AGRIBUSINESS :The impact of weather on cow's milk.

AGRIBUSINESS :The impact of weather on cow's milk. Dairy cattle in a farm. Feeding balanced rations that meet the chemical and physical needs of the cow is imperative for their good milk production.Milk composition is economically important to the producers and processors and nutritionally vital to the consumers. AGRIBUSINESS :The impact of weather on cow's milk. A rising trend of health conscious consumers and the introduction of milk pricing system based on quality has compelled processors to focus on the milk component rather quantity. AGRIBUSINESS :The impact of weather on cow's milk. AGRIBUSINESS :The impact of weather on cow's milk. Paul Mambo, a dairy consultant with SNV Kenya, says that many factors affect and alter the milk components among them nutrition, genetics and environment, season, age of the cow, stage of lactation, level of production and diseases.Farmers should, therefore, ensure the feeds they offer their cows are balanced, that is, have energy, protein, minerals and vitamins. “The major milk components are water, fat, protein, lactose and minerals. Nutrition or the feeding management practices in a dairy farm can have a major impact on the levels of milk fat and protein concentration. Fat concentration is sensitive to dietary changes,” he says.AGRIBUSINESS :The impact of weather on cow's milk. AGRIBUSINESS :The impact of weather on cow's milk. According to him, milk fat and protein component tend to be high during the rainy season and lowest during the dry seasons, variations that are attributed to changes in both the type of feed and climatic conditions. When cows go out for pasture in the dry periods, the milk fat is reduced and it is at this time when some farmers cannot afford quality fodder and quite often turn to rice and wheat straws.

Roundup Linked to Global Boom in Celiac Disease and Gluten Intolerance.

Roundup Linked to Global Boom in Celiac Disease and Gluten Intolerance. Celiac disease, gluten intolerance and irritable bowel syndrome are on the rise worldwide, and that rise has taken place in parallel with the increased use of glyphosate (Roundup) herbicide, shows a new US peer-reviewed paper from Dr. Anthony Samsel and Dr. Stephanie Seneff. The review has been published in the Journal of Interdisciplinary Toxicology. Roundup is linked in Samsel and Seneff’s new review paper to a major increase in celiac disease. A recent estimate suggests that one in twenty people in North America and Western Europe now suffer from this gluten intolerant disease. “All of the known biological effects of glyphosate – cytochrome P450 inhibition, disruption of synthesis of aromatic amino acids, chelation of transition metals, and antibacterial action – contribute to the pathology of celiac disease,” Samsel and Seneff’s paper states. Monsanto’s Glyphosate (Roundup) has become the number one selling herbicide worldwide, due to the increase in the planting of Roundup Ready GM Crops.Celiac disease is a digestive disease that damages the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food. People who have celiac disease cannot tolerate gluten, a protein in wheat, rye, and barley. Gluten is found mainly in foods but may also be found in everyday products such as medicines, vitamins, and lip balms. When people with celiac disease eat foods or use products containing gluten, their immune system responds by damaging or destroying villi—the tiny, fingerlike protrusions lining the small intestine. Villi normally allow nutrients from food to be absorbed through the walls of the small intestine into the bloodstream. Without healthy villi, a person becomes malnourished, no matter how much food one eats. It increase the toxin burden leaking into the blood stream) and inclusion of probiotics (superior quality such as ‘entralive maximal’ from Entrapro) which also contain essential prebiotics plus a high quality enzyme formula along with eating whole foods in a manner easy to digest – for several YEARS (such as soups and cooked foods) to enable the gut lining to heal. Many gluten free religites don’t get better because the underlying leaky gut is not repaired.

AGRIBUSINESS : European Parliament Group Finds Pesticides in Hair Samples Across Europe.

AGRIBUSINESS : European Parliament Group Finds Pesticides in Hair Samples Across Europe. .The Greens / European Free Alliance group in the European Parliament released the results Wednesday of a unique long-term exposure ‘pesticides in hair’ testing project, initiated by The Detox Project and Kudzu Science. 148 hair samples were collected from six EU countries: Germany, Denmark, Wales, Italy, France and Belgium between the end of July and October 2018. The samples were then analysed for a selection of 30 pesticides including insecticides, fungicides and herbicides. AGRIBUSINESS : European Parliament Group Finds Pesticides in Hair Samples Across Europe. The results showed that 15 of the 30 ubiquitous pesticides tested for were found in at least one of the samples, with 60% of the samples containing at least one pesticide. Fipronil (insecticide), Propiconazole (fungicide), Permethrin (insecticide) and Chlorpyrifos-Ethyl (insecticide), were all found in more than 10% of the samples.

South Africa Government Rejects Monsanto’s GMO Triple Stacked Maize.

South Africa Government Rejects Monsanto’s GMO Triple Stacked Maize.The African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) has welcomed the decision of the South African biosafety authorities, rejecting Monsanto’s application for the commercial release of its GM drought tolerant triple stacked maize: MON 87460 x MON 89034 x NK 603. At its meeting on the 2nd October 2018, the Executive Council: GMO Act, refused to authorize the GM maize for commercial growing as it found that the data provided by Monsanto was insufficient to demonstrate the claimed drought tolerant and insect resistant efficacy of the GM event. In particular, the EC found that the drought tolerant field trial data presented by Monsanto for trials conducted over a period of 5 years (2014-2018) in Hopetown, Orania, Lutzville and Malelane, were sorely wanting.

Organic Food Consumption Lowers Overall Cancer Risks in Large-Scale Study of French Adults.

Organic Food Consumption Lowers Overall Cancer Risks in Large-Scale Study of French Adults.The results are in on one of the first, large-scale studies on organic food consumption and cancer risks and they are significant and encouraging. It is widely recognized we need to do much more in preventing cancer, as opposed to treating it, and this study suggests that organic food may be an important piece of the puzzle. A team of French government scientists analyzed 68,946 citizens in the NutriNet-Santé cohort. Individuals were surveyed to determine if those who ate more organic foods had lower cancer rates. Their new journal article, published online by JAMA Internal Medicine this week (that’s the prestigious journal put out by the American Medical Association), reports their key findings: people consuming organic food most regularly had 25% lower overall cancer risk compared to the group of people reporting very little or no consumption of organic food.

AGRICULTURE : New Israeli technology turns human waste into biofuel.

AGRICULTURE : New Israeli technology turns human waste into biofuel. First time biomass is created from human excrement, providing possible solution to growing problems in sanitation and clean energy.Ben-Gurion University of the Negev publicized results of a pilot study demonstrating that raw human excrement potentially can be converted into a safe, reusable fuel and nutrient-rich fertilizer. According to the groundbreaking study published recently in the Journal of Cleaner Production, researchers at the Ben-Gurion University Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research refined a process using hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) to heat solid human waste in a special “pressure cooker” to create hydrochar, a safe, reusable biomass fuel resembling charcoal. AGRICULTURE : New Israeli technology turns human waste into biofuel. This new development, according to the researchers, addresses two challenges prevalent in the developing world: sanitation and growing energy needs.

AGRIBUSINESS : Zero food waste as food expiration dates undergo a revolution.

AGRIBUSINESS : Zero food waste as food expiration dates undergo a revolution. New automated grocery-pricing system from Israel promises to slash food waste, cut prices for consumers, and increase profits for supermarkets. 

About half of all the food produced in the world is wasted every year. That’s about two billion tons of food, worth billions of dollars. It’s a shocking statistic, and at the end of the day, it’s not just the supermarkets or food producers that pay the price – it’s all of us. 

 A hungry planet with limited resources, a high carbon footprint, and rapidly changing climate cannot afford to throw food in the bin.

A new Israeli startup, Wasteless, hopes to help cut some of this waste with a new AI system that will transform how supermarkets approach food expiration dates. 

 Zero food waste as food expiration dates undergo a revolution. 

 “Food expiration dates are the main cause of retail waste and the cost is tremendous, both to business and to the environment,” says Oded Omer, co-founder of Wasteless. 

“Food is the single largest product in landfills, where it emits extremely harmful gases, including methane.’’ 

  Wasteless, which was founded in 2017, has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) technology that can offer customers a variable pricing system based on a product’s expiration date.

 A carton of milk that is set to expire in a few days will cost less than one due to expire in 10 days.It sounds simple, but the technology behind is not. 

The Wasteless pricing engine employs a branch of machine learning called reinforcement learning, which automatically maps inventory stock and time of day into a series of optimal prices.