuilding on the farm and found a hydroponics system which was capable of supporting 120 to 125 cannabis plants.

The officers recovered dead plants and stumps and also evidence of previous crops in the form of 200 to 300 cannabis stumps in plastic sacks.

Richard Land from the Derbyshire Financial Investigation Unit said: "The sentence in this case sends out a clear message to all that crime does not pay.

"It is right and proper in any law-abiding society that no one should benefit from crime and those who attempt to do so, as Mr Yeomans has discovered, will find that it is 'payback' time.

"The constabulary will rigorously enforce the Proceeds of Crime legislation and ensure that all the profits that are acquired through illegal means are tracked down and confiscated."

The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 has given police "strong and draconian" powers which enable them to seize criminal assets for up to six years before the date of their arrest.

In 2004 Derbyshire Constabulary confiscated £2.5 million in illegal goods and cash. They are currently investigating 60 cases.

Mr Land said: "I think it is right that members of the public understand what we are trying to do and how it hurts criminals who are preying on society."

By Tim Cunningham

from KVUE.com

One man has been charged with drug possession charges and several other people could soon be charged after an Austin police raid.

According to a news release from the Austin Police Department, officers searched two homes last week. One was on Crown Drive in South Austin. The other was on Partridge Bend Drive in Williamson County.

Narcotics investigators say they had been watching the houses for drug activity.

They seized 112 pounds of marijuana, which had been grown with an indoor hydroponics cultivation system. The marijuana had a street value of $5,000 per pound.

Stephen Kochs, 34 is charged with possessing marijuana within 1,000' of a school. Bond was set at $15,000.

VANCOUVER -- It's not just for Saturdays anymore.

The Vancouver Farmers Market is now open year-round, and many vendors have indoor locations that make them accessible 365 days a year.

Even now, in what might be considered the off-season, dozens of vendors offer fresh produce, locally made specialty food items, artwork and handcrafted items.

There is also an artisan co-op, featuring work from 37 area artists in the Farmers Market in its new permanent location on the corner of Eight and Esther Streets in Vancouver. The indoor market opened at the end of the outdoor weekend markets in October.

Last-minute holiday gift ideas picked up at markets do not have to be ordinary. And while you select presents, you can stock up on food items for the holidays.

The River Maiden Artisan Coffee and Goods offers fresh pastries, Stumptown Coffee, hormone-free eggs, milk and butter and organic juices. They also sell gifts and jewelry.

The Garlic Lady booth sells all kinds of garlic supplements for health benefits, along with jars and gift baskets of items including jalapeno garlic, spicy Italian garlic and Sicilian garlic-stuffed olives. Recipes and health tips are available.

"The artisan co-op is unbelievable," market master Robert Ray said. "Our expectations going in were low, but it came together perfectly and is working out nicely."

The vendors offering coffee and food open at 7 a.m., the other vendors offer wares from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day, and an hour earlier on Saturdays.

If you do want to plan a weekend activity, there is a holiday bazaar today, and on the weekends of Dec. 10-11 and 17-18. The bazaar is the outdoor, tent-covered Holiday Market adjacent to the indoor market on Saturday and Sunday, with an additional 50 vendors. The hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.

The indoor market will keep its regular hours during the Holiday Market.

There will be live music for families and contests for kids, such as a tree-decorating event with lots of prizes. This is the 10th year the Vancouver Farmers Market has put on the Holiday Market.

There are fewer vendors in the indoor year-round market, but the Vancouver Farmers Market is open seven days a week, so there is no need to wait until a weekend to go. Even during the summer when there are 240 stands lining Esther Street and in the parking lot of the City of Vancouver administration building, these select vendors can be found inside the Esther Short Commons.

Don Marshall, owner of Ridgefield Hydrofarms and Ridgefield Produce Company, sells produce at half-a-dozen outdoor markets in the spring and summer. Marshall said he enjoys the opportunity to offer fresh local produce all year from the indoor Vancouver Farmers Market.

"This market is a good fit for me to extend the season," Marshall said. "The greenhouses can grow produce year-round."

Marshall --- the largest hydroponics grower in the area --- credits his success to hard work and luck. He got his start in 1994 at the Saturday Market in Longview, open March through October across from the fairgrounds there.

The Cowlitz Community Farmers Market "was my favorite," Marshall said. "Market Master Terry Miracle does a great job with that market. I wouldn't be in business today if it wasn't for him."

The indoor year-round farmers market is a fairly new concept, according to Marshall.

The Vancouver Farmers Market beat out Portland's, which is still in the design stage, he said. "This market has the support of the community and the mayor, especially. They've done a great job"

Photographer Kevin Young is one of the 37 artists with booths in the Vancouver market. His framed photographs range from regional scenes to exotic locales. He and other artists take turns running the co-op, which allows it to be open every day and leaves the artists with more time for creating.

"It's great," Young said. "Each of us works one shift a week, and that allows the co-op to be open 64 hours a week."

The market is adding a long-awaited butcher, Top Choice Meats, to the year-round list of vendors. "A good butcher is the linchpin of a farmers market," Ray said.

Rachelle Matheson, who lives in Vancouver, takes friends and relatives to the Market every summer. She has also grown to appreciate the indoor market the rest of the year.

"I come down every weekend for fresh produce and flowers," Matheson said. "I have a garden in the summer, but the market gives me a chance to buy things I can't grow or don't have time to grow. Broccoli, for example, is hard to grow at home, and the market has fresh broccoli for less than you can buy it in the grocery store, even now in the winter. And they always grow beans better than I do."

There is more to the market than just produce.

"The artwork and gifts for sale are amazing," Matheson said. "We do some of our Christmas shopping here. We sometimes make a day of it, the park is beautiful and we can have lunch in one of the restaurants."

Esther Short Park and Commons is the centerpiece of revitalized downtown Vancouver. The mixed-use area blends park, public square, improved street designs and new housing in a historic area. New shopping, hotel projects and housing are underway in adjacent blocks.

When Ray, who grew up in the Vancouver area, saw that the Market Master job was available, he knew it would be perfect for him. "This is my childhood home," he said. "Vancouver's mayor, Royce Pollard, has been very pro-active in getting the area revitalized. It's awesome. I'm happy and proud to be back in my hometown."

From The Daily News
By Janine Manny

Police in Auckland have busted what they describe as a "huge" and sophisticated hydroponics cannabis operation.

Up to 1,000 plants and tens of thousands of dollars worth of cannabis heads were discovered in a warehouse in Onehunga yesterday.

Police also found a crossbow and a quantity of what appears to be methamphetamine, or ice.

A 35 year old from Onehunga was arrested and was due to appear in court today on charges including cultivating cannabis and allowing a building to be used for cultivation.

Detective Sergeant Dave Nimmo says the cannabis plants range in size from seedlings to fully grown trees.

He says officers will execute further search warrants over the next few days, and further arrests are expected.

By Radio New Zealand
Copyright © 2005 Radio New Zealand

Farmers have been encouraged to make better use of modern technology, so as to obtain better yields.Speaking yesterday (November 29) at a special agricultural expo and field day for students at Lacovia High School, St. Elizabeth Homecoming Foundation (SEHF) Director, Dr. Randolph Watson stressed that it was high time for farmers in the country to take a more business like approach to their trade.

"Today we are here to share much needed information with the young students who will one day be the farmers of tomorrow," Dr. Watson said.

Manager of the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) St. Elizabeth office, Howard Hinds in his presentation, highlighted the importance of agriculture.

"Always remember that whether you are a doctor, a lawyer or a politician you cannot survive without eating what is grown by farmers and that is why we need to have a very strong farming sector in this country," he emphasised.

Mr. Hinds commended the SEHF for the "wonderful work" it was doing in the parish. Hydroponics farmer, Hopeton Singh in his remarks encouraged the students to visit his farm.

"This will allow you to understand some of the principles that we have been using, especially in the use of a non-soil base medium and the use of a greenhouse system run by a computer," he said.
"The use of science and technology is what will drive Jamaica's future so that we can compete effectively both here in the Caribbean as well as globally," he stressed.