Will Walmart Save Local Food?

According to The Atlantic, Walmart is making a big push to revive local agriculture.

If I remember the NPR interview right, Walmart is somehow contracting with local farmers to grow produce within a day's drive of each participating superstore. The farmers are responsible for getting the food to a distribution center, and in return receive a premium price. Many people will recoil at the idea of Walmart leading the way back to local agriculture, but any action taken by a massive organization will have a big impact.

As my plane made its final descent into Phoenix this past Friday, I stared at miles of irrigated fields and was reminded that part of the reason Big Ag grew up in the West in the first place was the combination of long growing seasons and cheap water.* Of course, if the metastasizing suburbs continue to drink up every last drop of the Colorado and Sacramento, the West may lose its economic edge anyway...

* Did I say cheap? I meant heavily subsidized.

Wood Chips in the Willows

A century ago, the Syracuse-Rochester corridor in Upstate NY supplied raw material to the basket-making economy through the cultivation of shrub willow. It's funny to think about it now, but this used to be a major industry in the U.S.

I mean, how else would you take your lunch to work?

Something old is new again, as willows are being grown for biofuel in NY.

I recently attended a seminar given by a breeder who's developing biofuel willow varieties for the U.S. Northeast, southeastern Canada and the Upper Midwest.*

It's common folklore that willow stems will sprout roots and leaves if stuck into wet soil. This is one story that's true - and is made good use of by willow growers. Six-foot dormant stems, "whips," are bought from nurseries, cut into 8-10 pieces and stuck into the prepared soil. It's surprisingly expensive to set up a stand ($1000/acre), but lasts 25-30 years.

The young stand is coppiced (cut flush with the ground) during its first winter to encourage bushy, shrub-like growth. It's again cut to the ground every 3-4 years to provide 25' stems for the production of ethanol or wood pellets. Harvesting is done in winter when the (often marshy) soil is frozen, the foliar nutrients have been reabsorbed into the root system and farmers are done using all their machinery to harvest forage corn. The breeder visualizes this system as being especially useful for farmers to make some money off of the swampy, poor quality "back 40" acres - or at least to use wood chips to supply all their own building heat. They've also worked to adapt various cutting implements to commonly used tractors - and had a very cool picture of a forestry implement capable of chewing through 8" boles!

In Sweden, this industry has historically been able to achieve up to 10 harvests per stand planting. The value of willow for wood burning ovens has been real volatile as subsidies and the market changes but there may be a lot of potential here in the States. Chips sell for more money in Europe, but they're cheaper to produce here - so I suppose it could go either way depending on the cost of heating oil. Of course, part of the economy in their favor in Europe are the carbon regulations...

The meat of the talk described their efforts to characterize and cross the many species and natural hybrids of Salix. They've managed to patent some of their best varieties, which they've licensed to a local nurseryman (who already has 100 acres planted!).**

They're recommending that growers plant 6-8 varieties to hedge against pests, pathogens and bad weather, but most growers (here and in Northern Europe) usually end up sticking with only 2 or 3 of their best. It's a little different in Ireland, where wet weather generates big rust epidemics - there they rotate among several varieties with every whip!

Scientists generating whole new industries for enterprising farmers - this is public sector ag research at its best!

* Likewise, poplar would be good for the Pac NW and switchgrass might be best for the Great Plains. A coal-fired power plant is even converting to run on local biofuels in Michigan.
** The website shows some pretty clever additional uses of willow too!

Getting Ready for Cherry Blossoms

It'll be a little while yet before Prunus species are flowering Upstate, but I keep checking the buds all the same.

Scientists and growers who work with these plants have names for each stage of flower development.

The cherry on our lab's front lawn currently has dormant buds.

Soon, they'll begin to swell as a flush of fresh, fine roots venture out into the warming soil. The roots we generally see when we dig up trees are structural and distract from the real action. The few scientists who have attempted to study roots in detail have discovered that the fine roots are incredibly dynamic, turning over many times during the year in response to environmental cues.


The buds enter the delayed dormancy period as soon as they begin to swell.



Green tip signals the end of delayed dormancy and the beginning of blooming.















Green tip transitions to pink bud as soon as the petals are visible.





This is the popcorn stage.

















And the almond flower reaches full bloom!


















h/t: The Almond Doctor

First Bloom of Spring!

Spring is so much more exciting when you live in a climate with snowy, sun-starved winters!

I ate my lunch outside on the bench for the first time this year and noticed this little guy popping up. Bulbs besides daffodils are usually grown as annuals in this town due to our absurd deer pressure, but this little guy was sheltered up against the wall. Soon our lab's front lawn will be covered with little purple violets.

The sun is so great.