Articoli di riviste sul tema "Wheat fertilizers, Australia"

The residual values of phosphorus from triple superphosphate and from three rock phosphates were compared in a 4-year field experiment with wheat, grown on a phosphorus deficient lateritic soil in south-western Australia. The three rock phosphate fertilizers were an apatitic rock phosphate originating from the Duchess deposit in north-western Queensland, and calcined (500�C) Christmas Island C-grade ore as a powder and as pellets. Five rates of each fertilizer were applied at the commencement of the experiment and their effectiveness was calculated from data on yield of dried plant tops, grain yield, and bicarbonate soluble phosphorus extracted from the soil. Triple superphosphate was the most effective phosphorus fertilizer initially, but its effectiveness decreased markedly with time. The effectiveness of the three rock phosphates was initially very low, and remained approximately constant for the duration of the experiment. The yield of dried plant tops depended upon their phosphorus content and this relationship was independent of the phosphorus fertilizer used.

The cadmium concentrations in wheat grain were determined from three crop rotation x tillage experiments in South Australia. Generally, the concentrations in grain were highest in wheat grown after lupins and lowest in wheat grown after cereal. The high cadmium concentrations in grain from wheat/lupins plots could not be explained solely by acidification, thus indicating involvement of other processes in cadmium availability. While cadmium concentration in grain also increased with increasing rates of nitrogenous fertilizers, the results of cultivation practices were generally too inconsistent to allow conclusions to be drawn. Cadmium concentrations exceed the maximum permissible concentration (MPC) of 0.05 mg kg-1 set by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHWIRC) for unspecified foods in only one of the three tillage experiments. This study indicates that crop rotation is an important factor affecting cadmium uptake. Under certain soil conditions and with particular wheat varieties, the cadmium concentration in grain may exceed the MPC as the result of the crop rotation used.

The effects of four grades of sulfurcoated urea (SCU1, 35.1% nitrogen (N) and dissolution rate in water at 38�C of 10.5%; SCU2, 36.3%N and 25.9% dissolution rate; SCU3, 36.2%N and 1 1.2% dissolution rate; SCU4, 36.8%N and 15.4% dissolution rate) were compared with those of uncoated urea as sources of nitrogen for cereals in nine field experiments in two years. In five experiments at five sites in 1978, and in two experiments at two sites in 1979, comparisons were made between fertilizers topdressed either after sowing (1978) or before sowing (1979). In two further experiments in 1979, comparisons were made between fertilizers banded with the seed or topdressed immediately before or after sowing. Supplementary data on the effect of banding were obtained from a glasshouse experiment. There were no differences between sources in three of the five 1978 experiments. At the other two sites urea was superior to SCU when 50 kg N/ha was applied 2 weeks after sowing. Applications of urea 4 or 6 weeks after sowing gave grain yields, at these sites, up to 69 and 57% higher, respectively, than earlier applications. Apparent recovery of fertilizer nitrogen in one experiment in which it was measured was greater for two SCUs (13.1 and 2l.6%, respectively) than for urea (6+9%), but this was true only for applications at sowing. Urea applied 4 and 6 weeks after sowing resulted in much higher recoveries of fertilizer nitrogen (33.9 and 49.3%, respectively) and was more effective in overcoming leaching losses than was the slow-release SCU. There were no effects of time of application before sowing in the two 1979 experiments, indicating little or no loss of ammonia through volatilization, which precluded a comparison of the effects of the three nitrogen sources used. However, uncoated urea outyielded two SCUs in these experiments, by 7.5 and 6.5% in the first experiment and 5 and 2% in the second, respectively. When uncoated urea was banded with the seed at the equivalent of 70 or 140 kg N/ha all plants in the glasshouse experiment died. SCU at the lower nitrogen rate did not affect wheat emergence or survival but a 30% reduction in plant numbers resulted at the higher rate of SCU2. In one field experiment, uncoated urea reduced plant numbers by 96% compared with 20 and 13% for SCU3 and SCU4, respectively, when applied at 75 kg N/ha. Overall, this study showed no reason to use these grades of SCU in preference to uncoated urea, except where there is a need to band urea-containing fertilizer with the seed.

Abstract From 1882 to 1910 superphosphate was almost universally adopted by wheat farmers in South Australia. A supply chain perspective is used to link the mining of phosphate rock in distant Pacific islands to the final application of superphosphate in the fields of Australian wheat farmers. Farmers and private manufacturers led the adoption stage in the context of a liberal market regime and the role of the state at this stage was limited although strategic. After 1920, the role of the state in the industry sharply increased in all phases of the industry. A political economy perspective is used to analyse state-ownership of raw material supplies and protectionist policies to manufacturers that resulted in high prices in Australia by 1930. Numerous government reviews pitted the interests of farmers and manufacturers leading to a complex system of tariffs and subsidies in efforts to serve all interests. Overall, the adoption of superphosphate was a critical factor in developing productive and sustainable farming systems in Australia, although at the expense of Pacific Islanders who prior to WWII received token benefits and were ultimately left with a highly degraded landscape.

SUMMARYWheat and sunflower plants were grown in a temperature-controlled glasshouse in Melbourne, Australia (37° 50′ S, 145° 00′ E), from 9 August to 2 October 1991, in cylinders containing two soils (Walpeup loamy sand (LS) and Gombalin clay loam (CL)) of low and moderate N status, respectively. Nitrogen fertilizer was applied by immersion of leaves in 0·18 M urea solution (10·5 atom% 15N).Plants were N-deficient in the Walpeup LS but not in the Gombalin CL soils. Both species had higher root: shoot ratios, and higher proportions of foliar-absorbed N were transferred to the roots, in the Walpeup LS plants. Plant N derived from the fertilizer and root or shoot dry matter were significantly correlated only when plants were N-deficient.In the Walpeup LS soil, N-fertilized wheat harvested 33 days after sowing (DAS) took up significantly less soil N compared with unfertilized plants, whereas significantly more soil N was taken up by N-fertilized sunflower compared with unfertilized plants harvested at 54 DAS. The fertilizerinduced response in uptake of soil N was directly related to the observed response in production of root biomass for both species. The different responses were related to the severity of the N deficiency and the limited effectiveness of foliar applications of urea in ameliorating the deficiency.

Dryland wheat was fertilized with ammonium nitrate or liquid urea-ammonium nitrate at the time of sowing or about 3 months later (generally at the terminal-spikelet stage) on a well-drained site near Harden on the south-west slopes of New South Wales. The experiments continued from the second to the fifth year (1981-1984) of the cropping phase of a crop-pasture rotation. The maximum agronomic efficiencies for yield in the four consecutive years were 19, 4, 23 and 25 kg grain per kg of applied nitrogen (N). The three large responses were obtained in wetter than average seasons and the small response was obtained during drought. In the last three years of the study the yield response to nitrogen at the terminal-spikelet stage was found to be close to but slightly less than that for N applied at sowing. In those years the agronomic efficiencies for the late-applied N were 0, 22 and 22. The apparent recovery of fertilizer N in the above-ground parts of the crop at maturity was up to 70% of the fertilizer applied in the year of sowing, and, after the drought during which there was little uptake of fertilizer N, up to 62% by the subsequent crop. The fertilizer efficiencies in the non-drought years were higher than generally reported in south-eastern Australia, and indicate potential for profitable delayed application of N fertilizer to wheat. Grain-protein responses were variable from year to year and are discussed against a simple theoretical background of the amount of N applied and grain-yield response.

Fusarium pseudograminearum and Fusarium graminearum commonly cause crown rot (FCR) and head blight (FHB) in wheat, respectively. Disease infection and spread can be reduced by the deployment of resistant cultivars or through management practices that limit inoculum load. Plants deficient in micronutrients, including zinc, tend to be more susceptible to many diseases. On the other hands, and zinc deficiency in cereals is widespread in Australian soils. Zinc deficiency may have particular relevance to crown rot, the most important and damaging Fusarium disease of wheat and barley in Australia. Four wheat genotypes; Batavia, Sunco and two lines from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) were tested for response to FHB and FCR under differing levels of Zn,1 and 2 g/kg and its correlation with disease severity. Sunco and CIMMYT line 146 were previously rated resistant to crown rot and Zn efficient. Zn application 2 g/kg soil enhanced resistance to FCR of the disease susceptible and Zn in-efficient in Batavia and 48 as its recorded 0.75 and 0.5 respectively compared to Sunco and CIMMYT line 146 as it recorded 0.2 and 0.3 respectively, but did not increase resistance to FHB. However, Zn application did enhance the resistance of Zn efficient genotypes to FHB. Results suggest that higher levels of Zn fertilization could reduce the expression of Fusarium diseases in wheat.

This paper presents the basic relationships used in compiling a decision support system for wheat growers in the subtropical, prime-hard regions of Australia. The major factors addressed by this decision aid are climate variability, soil type and water status; N and P soil status and fertilizer addition; variety phenology, planting time and frost risk; weed infestation. The major decisions involved include fertilizer choice and quantity, choice of the variety development pattern to use for a given planting opportunity, and wild oat control measures. It demonstrates how the output from relatively complex, dynamic wheat models can be used at the farm level by introducing a number of factors (nitrogen status, frost risk, soil water status at planting, grain yield and protein records) measurable and specific to a given farm and/or paddock. The importance of such local measurements, and the consequent tailoring of the output to the user's conditions, on the user's confidence in, and ownership of, the final decision is demonstrated.

It is important to examine the effects of climate change on temporal variations in SOC storage, in order to optimize management practices for sustainable grain production. Using the denitrification–decomposition (DNDC) model to simulate biogeochemical processes in agro-ecosystems, SOC variability was evaluated in the Australian wheat cropping system from 1990 to 2060, under the Representative Concentration Pathway 85 (RCP85) climate change scenario. We analyzed the impacts of temperature and precipitation on SOC variability and further simulated six management scenarios for wheat cultivation over 71 years, which included wheat cropping under common nitrogen fertilizer (N-fertilizer) application rate (12 kg N/ha), adequate N-fertilizer application rate (50 kg N/ha), and legume–wheat rotation with N fertilizer application rates at 0, 12, and 50 kg N/ha. The results indicated that the DNDC model provided a good simulation of biogeochemical processes associated with wheat growth; the normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) of wheat yield was 15.16%, and the NRMSE of SOC was 13.21%. The SOC (0–30 cm) decreased from 3994.1 kg C/ha in 1990 to 2848.0 kg C/ha in 2060, an average decrease of 0.4% per year. Temperature and precipitation were the important factors affecting SOC storage, with contributions of 13% and 12%, respectively. Furthermore, adding a legume phase increased SOC and wheat yield in the low N-fertilizer scenario. In contrast, adding a legume phase in the adequate N-fertilizer scenario decreased SOC and wheat yield.

Many of the yellow earths in the Western Australian wheatbelt have naturally acidic subsoils which can reduce the yield of wheat grown on them. Current methods of assessing soil acidity cannot identify which soils have subsoil acidity severe enough to restrict wheat yields. We conducted 53 field experiments at 34 sites in 5 regions over 3 years to determine the relationship between yield of wheat and several different indices for identifying subsoils with toxic concentrations of aluminium, Al. Initially, we identified that the concentration of aluminium, [All, in the soil solution and in 1 : 5 0.005 M KCl extracts of soil from the 15-25 cm layer was responsible for the majority of the decrease in wheat yield. The concentration of Al in a 1 : 5 0.005 M KCl extract in the 15-25 cm layer was well correlated with grain yield of wheat grown on yellow earth soils in the Merredin region, provided the soils had similar fertilizer treatments. The ratio [All : [Na] in a 1 : 5 0.005 M KCl extract was a better predictor than [All alone of grain yield of wheat grown on yellow earths in different regions and with different fertilizer practices. The three seasons had little effect on the correlation between yield and different soil indices. The correlations determined were strongly affected by regional differences, which were probably due to differing water supply and availability. The choice of toxicity index depended on the uniformity of fertilizer management practices within a region and it appeared that both ionic strength and calcium were important mitigating factors.

Nitrogen uptake by wheat from both soil and fertilizer, and the efficiencies of fertilizer N (up to 116 kg/ha) for increasing yield and protein, were measured in 53 wheat fertilizer experiments during 1985-89 on the north-western slopes and plains of New South Wales. There was a highly significant (r2> 0.70) and common relationship between N uptake in unfertilized wheat (tops and grain) and soil nitrate to 90 cm depth for 4 of the 5 years of the study. A different but significant relationship occurred in 1988 when heavy rainfall before sampling leached some of the soil N beyond the sampled depth but within the rooting zone. The uptake and recovery of fertilizer N were lower in 1989, when in-crop rainfall was much lower than in the other 4 years. However, there was greater transfer of N from the herbage to the grain than in the wetter years. With increasing increments of fertilizer N. there was a much larger average decline in agronomic efficiency than in the recovery of fertilizer N or in physiological efficiency. Consistent with this, the average protein efficiency of fertilizer N tended to increase with increasing increments in every year except 1989. Although the highest increment of fertilizer N was always the least efficient for increasing grain yield, it exceeded the level required for profitability (8 kg grain/kg fertilizer N) in 20% of experiments. In experiments in which agronomic efficiency of the highest fertilizer increment was too low for profitability, there were at least 10 experiments in which the protein response was probably sufficient to make the highest increment profitable. The agronomic, protein and physiological efficiencies of fertilizer N in at least 10% of these experiments were higher than previously recorded in Australia and are comparable with the highest values recorded for wheat in other regions of the world.

The effects of soil fumigation (98% methyl bromide + 2% chloropicrin at 580 kg/ha) and N fertilizer (0, 12.5, 25, 50 or 100 kg N/ha) were examined in field trials on continuous wheat and wheat in rotation with lupins on the Geraldton sandplain. Fumigation increased grain yields at N fertilizer levels more or =25 kg/ha and was associated with reduced incidence and severity of common root rot (Bipolaris sorokiniana)[Cochliobolus sativus]. Grain yield was not significantly affected by rotation. Fumigation increased soil ammonium levels and decreased soil nitrate levels. Rotation of wheat and lupins increased mid-season growth at all levels of applied N but only increased grain yield where no N was applied.

Abstract One way to increase yield potential in wheat is screening for natural variation in photosynthesis. This study uses measured and modelled physiological parameters to explore genotypic diversity in photosynthetic capacity (Pc, Rubisco carboxylation capacity per unit leaf area at 25 °C) and efficiency (Peff, Pc per unit of leaf nitrogen) in wheat in relation to fertilizer, plant stage, and environment. Four experiments (Aus1, Aus2, Aus3, and Mex1) were carried out with diverse wheat collections to investigate genetic variation for Rubisco capacity (Vcmax25), electron transport rate (J), CO2 assimilation rate, stomatal conductance, and complementary plant functional traits: leaf nitrogen, leaf dry mass per unit area, and SPAD. Genotypes for Aus1 and Aus2 were grown in the glasshouse with two fertilizer levels. Genotypes for Aus3 and Mex1 experiments were grown in the field in Australia and Mexico, respectively. Results showed that Vcmax25 derived from gas exchange measurements is a robust parameter that does not depend on stomatal conductance and was positively correlated with Rubisco content measured in vitro. There was significant genotypic variation in most of the experiments for Pc and Peff. Heritability of Pc reached 0.7 and 0.9 for SPAD. Genotypic variation and heritability of traits show that there is scope for these traits to be used in pre-breeding programmes to improve photosynthesis with the ultimate objective of raising yield potential.

Three cultivars of wheat were grown using five levels of applied nitrogen (N) fertilizer at five locations in the central wheatbelt of Western Australia during 1986, 1987 and 1988. The cultivars were Gamenya (old, tall), Gutha (new, tall) and Aroona (new, semidwarf). The aim of the experiments was to determine if the newer cultivars responded more to applied N fertilizer than the older ones. At 10 out of 15 sites there was a yield increase to applied N. The semi-dwarf cultivar Aroona out-yielded the two tall cultivars apd responded more to added N at 6 of the 15 sites. The average initial response to applied N at these six sites was 16, 18 and 31 kg of grain per kg of N applied for Gamenya, Gutha and Aroona. Aroona's increased initial response to applied N was not evident at five of the sites that received less than 250 mm of rainfall during the growing season. The increased responsiveness of Aroona was associated with a greater apparent net uptake efficiency, a larger concentration of N in the tops, the production of more ears and kernels per unit area at larger concentrations of N in the tops, and an ability to maintain kernel size at the larger kernel numbers produced by an increased N supply.

The cereal disease Fusarium crown rot (FCR), caused by the fungal pathogen Fusarium pseudograminearum (Fp), is a major constraint to cereal production worldwide. Nitrogen (N) fertilizer is estimated to be approximately 30% of the input costs for grain growers in Australia and is the primary driver of yield and grain protein levels. When targeting high yield and protein, generous nitrogen fertilizer applications are thought to result in large biomass production, which exacerbates FCR severity, reducing grain yield and quality. This research was undertaken to investigate the effect of temporal N availability in high-protein bread and durum wheat varieties on FCR severity. Laboratory and controlled environment experiments assessed the relationship between FCR and N at a mechanistic and plant level. An in vitro study demonstrated an increase in Fp mycelial growth under increased N availability, especially when N was supplied as urea compared with ammonium nitrate. Similarly, under controlled environmental conditions, increased soil N availability promoted FCR severity within infected plants. Stem N transfer efficiency was significantly decreased under FCR infection in both bread and durum wheat varieties by 4.5% and 10.2%, respectively. This new research demonstrates that FCR not only decreases yield and grain quality but appears to have previously unrecognised detrimental impacts on nitrogen-use efficiency in wheat. This indicates that the current impact of losses from FCR may also decrease N-use inefficiencies, as well as yield and quality penalties. An improved understanding of the interactions and restrictions of FCR infection may allow growers to better manage the disease through manipulation of the soil’s temporal N availability.

NIR-based tissue analysis has proven useful in Australia for making fertilizer recommendations for rice and wheat growers. Viticulturists have for some time made fertilizer recommendations based on tissue analysis, although there is some debate in the literature as to whether younger or older leaves or petioles provide the best indicator of vine nutrient status for diagnostic purposes. The aim of our research has been to develop NIR-based nutrient analysis for grape producers. Aspects of sample collection, including leaf lamina vs. leaf petiole; leaf opposite the basal cluster vs. youngest leaf; aspects of drying (microwave vs. convection oven), have been reexamined from the viewpoint of convenience, cost, accuracy, and turnaround time with respect to NIR analysis. We have refined procedures for collecting and microwave-drying samples. The samples of leaves and petioles were collected from vines in most wine-growing regions of Australia and included all the major wine grape and some dried fruit cultivars on their own and, in some cases, on rootstocks. At this stage, we have developed preliminary NIR calibrations for the major nutrient elements in both leaf lamina and petioles.

Cultivation of crops in salt-affected soils is a major challenge for growers. Despite the use of multiple amendments, salinity stresses adversely affect the crops to some extent. On the other hand, imbalance in the use of boron (B) as a nutrient also creates toxicity. Mismanagement of B fertilizer application decreases the growth and yield of crops. It is necessary to study in depth the adverse effects of salinity and B toxicity. This is why the current research work was conducted in a glass house at Murdoch University, Perth, Australia. The aim of study was to investigate the influence of salinity and B toxicity on carbohydrate partitioning, growth, and ionic composition of two Australian wheat varieties. There were four treatments, i.e., control, high B (15 kg ha−1), salinity (15 dS m−1), and B + salinity. The results showed that the salt-tolerant Halberd (HB) variety accumulated more Na+, B, and Cl− in their leaf sheath and kept the leaf blades free of these toxic ions as compared to the sensitive variety Westonia (WS). Water-soluble carbohydrate (WSC; i.e., glucose, sucrose, fructose, and fructans) concentration increased in response to individual as well as combined constrains of soil salinity and toxic B in the leaf blade of both tolerant and sensitive wheat varieties, but the increase was higher in the tolerant variety as compared to the sensitive one. The concentration of WSCs in leaf sheath of the salt-tolerant wheat variety was increased in response to stress conditions, but those remained low in salt-sensitive ones. Therefore, the salt-tolerant HB genotype was found to be a good source for future wheat breeding programs or to be grown by farmers in B toxic, saline, and B toxic–saline conditions.

Factorial experiments were conducted at eight sites in the central wheatbelt of Western Australia over two seasons. Time of sowing (mid-May, early June), cultivar (old tall, new semi-dwarf), nitrogen (N) fertilizer (- or +) and amount of seed sown (low and high) were combined as treatments, and grain yield, yield components, biomass, grain quality, water use, soil chemical and weather variables were measured. The aim was to increase grain yield by combining relevant agronomic inputs and increasing the seasonal water use or water use efficiency. Grain yields were increased by from 30 to over 100% by the combination of mid-May sowing, semi-dwarf cultivar, N fertilizer and increased seed level (high-inputs) compared to early June sowing, old tall cultivar, without N and lower seed level (low-inputs). The yield improvements mostly came from increased dry matter production at anthesis, largely due to increased applications of N and seed. Ear and kernel numbers were also increased by earlier sowing and N fertilizer and to a lesser extent by cultivar and increased weight of seed sown. Water use was increased at most sites, especially in the post-anthesis period and water use efficiency of grain production was increased at all sites. Soil evaporation was reduced by the high-input treatments and the low-input treatments did not use water supplies of > 250 mm efficiently in grain production. It was concluded that appropriate combinations of cultivar and agronomic practices can increase grain yields linearly up to about 5 t ha-1 at seasonal water use of about 400 mm, even in situations where considerable water stress occurs during grain filling. Grain protein concentration was generally increased and hectolitre weight and small grain sievings were not adversely affected by increasing agronomic inputs.

Most dryland grain growers in Australia retain all or most of their crop residues to protect the soil from erosion and to improve water conservation but retaining stubbles with a high carbon-to-nitrogen (C:N) ratio can affect N availability to crops. A simulation experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of N fertilizer application rate and residue retention on soil N dynamics. The simulation used seven N fertilizer application rates (0, 25, 50, 75, 100, 150 and 200 kg N ha−1) to wheat (Triticum aestivum) over 27 years (1990–2016) at four locations across a gradient in annual rainfall in Victoria, Australia. Nitrogen immobilization, denitrification and N leaching loss were predicted and collectively defined as sources of N inefficiency. When residues were retained, immobilization was predicted to be the biggest source of inefficiency at all simulated sites at N application rates currently used by growers. Leaching became a bigger source of inefficiency at one site with low soil water-holding capacity, but only at N rates much higher than would currently be commercially applied, resulting in high levels of nitrate (NO3−) accumulating in the soil. Denitrification was an appreciable source of inefficiency at higher rainfall sites. Further research is necessary to evaluate strategies to minimize immobilization of N in semi-arid cropping systems.

Decomposition of 14C-labelled wheat straw and its effect on fertilizer 15N transformations was studied in a subtropical environment over a 2 year period. The effect of straw management was also studied. Wheat straw incorporated in topsoil initially decomposed at a faster rate than wheat straw placed on the soil surface. This was due to the greater positional availability of straw carbon to soil organisms in incorporated straw. Later decomposition rates were similar. After 1.5 months, 44% of applied 15N-urea was recovered from incorporated straw treatments and 55% from surface-retained straw treatments. Losses were attributed to biological denitrification. The greater loss in incorporated straw treatments was suggested to be due to a greater availability of carbon to the denitrifying population compared with treatments where straw was retained on the surface. After 2 years, the recovery of 15N decreased to between 12 and 15% of that applied.

Maintenance and improvement of soil organic matter levels is an important concern in dryland farming systems of temperate regions. The Century soil organic matter model was used to simulate changes in soil organic C and total N under long-term wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and pasture rotations at five sites in southern Australia. Average declines in soil organic C and total N of 14 and 10%, respectively, in continuous and wheat-fallow systems over a 10 to 20 year period were closely simulated by the model at each site. Additions of N fertilizer (80 kg N ha-1), which prevented soil organic matter decline in continuous wheat systems, was also well represented by the model. Trends in soil organic matter under long-term legume pasture were not adequately simulated by the model, probably due to the 'annual' nature of subterranean clover (Trifolium subterranean L.) in dry seasons and subsequent changes in the ratio of live to dead plant biomass and shoot to root ratios. Overall, the study emphasizes the importance of adequate total plant C production to prevent a decline in soil organic C.

The possibility of combining the early rapid growth of extreme spring (express) wheat cultivars with the high grain-producing ability of long-season types as a dual-purpose crop (fodder and grain) for the high-rainfall zone of E. Australia was investigated in an experiment at Canberra in 1985. Mixtures of cv. Sunset, an express wheat, and Isis, a winter wheat, in the proportions of 1:3, 1:1 and 3:1, were compared with 4 long-season and 2 short season wheat cultivars, oats and pastures (Lolium rigidum/Trifolium subterraneum with and without N fertilizer), all sown at the end of summer. Cereals and pastures were cut monthly from 3 different starting dates. Cereals were cut until their developing ears were above ground, and pastures were cut until the trial ended in Nov. In a 4th treatment, cereals were left uncut. An early start to cutting allowed all long-season wheats to be harvested several times for fodder, but in general the total amount harvested was greatest from the latest initial cutting date treatment. The greatest amount of DM harvested (9 t/ha) came from the express wheat Sunset and from Sunset/Isis mixtures, 2 t/ha more than from Isis alone. As well as producing considerably greater amounts of DM during winter, the Sunset/Isis mixtures yielded as much grain (3.4 t/ha from the latest initial cutting date treatment) as Isis alone. DM and grain yields of mixtures were stable across the range of ratios used. It was concluded that grazing of crops sown for winter feed in cool environments should be delayed as long as possible without endangering ears, thereby providing max. amounts of fodder and effectively smothering weeds. Under this regime, mixtures of express and winter wheats should provide at least as much feed as a pasture treated similarly. If cutting started early, both would be less productive, and the crop could be inferior to the pasture.

The responses of wheat to applications of nitrogenous fertilizer were examined between 1988 and 1990 at 10 sites in South Australia which were considered to be marginally deficient in N. Nitrogen rates ranged from 0 kg N/ha to 150 kg N/ha and the experiments were sown after a range of crops and pastures. Nitrogen often increased early crop vigour and subsequent vegetative growth but significant increases in grain yield occurred at three of the 10 sites only; at the remaining sites there was no significant response or there was a reduction in yield at the highest rates of N. Kernel weights fell and grain protein concentration increased at most sites as the rate of N increased. The total amount of N per kernel was relatively constant across the N treatments at each site and across the 10 sites it varied less than the starch content per kernel. Grain protein concentration therefore was affected more by the amount of starch deposited in the grain than by the total amount of nitrogen. The amount of dry matter remobilized post-anthesis, calculated from changes in dry weight, was high and at the majority of sites was increased with applications of nitrogenous fertilizer. Despite the generally large amount of dry matter remobilized, this appeared to be used inefficiently during grain filling and there was little evidence that it greatly contributed to grain growth and grain protein concentration. The relationship between starch content per kernel and N content per kernel varied between sites: in some cases starch and N were negatively correlated, while in other instances there was a positive correlation or no correlation. The data suggest that high grain protein concentration at high levels of N are not a direct consequence of increased mobilization of dry matter and greater translocation of N to the grain. Dry matter production at anthesis was correlated with the amount of growth after 10 weeks but generally this increased dry matter production was of no benefit to yield. It is concluded that in the medium rainfall areas of the state, there is no advantage to be gained from improved early vigour, except perhaps where poor early growth is due to inadequate management.

Abstract. The aim of this study is to estimate the green, blue and grey water footprint of wheat in a spatially-explicit way, both from a production and consumption perspective. The assessment is global and improves upon earlier research by taking a high-resolution approach, estimating the water footprint of the crop at a 5 by 5 arc minute grid. We have used a grid-based dynamic water balance model to calculate crop water use over time, with a time step of one day. The model takes into account the daily soil water balance and climatic conditions for each grid cell. In addition, the water pollution associated with the use of nitrogen fertilizer in wheat production is estimated for each grid cell. We have used the water footprint and virtual water flow assessment framework as in the guideline of the Water Footprint Network. The global wheat production in the period 1996–2005 required about 1088 billion cubic meters of water per year. The major portion of this water (70%) comes from green water, about 19% comes from blue water, and the remaining 11% is grey water. The global average water footprint of wheat per ton of crop was 1830 m3/ton. About 18% of the water footprint related to the production of wheat is meant not for domestic consumption but for export. About 55% of the virtual water export comes from the USA, Canada and Australia alone. For the period 1996–2005, the global average water saving from international trade in wheat products was 65 Gm3/yr. A relatively large total blue water footprint as a result of wheat production is observed in the Ganges and Indus river basins, which are known for their water stress problems. The two basins alone account for about 47% of the blue water footprint related to global wheat production. About 93% of the water footprint of wheat consumption in Japan lies in other countries, particularly the USA, Australia and Canada. In Italy, with an average wheat consumption of 150 kg/yr per person, more than two times the word average, about 44% of the total water footprint related to this wheat consumption lies outside Italy. The major part of this external water footprint of Italy lies in France and the USA.

Abstract. The aim of this study is to estimate the green, blue and grey water footprint of wheat in a spatially-explicit way, both from a production and consumption perspective. The assessment is global and improves upon earlier research by taking a high-resolution approach, estimating the water footprint of the crop at a 5 by 5 arc minute grid. We have used a grid-based dynamic water balance model to calculate crop water use over time, with a time step of one day. The model takes into account the daily soil water balance and climatic conditions for each grid cell. In addition, the water pollution associated with the use of nitrogen fertilizer in wheat production is estimated for each grid cell. We have used the water footprint and virtual water flow assessment framework as in the guideline of the Water Footprint Network. The global wheat production in the period 1996–2005 required about 108 billion cubic meters of water per year. The major portion of this water (70%) comes from green water, about 19% comes from blue water, and the remaining 11% is grey water. The global average water footprint of wheat per ton of crop was 1830 m3/ton. About 18% of the water footprint related to the production of wheat is meant not for domestic consumption but for export. About 55% of the virtual water export comes from the USA, Canada and Australia alone. For the period 1996–2005, the global average water saving from international trade in wheat products was 65 Gm3/yr. A relatively large total blue water footprint as a result of wheat production is observed in the Ganges and Indus river basins, which are known for their water stress problems. The two basins alone account for about 47% of the blue water footprint related to global wheat production. About 93% of the water footprint of wheat consumption in Japan lies in other countries, particularly the USA, Australia and Canada. In Italy, with an average wheat consumption of 150 kg/yr per person, more than two times the word average, about 44% of the total water footprint related to this wheat consumption lies outside Italy. The major part of this external water footprint of Italy lies in France and the USA.

Modeling techniques were developed to quantify the probability of Tilletia indica entering and establishing in Western Australia (WA), and to simulate spread, containment, and the economic impact of the pathogen. Entry of T. indica is most likely to occur through imports of bulk grain or fertilizer (0.023 ± 0.017 entries per year and approximately 0.009 ± 0.009 establishments per year). Entry may also occur through straw goods, new or second-hand agricultural machinery, and on personal effects of travelers who have visited regions with infected plants. The combined probability of entry and establishment of T. indica, for all pathways of entry, is about one entry every 25 years and one establishment every 67 years. Alternatively, sensitivity analysis does show that increases in quarantine funding can reduce the probability of entry to about one entry every 50 years and less than one establishment every 100 years. T. indica is spread efficiently through contaminated farm machinery, seed and soil, rain, air currents, and animals. Depending on the rate of spread of the pathogen and the amount of resources allocated for detection, the time until first detection could range from 4 to 11 years and the economic impact could range from 8 to 24% of the total value of wheat production in WA.

AbstractSoil P testing has been widely used to predict crop yields, P uptake, and fertilizer demands in agriculture. Diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT) provides a zero-sink soil P test which mimics diffusion-controlled plant uptake and has previously been found to predict P availability to crops better than conventional quantity-based P tests in highly weathered Australian, though not in European soils. Here we tested the performance of DGT and the Austrian and German standard P quantity test calcium acetate lactate (CAL) to explain the variation of crop yield and P uptake response of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and spring barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) in long-term P fertilization experiments at four different sites in eastern Austria. Phosphorus extracted with DGT (P-DGT) and CAL (P-CAL) correlated well in similar soils but not across sites with large variation in soil and site properties such as carbonate equivalent and water availability. The predictive power of DGT for barley (R2 = 0.42) and wheat grain yield (R2 = 0.32), and P uptake in wheat grains (R2 = 0.36) was clearly superior to that of the CAL, and less dependent on soil properties. The better performance of DGT compared to the quantity test is consistent with diffusion-limited P uptake in the water-limited cultivated soils of eastern Austria. The critical values of P deficiency derived from the Mitscherlich-type fits for barley and wheat at 80% relative yield are 64.9 and 26.2 µg L−1, respectively, consistent with differential P demands of the crops.

The effect of fertilizer N on the growth, post-anthesis water deficits and remobilization of dry matter in spring wheat was measured on a duplex soil at East Beverley, Western Australia. Nitrogen was applied at 15, 30 and 60 kg N ha-1 with half being applied at seeding and the remainder at 35 days after sowing (DAS), immediately before the onset of tillering. The applied N generated differences in early growth (76-117 g m-2) and dry matter at anthesis (410-693 g m-2), mainly through the effect of N on tiller number (120-171 m-2) and tiller size. It also generated differences in the water deficit, particularly after flowering. During the first 21 days after anthesis, midday flag leaf water potential fell at rates of 0.04, 0.07 and 0.13 MPa day-1 at 15, 30 and 60 kg N ha-1 respectively. Grain yield at 60 kg N ha-1 was increased by 20% relative to that of 15 kg N ha-1. The increase in grain yield resulted from an increase in the number of ears and grain number per ear. The high N treatment probably induced the increase in the number of fertile tillers (tillers with an ear), but reduced the grain size by 16% relative to the low N treatment. Contribution of preanthesis dry matter to grain yield was 193 g m-2 for the wheat receiving 60 kg N ha-1, 71 g m-2 for wheat which received 30 kg N ha-1 and only 16 g m-2 for wheat which received 15 kg N ha-1. This indicates that at high N supply, grain growth was substantially supported by pre-anthesis stored assimilates.

The demand of wheat increases yearly in Indonesia. Therefore, Indonesia has imported wheat fromoverseas. Agronomically, wheat could be cultivated in Indonesia. Simulation model using ShieraryWheat ver 2.2 software developed by Handoko (1992) will be used in this studi. This software has beenvalidated by Rogi (1996) in several areas in Indonesia. This model has daily resolution which explainsinteraction between growth and development of wheat. Model inputs include weather elements such asradiation, temperature, humidity, wind and rainfall. Soil physical field capacity (water condition in thesoil), characteristic such as field capacity, wilt permanent point, and evaporation together with pH, totalnitrogen were incorporated in the model. Agronomical inputs such as irrigation, nitrogenous fertilizer,ground water and total nitrogen were used as hypothetical data. The research was aiming to assessthe best location and time for cultivated wheat ini North Sulawesi. The result showed that planted timein August had potential high yield followed by January, March, April, May, and Septemnber respectively.The suitable lacations for cultivated wheat in North Sulawesi were Tondano, Langowan, Tompaso,Tompaso Baru, and Kotamobagu. The best potential high yield was found in areas which had optimal ofair temperature and rainfall.Keywords : Wheat, Agronomically, Simulation model, Shierary Wheat Ver 2.0 ABSTRAKKebutuhan gandum yang terus meningkat setiap tahun di Indonesia dipenuhi dengan cara mengimpor,padahal secara agronomis gandum saat ini dapat dibudidayakan di daerah tropis dengan produksi yanglebih tinggi dan waktu panen yang lebih pendek. Penentuan daerah-daerah pengembangan Gandum diIndonesia seperti di Provinsi Sulawesi Utara penting untuk dilakukan dengan menggunakan modelsimulasi. Perangkat lunak Shierary Wheat Ver 2.0 yang dikembangkan Handoko tahun 1992 diMelbourne Australia dan divalidasi oleh Rogi (1996) dan telah dikalibrasi pada berbagai tempat diIndonesia. Model ini mempunyai resolusi harian yang menjelaskan proses interaksi antaraperkembangan dan pertumbuhan tanaman gandum. Input model terdiri dari unsur-unsur cuaca beruparadiasi matahari, suhu udara, kelembaban udara, kecepatan angin, dan curah hujan, sedangkan sifatfisik tanah (kapasitas lapang, titik layu permanen dan parameter evaporasi), serta sifat kimia tanah (pH,nitrogen total). Input agronomis berupa irigasi, pupuk nitrogen, kondisi awal berupa kadar air tanah dannitrogen total menggunakan data asumsi. Sehingga penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mendapatkan waktudan lokasi tanam yang terbaik untuk Tanam Gandum di Sulawesi Utara. Hasil penelitian mendapatkanbahwa Waktu tanam 1 Agustus mempunyai potensi hasil paling baik kemudian berturut-turut Januari,Maret, April, Mei dan September dengan lokasi yang sesuai adalah Tondano, Langowan, Tompaso,Tompaso Baru, dan Kotamobagu.

The effect of fertilizer N on the remobilization of N to the grain in wheat was evaluated on a duplex soil at East Beverley, Western Australia. Remobilization of N to the grain was determined using the stable isotope, 15N , which was fed to wheat plants during the vegetative growth phase. Nitrogen was applied at 15, 30 and 60 kg N ha-1 with half being applied at seeding and the remainder at 35 days after sowing (DAS), before the onset of tillering. The high N treatment increased N uptake between stem elongation and anthesis and grain protein concentration by 2.9% relative to the low N treatment. Both the nitrogen harvest index (NHI) and the nitrogen utilization efficiency (NUE) declined as the rate of N application was increased; the decline was more pronounced when the rate of N application was increased from 30 to 60 kg N ha-1. Total grain N at 60 kg N ha-1 was increased by 54%, relative to that at 15 kg N ha-1, due to a 2.3 fold increase in remobilization of pre-anthesis accumulated N and despite a 5 fold reduction in post-anthesis uptake. The application of 60 kg N ha-1 reduced the losses of pre-anthesis N from 19% to 6%. The absolute contribution of the N taken up early in the growth of the crop (before the second node stage) to grain N was 0.9, 1.4 and 3.2 g m-2 at 15, 30 and 60 kg N ha-1 respectively. The contribution of pre-anthesis N to the grain was 2.2, 3.7 and 5.1 g m-2 when 15, 30 and 60 kg N ha-' were applied respectively. This contribution accounted for 60, 82 and 95% of the total grain N respectively. Results indicated that with greater amounts of N accumulated before anthesis, there was higher remobilization to the grain and less risk of net N losses at maturity, because post-anthesis water deficits developed more rapidly.

With population growth, rising living standards and increasing attention given to environmental issues Water resources management has increased in many countries, water is fast becoming a scarce input. It is study of human development in the twentieth century, and a judgment is only a question of human optimization of water resources and their future generations what it was composed of such questions under the present conditions of as the water crisis (crisis of the Third Millennium) have mentioned, it is appropriate here because the water crisis and lack of use. the effectiveness of this critical resource of local, regional and trans-national and gone and the world has become a complex issue. In this regard, planning and optimal utilization of water resources of the fundamentals principles of sustainable development of natural resources optimal design of irrigation and fertilization management can control the transport of contaminants or so that any combination of water management and to reduce nutrient runoff and deep percolation, providing opportunity for solute infiltration ,reducing sediment and gradually applying fertilizer in due to problems with the economy and ease of use can be substantial.

With population growth, rising living standards and increasing attention given to environmental issues Water resources management has increased in many countries, water is fast becoming a scarce input. It is study of human development in the twentieth century, and a judgment is only a question of human optimization of water resources and their future generations what it was composed of such questions under the present conditions of as the water crisis (crisis of the Third Millennium) have mentioned, it is appropriate here because the water crisis and lack of use. the effectiveness of this critical resource of local, regional and trans-national and gone and the world has become a complex issue. In this regard, planning and optimal utilization of water resources of the fundamentals principles of sustainable development of natural resources optimal design of irrigation and fertilization management can control the transport of contaminants or so that any combination of water management and to reduce nutrient runoff and deep percolation, providing opportunity for solute infiltration ,reducing sediment and gradually applying fertilizer in due to problems with the economy and ease of use can be substantial.

Poor growth of crops after long fallows (> 12 months) in cracking clay soils of the northern areas of the Australian grain belt is known as 'long fallow disorder'. Various crop species, including wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.), grain sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench], sudan grass [Sorghum sudanense (Piper) Stapf], sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.), soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] and maize (Zea mays L.), had less root colonization with vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal (VAM) fungi and plant weight after long fallows than after short fallows. An experiment was conducted with a phosphorus-deficient soil that had been either fallowed for 3 years or sequentially cropped to cotton, sorghum and sunflower. Cropped soil had more mycorrhizal propagules consisting of intact spores and colonized roots than long fallow soil. In the glasshouse, mycorrhizal colonization of sunflower (cv. Hysun 33) developed quickly in previously cropped soil to peak at 80% of root length at 72 days (flowering), but in long fallow soil it proceeded slowly, attaining 35% of root length at 72 days. Inoculation of long fallow soil with 20% w/w cropped soil resulted in extensive root colonization (89% at 72 days), eliminated P deficiency symptoms and more than doubled plant growth and final P uptake. Inoculation with similar soil treated with gamma radiation to kill propagules of mycorrhizal fungi had no effect on plant growth. Sunflower grew extremely poorly in irradiated soil with considerable leaf necrosis due to P deficiency. Reinoculation with cropped soil resulted In high levels of mycorrhizal colonization and good plant growth. It was concluded that long fallow disorder is caused by a decline in viable propagules of mycorrhizal fungi during fallowing, resulting in poor root colonization and symbiotic effectiveness of a subsequent crop. Fertilizing with phosphorus (50 mg P/kg soil) delayed the development of mycorrhizal colonization, but increased final lengths of colonized roots at 72 days. Zinc fertilizer (15 mg Zn/kg soil) slightly improved mycorrhizal colonization, and basal fertilizer (N, K, S, Ca) substantially improved colonization in long fallow soil inoculated with cropped soil.

Canadian consumers are demanding a sustainable agricultural industry as well as products delivered under Best Management Practices (BMPs). Trace element accumulation in soils may influence crop productivity, food quality and ecosystem and human health. Canada’s feed and foodstuff export industry has already faced cases of penalties for high trace element content [cadmium (Cd) in durum wheat]. Thus, it is imperative to be able to estimate the accumulation and potential short- and long-term impacts of trace elements in soil. A national-level Trace Element Indicator (TEI) based on present loadings of trace elements to agricultural land is in progress. An Expert Panel including Canadian, American and Australian experts guided the assembly of a proposed methodology for this TEI. The proposed TEI, described briefly here, is a critical load approach with a single expression of the risk of impact from single or multiple trace elements from multiple sources (manures, biosolids, effluents and fertilizers and natural processes), invoked in a stochastic manner. Two key data requirements are the current background levels of trace elements in soil, and the leachability of these trace elements. A survey of total and soluble concentrations of 54 elements in up to 112 soils was completed. Although preliminary in scope, these represent key soil series in Canada. From this, a database of the solid/liquid partition coefficient, Kd, was computed. These Kd values will be used to characterize the leachability of the trace elements. Key words: Cadmium, copper, zinc, lead, nickel, uranium, metals, Kd, distribution coefficient

The effect of reduced cultivation on the chemical fertility of three agricultural soils important in Western Australia was investigated. The experiment compared the effect of different tillage systems for continuously cropping wheat on the distribution of extractable P, extractable K, total N, organic C and pH for soils ranging from a sand to a sandy clay loam. Three tillage systems were applied (conventional cultivation, direct drilled with a combine, direct drilled with a triple disc drill) and the distribution of nutrients was measured to a depth of 25 cm. Developments were monitored for a period of 9 years. Clear differences between treatments were evident within the first 3 years of the experiment. Relative differences between treatments remained constant after this time. The concentrations of extractable P, extractable K, total N and organic C in the soil were all higher with direct drilling than with conventional cultivation, regardless of soil type or environment. The concentration of these elements declined in all treatments throughout the duration of the experiment. Major differences between treatments occurred in the surface 5-10 cm of the soil, although trends differed slightly depending on the element measured. Ammonium nitrate application substantially reduced the pH of the sandy soil, regardless of tillage treatment, but had no effect on the other soil types. Conventionally cultivated sandy and sandy clay loam soils also had a slightly higher pH than the direct drilled soils. The yield of plants was not directly related to the concentration in the soil of any elements measured. Accumulation of nutrients near the surface indicated that, if the surface soil is dry, then nutrients may be less available to plants established with direct drilling than with conventional cultivation. Further research is needed to establish whether present 'soil testing-P recommendation' relationships, based on conventional cultivation systems, are appropriate under direct drilling systems in Western Australia. Changes in pH with different tillage systems may have a bearing on fertilizer application strategies. Finally, the decline in organic C with conventional cropping indicates that the structure of soils in this experiment remains fragile even with direct drilling.

Precision viticulture benefits from the accurate detection of vineyard vegetation from remote sensing, without a priori knowledge of vine locations. Vineyard detection enables efficient, and potentially automated, derivation of spatial measures such as length and area of crop, and hence required volumes of water, fertilizer, and other resources. Machine learning techniques have provided significant advancements in recent years in the areas of image segmentation, classification, and object detection, with neural networks shown to perform well in the detection of vineyards and other crops. However, what has not been extensively quantitatively examined is the extent to which the initial choice of input imagery impacts detection/segmentation accuracy. Here, we use a standard deep convolutional neural network (CNN) to detect and segment vineyards across Australia using DigitalGlobe Worldview-2 images at ∼50 cm (panchromatic) and ∼2 m (multispectral) spatial resolution. A quantitative assessment of the variation in model performance with input parameters during model training is presented from a remote sensing perspective, with combinations of panchromatic, multispectral, pan-sharpened multispectral, and the spectral Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) considered. The impact of image acquisition parameters—namely, the off-nadir angle and solar elevation angle—on the quality of pan-sharpening is also assessed. The results are synthesised into a ‘recipe’ for optimising the accuracy of vineyard segmentation, which can provide a guide to others aiming to implement or improve automated crop detection and classification.

The classical method of aquaculture in Iraq employed Cyprinus carpio L. (Common carp) as monoculture or as predominat species togather with grass carp and silver carp. In the present study monoculture of grass carp was performed. Three - hundreds fingerlings of grass carp of 1.5 g weight were cultured in about 600 m2 eartheen pond from 20th of June till 9th of November, 1997. For the first two months of the experiment, no additional feed was added to what had been available in the pond. For the rest of the culture period, 1773 kg of five species of plants were utilized. They were included 91 kg of Phargmites australis, 972 kg of Paspalim sp., 423 kg of Medicago sativa, 171 kg of Ceratophyllum demersum and 116 kg of Paspalum Paspaloides. In addition to that a total of 150 kg of manure was used as a fertilizer in three occasions. At the end of the experiment the average weight of the fishes was 498 gm ranged from 370 gm to 980 gm. Further study was commence where 300 fingerlings of grass carp weighting 34 gm as an average were cultured together with 50 fingerlings of silver carp (average weight 92 gm). The experiment January 1998. For the first two months of experiment the fishes didn't consume began in additional food probably due to the low temperature of water during this period.

Not so long ago, defining green energy was generally straightforward: renewables. It may not have been quite that simple, but the development of agreed-upon definitions based on science has become much more complex and contentious, even within the past year. It’s not just a highbrow debate about semantics. The standardization of criteria or a widely accepted taxonomy is critical as the focus increases on not only greenwashing, but on the actual processes and technologies enabling what were thought of as at least “greener” energy. The hammering out of definitions is needed to keep the energy transition moving forward globally. This scrutiny affects the options for companies seeking alternatives in carbon markets where the price of permits for emitting a tonne of CO2 is escalating. In early February, the price of CO2 permits in the EU reached a record high above 96 Euros ($109)/tonne CO2. Reuters reported that the carbon price has risen more than 200% since the start of 2021, partly due to high natural gas prices and the switch made to coal by some power generators. This resulted in higher emissions and increased the demand for permits. In January, the EU Platform on Sustainable Finance, comprising members from utilities, banks, nongovernmental organizations, and corporations, rejected the EU Commission’s draft sustainable finance rules which proposed labeling nuclear power and natural gas as green transition fuels. Nuclear projects permitted until 2045 were to be classified as green, but only if countries can safely dispose of the radioactive waste. Gas was to be included until 2030 with emissions thresholds specified. The EU Platform concluded that even if a gas plant stays under the emissions threshold, it “is not green at any point in its life.” Nuclear energy was acknowledged as already being part of the transitioning energy system and having near to zero greenhouse-gas emissions, but it would not meet the taxonomy’s requirement to “do not significant harm” to the environment because of the toxic waste that cannot be recycled or reused. The EU Commission’s taxonomy will be sent to the European Parliament and Council for review. Blue hydrogen was questioned as a transition fuel by a peer-reviewed study published in August 2021 in Energy Science & Engineering by coauthors from Cornell and Stanford universities. They wrote, “Far from being low-carbon, greenhouse-gas emissions from the production of blue hydrogen are quite high, particularly due to the release of fugitive methane. … Perhaps surprisingly, the greenhouse-gas footprint of blue hydrogen is more than 20% greater than burning natural gas or coal for heat and some 60% greater than burning diesel oil for heat, again with our default assumptions.” They added, “Our analysis assumes that captured carbon dioxide can be stored indefinitely, an optimistic and unproven assumption. Even if true though, the use of blue hydrogen appears difficult to justify on climate grounds.” In a study published last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison combined econometric analyses, land use observations, and biophysical models to estimate the realized effects of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) mandate to partially replace petroleum-based fuels with biofuels. They found that the RFS increased corn prices by 30% and the prices of other crops by 20%, which, in turn, expanded US corn cultivation by 8.7% and total cropland by 2.4% in the years following the policy’s enactment (2008 to 2016). “These changes increased annual nationwide fertilizer use by 3 to 8%, increased water-quality degradants by 3 to 5%, and caused enough domestic land use change emissions such that the carbon intensity of corn ethanol produced under the RFS is no less than gasoline and likely at least 24% higher. These tradeoffs must be weighed alongside the benefits of biofuels as decision makers consider the future of renewable energy policies and the potential for fuels like corn ethanol to meet climate mitigation goals.” The move toward energy transition has been pivotal for our industry and many others. It could be argued that no country, business, or individual will remain unaffected by the changes in progress and yet to come. “Transition” is defined as “the process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another.” And this process will take time, effort, technology, buy-in, scientific study and verification … and consensus, which may be the most challenging piece of all. A significant announcement demonstrating the application and acceptance of a scientific taxonomy was Santos Ltd.’s recent booking of 100 million metric tons of CO2 storage capacity in the Cooper Basin in South Australia. The company believes it represents the industry’s first-ever booking to be made under SPE’s CO2 Storage Resource Management System.

Conventional agriculture currently relies on the intensive and expansive growth of a small number of monocultures, this is both risky for food security and is causing substantial environmental degradation. Crops are typically grown far from their native origins, enduring climates, pests, and diseases that they have little evolutionary adaptation to. As a result, farming practices involve modifying the environment to suit the crop, often via practices including vegetation clearing, drainage, irrigation, tilling, and the application of fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. One avenue for improvement, however, is the diversification of monoculture agricultural systems with traditional foods native to the area. Native foods benefit from evolutionary history, enabling adaptation to local environmental conditions, reducing the need for environmental modifications and external inputs. Traditional use of native foods in Australia has a rich history, yet the commercial production of native foods remains small compared with conventional crops, such as wheat, barley and sugarcane. Identifying what native crops can grow where would be a first step in scoping potential native food industries and supporting farmers seeking to diversify their cropping. In this study, I modeled the potentially suitable distributions of 177 native food and forage species across Australia, given their climate and soil preferences. The coastal areas of Queensland's wet tropics, south-east Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria were predicted to support the greatest diversity of native food and forage species (as high 80–120 species). These areas also correspond to the nation's most agriculturally intensive areas, including much of the Murray-Darling Basin, suggesting high potential for the diversification of existing intensive monocultures. Native crops with the most expansive potential distribution include Acacia trees, Maloga bean, bush plum, Emu apple, native millet, and bush tomatoes, with these crops largely being tolerant of vast areas of semi-arid conditions. In addition to greater food security, if diverse native cropping results in greater ecosystem service provisioning, through carbon storage, reduced water usage, reduced nutrient runoff, or greater habitat provision, then payment for ecosystem service schemes could also provide supplemental farm income.

AbstractFactors affecting fertilizer decisions made by grain growers are changing in the context of changing climatic conditions and growing volatility in global fertilizer and grain markets. To ensure sustainable development of grain industries in light of this uncertainty, research, development, extension, and adoption activities associated with growers’ fertilizer decisions need to be focused on factors to which they are most sensitive. The aim of this paper is to understand the factors that have the greatest influence on grain producer’s fertilizer strategies, how these factors have changed over recent years, and what is the relative importance of agronomic, socioeconomic, and logistical factors affecting these strategies. A telephone survey of 425 grain-growing businesses in Western Australia was conducted, and survey results were analyzed statistically. We show for the first time that grain growers’ fertilizer decisions are most sensitive to agronomic factors (especially the amount and distribution of rainfall). Logistic factors (such as difficulties fertilizing increasing areas in short periods of time) are growing in influence as farm size, cropping areas, and the number of fertilizer applications within seasons increase. Fertilizer decisions have become less sensitive to socioeconomic factors over the last 10 to 15 years. To ensure sustainable development of grain production, research through to adoption activities should focus on agronomic issues (such as seasonal forecasting) and logistic issues (such as improving planning, organizational, and technical capacity for developing and implementing fertilizer strategies).

AbstractMarine microalgae have received much attention as a sustainable source of the two health beneficial omega-3-fatty acids docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, C22:6) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, C20:5). However, photoautotrophic monocultures of microalgae can only produce either DHA or EPA enriched biomass. An alternative may be the photoautotrophic co-cultivation of Tisochrysis lutea as DHA-producer with Microchloropsis salina for simultaneous EPA production to obtain EPA- and DHA-rich microalgae biomass in a nutritionally balanced ratio. Photoautotrophic co-cultivation processes of T. lutea and M. salina were studied, applying scalable and fully controlled lab-scale gas-lift flat-plate photobioreactors with LED illumination for dynamic climate simulation of a repeated sunny summer day in Australia [day–night cycles of incident light (PAR) and temperature]. Monocultures of both marine microalgae were used as reference batch processes. Differences in the autofluorescence of both microalgae enabled the individual measurement, of cell distributions in co-culture, by flow cytometry. The co-cultivation of T. lutea and M. salina in artificial sea water with an inoculation ratio of 1:3 resulted in a balanced biomass production of both microalgae simultaneously with a DHA:EPA ratio of almost 1:1 (26 mgDHA gCDW−1, and 23 mgEPA gCDW−1, respectively) at harvest after depletion of the initially added fertilizer. Surprisingly, more microalgae biomass was produced within 8 days in co-cultivation with an increase in the cell dry weight (CDW) concentration by 31%, compared to the monocultures with the same amount of light and fertilizer. What is more, DHA-content of the microalgae biomass was enhanced by 33% in the co-culture, whereas EPA-content remained unchanged compared to the monocultures. Graphical Abstract

Introduction Eating is one of the most quintessential activities of human life. Because of this primacy, eating is, as food anthropologist Sidney Mintz has observed, “not merely a biological activity, but a vibrantly cultural activity as well” (48). This article posits that the current awareness of climate change in the Western world is animating such cultural activity as the Slow Food movement and is, as a result, stimulating what could be seen as an evolutionary change in popular foodways. Moreover, this paper suggests that, in line with modelling provided by the Slow Food example, an increased awareness of the connections of climate change to the social injustices of food production might better drive social change in such areas. This discussion begins by proposing that contemporary foodways—defined as “not only what is eaten by a particular group of people but also the variety of customs, beliefs and practices surrounding the production, preparation and presentation of food” (Davey 182)—are changing in the West in relation to current concerns about climate change. Such modification has a long history. Since long before the inception of modern Homo sapiens, natural climate change has been a crucial element driving hominidae evolution, both biologically and culturally in terms of social organisation and behaviours. Macroevolutionary theory suggests evolution can dramatically accelerate in response to rapid shifts in an organism’s environment, followed by slow to long periods of stasis once a new level of sustainability has been achieved (Gould and Eldredge). There is evidence that ancient climate change has also dramatically affected the rate and course of cultural evolution. Recent work suggests that the end of the last ice age drove the cultural innovation of animal and plant domestication in the Middle East (Zeder), not only due to warmer temperatures and increased rainfall, but also to a higher level of atmospheric carbon dioxide which made agriculture increasingly viable (McCorriston and Hole, cited in Zeder). Megadroughts during the Paleolithic might well have been stimulating factors behind the migration of hominid populations out of Africa and across Asia (Scholz et al). Thus, it is hardly surprising that modern anthropogenically induced global warming—in all its’ climate altering manifestations—may be driving a new wave of cultural change and even evolution in the West as we seek a sustainable homeostatic equilibrium with the environment of the future. In 1962, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring exposed some of the threats that modern industrial agriculture poses to environmental sustainability. This prompted a public debate from which the modern environmental movement arose and, with it, an expanding awareness and attendant anxiety about the safety and nutritional quality of contemporary foods, especially those that are grown with chemical pesticides and fertilizers and/or are highly processed. This environmental consciousness led to some modification in eating habits, manifest by some embracing wholefood and vegetarian dietary regimes (or elements of them). Most recently, a widespread awareness of climate change has forced rapid change in contemporary Western foodways, while in other climate related areas of socio-political and economic significance such as energy production and usage, there is little evidence of real acceleration of change. Ongoing research into the effects of this expanding environmental consciousness continues in various disciplinary contexts such as geography (Eshel and Martin) and health (McMichael et al). In food studies, Vileisis has proposed that the 1970s environmental movement’s challenge to the polluting practices of industrial agri-food production, concurrent with the women’s movement (asserting women’s right to know about everything, including food production), has led to both cooks and eaters becoming increasingly knowledgeable about the links between agricultural production and consumer and environmental health, as well as the various social justice issues involved. As a direct result of such awareness, alternatives to the industrialised, global food system are now emerging (Kloppenberg et al.). The Slow Food (R)evolution The tenets of the Slow Food movement, now some two decades old, are today synergetic with the growing consternation about climate change. In 1983, Carlo Petrini formed the Italian non-profit food and wine association Arcigola and, in 1986, founded Slow Food as a response to the opening of a McDonalds in Rome. From these humble beginnings, which were then unashamedly positing a return to the food systems of the past, Slow Food has grown into a global organisation that has much more future focused objectives animating its challenges to the socio-cultural and environmental costs of industrial food. Slow Food does have some elements that could be classed as reactionary and, therefore, the opposite of evolutionary. In response to the increasing homogenisation of culinary habits around the world, for instance, Slow Food’s Foundation for Biodiversity has established the Ark of Taste, which expands upon the idea of a seed bank to preserve not only varieties of food but also local and artisanal culinary traditions. In this, the Ark aims to save foods and food products “threatened by industrial standardization, hygiene laws, the regulations of large-scale distribution and environmental damage” (SFFB). Slow Food International’s overarching goals and activities, however, extend far beyond the preservation of past foodways, extending to the sponsoring of events and activities that are attempting to create new cuisine narratives for contemporary consumers who have an appetite for such innovation. Such events as the Salone del Gusto (Salon of Taste) and Terra Madre (Mother Earth) held in Turin every two years, for example, while celebrating culinary traditions, also focus on contemporary artisanal foods and sustainable food production processes that incorporate the most current of agricultural knowledge and new technologies into this production. Attendees at these events are also driven by both an interest in tradition, and their own very current concerns with health, personal satisfaction and environmental sustainability, to change their consumer behavior through an expanded self-awareness of the consequences of their individual lifestyle choices. Such events have, in turn, inspired such events in other locations, moving Slow Food from local to global relevance, and affecting the intellectual evolution of foodway cultures far beyond its headquarters in Bra in Northern Italy. This includes in the developing world, where millions of farmers continue to follow many traditional agricultural practices by necessity. Slow Food Movement’s forward-looking values are codified in the International Commission on the Future of Food and Agriculture 2006 publication, Manifesto on the Future of Food. This calls for changes to the World Trade Organisation’s rules that promote the globalisation of agri-food production as a direct response to the “climate change [which] threatens to undermine the entire natural basis of ecologically benign agriculture and food preparation, bringing the likelihood of catastrophic outcomes in the near future” (ICFFA 8). It does not call, however, for a complete return to past methods. To further such foodway awareness and evolution, Petrini founded the University of Gastronomic Sciences at Slow Food’s headquarters in 2004. The university offers programs that are analogous with the Slow Food’s overall aim of forging sustainable partnerships between the best of old and new practice: to, in the organisation’s own words, “maintain an organic relationship between gastronomy and agricultural science” (UNISG). In 2004, Slow Food had over sixty thousand members in forty-five countries (Paxson 15), with major events now held each year in many of these countries and membership continuing to grow apace. One of the frequently cited successes of the Slow Food movement is in relation to the tomato. Until recently, supermarkets stocked only a few mass-produced hybrids. These cultivars were bred for their disease resistance, ease of handling, tolerance to artificial ripening techniques, and display consistency, rather than any culinary values such as taste, aroma, texture or variety. In contrast, the vine ripened, ‘farmer’s market’ tomato has become the symbol of an “eco-gastronomically” sustainable, local and humanistic system of food production (Jordan) which melds the best of the past practice with the most up-to-date knowledge regarding such farming matters as water conservation. Although the term ‘heirloom’ is widely used in relation to these tomatoes, there is a distinctively contemporary edge to the way they are produced and consumed (Jordan), and they are, along with other organic and local produce, increasingly available in even the largest supermarket chains. Instead of a wholesale embrace of the past, it is the connection to, and the maintenance of that connection with, the processes of production and, hence, to the environment as a whole, which is the animating premise of the Slow Food movement. ‘Slow’ thus creates a gestalt in which individuals integrate their lifestyles with all levels of the food production cycle and, hence to the environment and, importantly, the inherently related social justice issues. ‘Slow’ approaches emphasise how the accelerated pace of contemporary life has weakened these connections, while offering a path to the restoration of a sense of connectivity to the full cycle of life and its relation to place, nature and climate. In this, the Slow path demands that every consumer takes responsibility for all components of his/her existence—a responsibility that includes becoming cognisant of the full story behind each of the products that are consumed in that life. The Slow movement is not, however, a regime of abstention or self-denial. Instead, the changes in lifestyle necessary to support responsible sustainability, and the sensual and aesthetic pleasure inherent in such a lifestyle, exist in a mutually reinforcing relationship (Pietrykowski 2004). This positive feedback loop enhances the potential for promoting real and long-term evolution in social and cultural behaviour. Indeed, the Slow zeitgeist now informs many areas of contemporary culture, with Slow Travel, Homes, Design, Management, Leadership and Education, and even Slow Email, Exercise, Shopping and Sex attracting adherents. Mainstreaming Concern with Ethical Food Production The role of the media in “forming our consciousness—what we think, how we think, and what we think about” (Cunningham and Turner 12)—is self-evident. It is, therefore, revealing in relation to the above outlined changes that even the most functional cookbooks and cookery magazines (those dedicated to practical information such as recipes and instructional technique) in Western countries such as the USA, UK and Australian are increasingly reflecting and promoting an awareness of ethical food production as part of this cultural change in food habits. While such texts have largely been considered as useful but socio-politically relatively banal publications, they are beginning to be recognised as a valid source of historical and cultural information (Nussel). Cookbooks and cookery magazines commonly include discussion of a surprising range of issues around food production and consumption including sustainable and ethical agricultural methods, biodiversity, genetic modification and food miles. In this context, they indicate how rapidly the recent evolution of foodways has been absorbed into mainstream practice. Much of such food related media content is, at the same time, closely identified with celebrity mass marketing and embodied in the television chef with his or her range of branded products including their syndicated articles and cookbooks. This commercial symbiosis makes each such cuisine-related article in a food or women’s magazine or cookbook, in essence, an advertorial for a celebrity chef and their named products. Yet, at the same time, a number of these mass media food celebrities are raising public discussion that is leading to consequent action around important issues linked to climate change, social justice and the environment. An example is Jamie Oliver’s efforts to influence public behaviour and government policy, a number of which have gained considerable traction. Oliver’s 2004 exposure of the poor quality of school lunches in Britain (see Jamie’s School Dinners), for instance, caused public outrage and pressured the British government to commit considerable extra funding to these programs. A recent study by Essex University has, moreover, found that the academic performance of 11-year-old pupils eating Oliver’s meals improved, while absenteeism fell by 15 per cent (Khan). Oliver’s exposé of the conditions of battery raised hens in 2007 and 2008 (see Fowl Dinners) resulted in increased sales of free-range poultry, decreased sales of factory-farmed chickens across the UK, and complaints that free-range chicken sales were limited by supply. Oliver encouraged viewers to lobby their local councils, and as a result, a number banned battery hen eggs from schools, care homes, town halls and workplace cafeterias (see, for example, LDP). The popular penetration of these ideas needs to be understood in a historical context where industrialised poultry farming has been an issue in Britain since at least 1848 when it was one of the contributing factors to the establishment of the RSPCA (Freeman). A century after Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle (published in 1906) exposed the realities of the slaughterhouse, and several decades since Peter Singer’s landmark Animal Liberation (1975) and Tom Regan’s The Case for Animal Rights (1983) posited the immorality of the mistreatment of animals in food production, it could be suggested that Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth (released in 2006) added considerably to the recent concern regarding the ethics of industrial agriculture. Consciousness-raising bestselling books such as Jim Mason and Peter Singer’s The Ethics of What We Eat and Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma (both published in 2006), do indeed ‘close the loop’ in this way in their discussions, by concluding that intensive food production methods used since the 1950s are not only inhumane and damage public health, but are also damaging an environment under pressure from climate change. In comparison, the use of forced labour and human trafficking in food production has attracted far less mainstream media, celebrity or public attention. It could be posited that this is, in part, because no direct relationship to the environment and climate change and, therefore, direct link to our own existence in the West, has been popularised. Kevin Bales, who has been described as a modern abolitionist, estimates that there are currently more than 27 million people living in conditions of slavery and exploitation against their wills—twice as many as during the 350-year long trans-Atlantic slave trade. Bales also chillingly reveals that, worldwide, the number of slaves is increasing, with contemporary individuals so inexpensive to purchase in relation to the value of their production that they are disposable once the slaveholder has used them. Alongside sex slavery, many other prevalent examples of contemporary slavery are concerned with food production (Weissbrodt et al; Miers). Bales and Soodalter, for example, describe how across Asia and Africa, adults and children are enslaved to catch and process fish and shellfish for both human consumption and cat food. Other campaigners have similarly exposed how the cocoa in chocolate is largely produced by child slave labour on the Ivory Coast (Chalke; Off), and how considerable amounts of exported sugar, cereals and other crops are slave-produced in certain countries. In 2003, some 32 per cent of US shoppers identified themselves as LOHAS “lifestyles of health and sustainability” consumers, who were, they said, willing to spend more for products that reflected not only ecological, but also social justice responsibility (McLaughlin). Research also confirms that “the pursuit of social objectives … can in fact furnish an organization with the competitive resources to develop effective marketing strategies”, with Doherty and Meehan showing how “social and ethical credibility” are now viable bases of differentiation and competitive positioning in mainstream consumer markets (311, 303). In line with this recognition, Fair Trade Certified goods are now available in British, European, US and, to a lesser extent, Australian supermarkets, and a number of global chains including Dunkin’ Donuts, McDonalds, Starbucks and Virgin airlines utilise Fair Trade coffee and teas in all, or parts of, their operations. Fair Trade Certification indicates that farmers receive a higher than commodity price for their products, workers have the right to organise, men and women receive equal wages, and no child labour is utilised in the production process (McLaughlin). Yet, despite some Western consumers reporting such issues having an impact upon their purchasing decisions, social justice has not become a significant issue of concern for most. The popular cookery publications discussed above devote little space to Fair Trade product marketing, much of which is confined to supermarket-produced adverzines promoting the Fair Trade products they stock, and international celebrity chefs have yet to focus attention on this issue. In Australia, discussion of contemporary slavery in the press is sparse, having surfaced in 2000-2001, prompted by UNICEF campaigns against child labour, and in 2007 and 2008 with the visit of a series of high profile anti-slavery campaigners (including Bales) to the region. The public awareness of food produced by forced labour and the troubling issue of human enslavement in general is still far below the level that climate change and ecological issues have achieved thus far in driving foodway evolution. This may change, however, if a ‘Slow’-inflected connection can be made between Western lifestyles and the plight of peoples hidden from our daily existence, but contributing daily to them. Concluding Remarks At this time of accelerating techno-cultural evolution, due in part to the pressures of climate change, it is the creative potential that human conscious awareness brings to bear on these challenges that is most valuable. Today, as in the caves at Lascaux, humanity is evolving new images and narratives to provide rational solutions to emergent challenges. As an example of this, new foodways and ways of thinking about them are beginning to evolve in response to the perceived problems of climate change. The current conscious transformation of food habits by some in the West might be, therefore, in James Lovelock’s terms, a moment of “revolutionary punctuation” (178), whereby rapid cultural adaption is being induced by the growing public awareness of impending crisis. It remains to be seen whether other urgent human problems can be similarly and creatively embraced, and whether this trend can spread to offer global solutions to them. References An Inconvenient Truth. Dir. Davis Guggenheim. Lawrence Bender Productions, 2006. Bales, Kevin. Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004 (first published 1999). Bales, Kevin, and Ron Soodalter. The Slave Next Door: Human Trafficking and Slavery in America Today. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009. Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962. Chalke, Steve. “Unfinished Business: The Sinister Story behind Chocolate.” The Age 18 Sep. 2007: 11. Cunningham, Stuart, and Graeme Turner. The Media and Communications in Australia Today. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin, 2002. Davey, Gwenda Beed. “Foodways.” The Oxford Companion to Australian Folklore. Ed. Gwenda Beed Davey, and Graham Seal. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1993. 182–85. Doherty, Bob, and John Meehan. “Competing on Social Resources: The Case of the Day Chocolate Company in the UK Confectionery Sector.” Journal of Strategic Marketing 14.4 (2006): 299–313. Eshel, Gidon, and Pamela A. Martin. “Diet, Energy, and Global Warming.” Earth Interactions 10, paper 9 (2006): 1–17. Fowl Dinners. Exec. Prod. Nick Curwin and Zoe Collins. Dragonfly Film and Television Productions and Fresh One Productions, 2008. Freeman, Sarah. Mutton and Oysters: The Victorians and Their Food. London: Gollancz, 1989. Gould, S. J., and N. Eldredge. “Punctuated Equilibrium Comes of Age.” Nature 366 (1993): 223–27. (ICFFA) International Commission on the Future of Food and Agriculture. Manifesto on the Future of Food. Florence, Italy: Agenzia Regionale per lo Sviluppo e l’Innovazione nel Settore Agricolo Forestale and Regione Toscana, 2006. Jamie’s School Dinners. Dir. Guy Gilbert. Fresh One Productions, 2005. Jordan, Jennifer A. “The Heirloom Tomato as Cultural Object: Investigating Taste and Space.” Sociologia Ruralis 47.1 (2007): 20-41. Khan, Urmee. “Jamie Oliver’s School Dinners Improve Exam Results, Report Finds.” Telegraph 1 Feb. 2009. 24 Aug. 2009 < http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/4423132/Jamie-Olivers-school-dinners-improve-exam-results-report-finds.html >. Kloppenberg, Jack, Jr, Sharon Lezberg, Kathryn de Master, G. W. Stevenson, and John Henrickson. ‘Tasting Food, Tasting Sustainability: Defining the Attributes of an Alternative Food System with Competent, Ordinary People.” Human Organisation 59.2 (Jul. 2000): 177–86. (LDP) Liverpool Daily Post. “Battery Farm Eggs Banned from Schools and Care Homes.” Liverpool Daily Post 12 Jan. 2008. 24 Aug. 2009 < http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2008/01/12/battery-farm-eggs-banned-from-schools-and-care-homes-64375-20342259 >. Lovelock, James. The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of Our Living Earth. New York: Bantam, 1990 (first published 1988). Mason, Jim, and Peter Singer. The Ethics of What We Eat. Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2006. McLaughlin, Katy. “Is Your Grocery List Politically Correct? Food World’s New Buzzword Is ‘Sustainable’ Products.” The Wall Street Journal 17 Feb. 2004. 29 Aug. 2009 < http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/fairtrade/coffee/1732.html >. McMichael, Anthony J, John W Powles, Colin D Butler, and Ricardo Uauy. “Food, Livestock Production, Energy, Climate Change, and Health.” The Lancet 370 (6 Oct. 2007): 1253–63. Miers, Suzanne. “Contemporary Slavery”. A Historical Guide to World Slavery. Ed. Seymour Drescher, and Stanley L. Engerman. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Mintz, Sidney W. Tasting Food, Tasting Freedom: Excursions into Eating, Culture, and the Past. Boston: Beacon Press, 1994. Nussel, Jill. “Heating Up the Sources: Using Community Cookbooks in Historical Inquiry.” History Compass 4/5 (2006): 956–61. Off, Carol. Bitter Chocolate: Investigating the Dark Side of the World's Most Seductive Sweet. St Lucia: U of Queensland P, 2008. Paxson, Heather. “Slow Food in a Fat Society: Satisfying Ethical Appetites.” Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture 5.1 (2005): 14–18. Pietrykowski, Bruce. “You Are What You Eat: The Social Economy of the Slow Food Movement.” Review of Social Economy 62:3 (2004): 307–21. Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York: The Penguin Press, 2006. Regan, Tom. The Case for Animal Rights. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983. Scholz, Christopher A., Thomas C. Johnson, Andrew S. Cohen, John W. King, John A. Peck, Jonathan T. Overpeck, Michael R. Talbot, Erik T. Brown, Leonard Kalindekafe, Philip Y. O. Amoako, Robert P. Lyons, Timothy M. Shanahan, Isla S. Castañeda, Clifford W. Heil, Steven L. Forman, Lanny R. McHargue, Kristina R. Beuning, Jeanette Gomez, and James Pierson. “East African Megadroughts between 135 and 75 Thousand Years Ago and Bearing on Early-modern Human Origins.” PNAS: Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences of the United States of America 104.42 (16 Oct. 2007): 16416–21. Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle. New York: Doubleday, Jabber & Company, 1906. Singer, Peter. Animal Liberation. New York: HarperCollins, 1975. (SFFB) Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity. “Ark of Taste.” 2009. 24 Aug. 2009 < http://www.fondazioneslowfood.it/eng/arca/lista.lasso >. (UNISG) University of Gastronomic Sciences. “Who We Are.” 2009. 24 Aug. 2009 < http://www.unisg.it/eng/chisiamo.php >. Vileisis, Ann. Kitchen Literacy: How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes From and Why We Need to Get It Back. Washington: Island Press/Shearwater Books, 2008. Weissbrodt, David, and Anti-Slavery International. Abolishing Slavery and its Contemporary Forms. New York and Geneva: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations, 2002. Zeder, Melinda A. “The Neolithic Macro-(R)evolution: Macroevolutionary Theory and the Study of Culture Change.” Journal of Archaeological Research 17 (2009): 1–63.

A same-but-different dichotomy has recently been encapsulated within the US Food and Drug Administration’s ill-defined concept of “substantial equivalence” (USFDA, FDA). By invoking this concept the genetically modified organism (GMO) industry has escaped the rigors of safety testing that might otherwise apply. The curious concept of “substantial equivalence” grants a presumption of safety to GMO food. This presumption has yet to be earned, and has been used to constrain labelling of both GMO and non-GMO food. It is an idea that well serves corporatism. It enables the claim of difference to secure patent protection, while upholding the contrary claim of sameness to avoid labelling and safety scrutiny. It offers the best of both worlds for corporate food entrepreneurs, and delivers the worst of both worlds to consumers. The term “substantial equivalence” has established its currency within the GMO discourse. As the opportunities for patenting food technologies expand, the GMO recruitment of this concept will likely be a dress rehearsal for the developing debates on the labelling and testing of other techno-foods – including nano-foods and clone-foods. “Substantial Equivalence” “Are the Seven Commandments the same as they used to be, Benjamin?” asks Clover in George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”. By way of response, Benjamin “read out to her what was written on the wall. There was nothing there now except a single Commandment. It ran: ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS”. After this reductionist revelation, further novel and curious events at Manor Farm, “did not seem strange” (Orwell, ch. X). Equality is a concept at the very core of mathematics, but beyond the domain of logic, equality becomes a hotly contested notion – and the domain of food is no exception. A novel food has a regulatory advantage if it can claim to be the same as an established food – a food that has proven its worth over centuries, perhaps even millennia – and thus does not trigger new, perhaps costly and onerous, testing, compliance, and even new and burdensome regulations. On the other hand, such a novel food has an intellectual property (IP) advantage only in terms of its difference. And thus there is an entrenched dissonance for newly technologised foods, between claiming sameness, and claiming difference. The same/different dilemma is erased, so some would have it, by appeal to the curious new dualist doctrine of “substantial equivalence” whereby sameness and difference are claimed simultaneously, thereby creating a win/win for corporatism, and a loss/loss for consumerism. This ground has been pioneered, and to some extent conquered, by the GMO industry. The conquest has ramifications for other cryptic food technologies, that is technologies that are invisible to the consumer and that are not evident to the consumer other than via labelling. Cryptic technologies pertaining to food include GMOs, pesticides, hormone treatments, irradiation and, most recently, manufactured nano-particles introduced into the food production and delivery stream. Genetic modification of plants was reported as early as 1984 by Horsch et al. The case of Diamond v. Chakrabarty resulted in a US Supreme Court decision that upheld the prior decision of the US Court of Customs and Patent Appeal that “the fact that micro-organisms are alive is without legal significance for purposes of the patent law”, and ruled that the “respondent’s micro-organism plainly qualifies as patentable subject matter”. This was a majority decision of nine judges, with four judges dissenting (Burger). It was this Chakrabarty judgement that has seriously opened the Pandora’s box of GMOs because patenting rights makes GMOs an attractive corporate proposition by offering potentially unique monopoly rights over food. The rear guard action against GMOs has most often focussed on health repercussions (Smith, Genetic), food security issues, and also the potential for corporate malfeasance to hide behind a cloak of secrecy citing commercial confidentiality (Smith, Seeds). Others have tilted at the foundational plank on which the economics of the GMO industry sits: “I suggest that the main concern is that we do not want a single molecule of anything we eat to contribute to, or be patented and owned by, a reckless, ruthless chemical organisation” (Grist 22). The GMO industry exhibits bipolar behaviour, invoking the concept of “substantial difference” to claim patent rights by way of “novelty”, and then claiming “substantial equivalence” when dealing with other regulatory authorities including food, drug and pesticide agencies; a case of “having their cake and eating it too” (Engdahl 8). This is a clever slight-of-rhetoric, laying claim to the best of both worlds for corporations, and the worst of both worlds for consumers. Corporations achieve patent protection and no concomitant specific regulatory oversight; while consumers pay the cost of patent monopolization, and are not necessarily apprised, by way of labelling or otherwise, that they are purchasing and eating GMOs, and thereby financing the GMO industry. The lemma of “substantial equivalence” does not bear close scrutiny. It is a fuzzy concept that lacks a tight testable definition. It is exactly this fuzziness that allows lots of wriggle room to keep GMOs out of rigorous testing regimes. Millstone et al. argue that “substantial equivalence is a pseudo-scientific concept because it is a commercial and political judgement masquerading as if it is scientific. It is moreover, inherently anti-scientific because it was created primarily to provide an excuse for not requiring biochemical or toxicological tests. It therefore serves to discourage and inhibit informative scientific research” (526). “Substantial equivalence” grants GMOs the benefit of the doubt regarding safety, and thereby leaves unexamined the ramifications for human consumer health, for farm labourer and food-processor health, for the welfare of farm animals fed a diet of GMO grain, and for the well-being of the ecosystem, both in general and in its particularities. “Substantial equivalence” was introduced into the food discourse by an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report: “safety evaluation of foods derived by modern biotechnology: concepts and principles”. It is from this document that the ongoing mantra of assumed safety of GMOs derives: “modern biotechnology … does not inherently lead to foods that are less safe … . Therefore evaluation of foods and food components obtained from organisms developed by the application of the newer techniques does not necessitate a fundamental change in established principles, nor does it require a different standard of safety” (OECD, “Safety” 10). This was at the time, and remains, an act of faith, a pro-corporatist and a post-cautionary approach. The OECD motto reveals where their priorities lean: “for a better world economy” (OECD, “Better”). The term “substantial equivalence” was preceded by the 1992 USFDA concept of “substantial similarity” (Levidow, Murphy and Carr) and was adopted from a prior usage by the US Food and Drug Agency (USFDA) where it was used pertaining to medical devices (Miller). Even GMO proponents accept that “Substantial equivalence is not intended to be a scientific formulation; it is a conceptual tool for food producers and government regulators” (Miller 1043). And there’s the rub – there is no scientific definition of “substantial equivalence”, no scientific test of proof of concept, and nor is there likely to be, since this is a ‘spinmeister’ term. And yet this is the cornerstone on which rests the presumption of safety of GMOs. Absence of evidence is taken to be evidence of absence. History suggests that this is a fraught presumption. By way of contrast, the patenting of GMOs depends on the antithesis of assumed ‘sameness’. Patenting rests on proven, scrutinised, challengeable and robust tests of difference and novelty. Lightfoot et al. report that transgenic plants exhibit “unexpected changes [that] challenge the usual assumptions of GMO equivalence and suggest genomic, proteomic and metanomic characterization of transgenics is advisable” (1). GMO Milk and Contested Labelling Pesticide company Monsanto markets the genetically engineered hormone rBST (recombinant Bovine Somatotropin; also known as: rbST; rBGH, recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone; and the brand name Prosilac) to dairy farmers who inject it into their cows to increase milk production. This product is not approved for use in many jurisdictions, including Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Japan. Even Monsanto accepts that rBST leads to mastitis (inflammation and pus in the udder) and other “cow health problems”, however, it maintains that “these problems did not occur at rates that would prohibit the use of Prosilac” (Monsanto). A European Union study identified an extensive list of health concerns of rBST use (European Commission). The US Dairy Export Council however entertain no doubt. In their background document they ask “is milk from cows treated with rBST safe?” and answer “Absolutely” (USDEC). Meanwhile, Monsanto’s website raises and answers the question: “Is the milk from cows treated with rbST any different from milk from untreated cows? No” (Monsanto). Injecting cows with genetically modified hormones to boost their milk production remains a contested practice, banned in many countries. It is the claimed equivalence that has kept consumers of US dairy products in the dark, shielded rBST dairy farmers from having to declare that their milk production is GMO-enhanced, and has inhibited non-GMO producers from declaring their milk as non-GMO, non rBST, or not hormone enhanced. This is a battle that has simmered, and sometimes raged, for a decade in the US. Finally there is a modest victory for consumers: the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA) requires all labels used on milk products to be approved in advance by the department. The standard issued in October 2007 (PDA, “Standards”) signalled to producers that any milk labels claiming rBST-free status would be rejected. This advice was rescinded in January 2008 with new, specific, department-approved textual constructions allowed, and ensuring that any “no rBST” style claim was paired with a PDA-prescribed disclaimer (PDA, “Revised Standards”). However, parsimonious labelling is prohibited: No labeling may contain references such as ‘No Hormones’, ‘Hormone Free’, ‘Free of Hormones’, ‘No BST’, ‘Free of BST’, ‘BST Free’,’No added BST’, or any statement which indicates, implies or could be construed to mean that no natural bovine somatotropin (BST) or synthetic bovine somatotropin (rBST) are contained in or added to the product. (PDA, “Revised Standards” 3) Difference claims are prohibited: In no instance shall any label state or imply that milk from cows not treated with recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST, rbST, RBST or rbst) differs in composition from milk or products made with milk from treated cows, or that rBST is not contained in or added to the product. If a product is represented as, or intended to be represented to consumers as, containing or produced from milk from cows not treated with rBST any labeling information must convey only a difference in farming practices or dairy herd management methods. (PDA, “Revised Standards” 3) The PDA-approved labelling text for non-GMO dairy farmers is specified as follows: ‘From cows not treated with rBST. No significant difference has been shown between milk derived from rBST-treated and non-rBST-treated cows’ or a substantial equivalent. Hereinafter, the first sentence shall be referred to as the ‘Claim’, and the second sentence shall be referred to as the ‘Disclaimer’. (PDA, “Revised Standards” 4) It is onto the non-GMO dairy farmer alone, that the costs of compliance fall. These costs include label preparation and approval, proving non-usage of GMOs, and of creating and maintaining an audit trail. In nearby Ohio a similar consumer versus corporatist pantomime is playing out. This time with the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) calling the shots, and again serving the GMO industry. The ODA prescribed text allowed to non-GMO dairy farmers is “from cows not supplemented with rbST” and this is to be conjoined with the mandatory disclaimer “no significant difference has been shown between milk derived from rbST-supplemented and non-rbST supplemented cows” (Curet). These are “emergency rules”: they apply for 90 days, and are proposed as permanent. Once again, the onus is on the non-GMO dairy farmers to document and prove their claims. GMO dairy farmers face no such governmental requirements, including no disclosure requirement, and thus an asymmetric regulatory impost is placed on the non-GMO farmer which opens up new opportunities for administrative demands and technocratic harassment. Levidow et al. argue, somewhat Eurocentrically, that from its 1990s adoption “as the basis for a harmonized science-based approach to risk assessment” (26) the concept of “substantial equivalence” has “been recast in at least three ways” (58). It is true that the GMO debate has evolved differently in the US and Europe, and with other jurisdictions usually adopting intermediate positions, yet the concept persists. Levidow et al. nominate their three recastings as: firstly an “implicit redefinition” by the appending of “extra phrases in official documents”; secondly, “it has been reinterpreted, as risk assessment processes have … required more evidence of safety than before, especially in Europe”; and thirdly, “it has been demoted in the European Union regulatory procedures so that it can no longer be used to justify the claim that a risk assessment is unnecessary” (58). Romeis et al. have proposed a decision tree approach to GMO risks based on cascading tiers of risk assessment. However what remains is that the defects of the concept of “substantial equivalence” persist. Schauzu identified that: such decisions are a matter of “opinion”; that there is “no clear definition of the term ‘substantial’”; that because genetic modification “is aimed at introducing new traits into organisms, the result will always be a different combination of genes and proteins”; and that “there is no general checklist that could be followed by those who are responsible for allowing a product to be placed on the market” (2). Benchmark for Further Food Novelties? The discourse, contestation, and debate about “substantial equivalence” have largely focussed on the introduction of GMOs into food production processes. GM can best be regarded as the test case, and proof of concept, for establishing “substantial equivalence” as a benchmark for evaluating new and forthcoming food technologies. This is of concern, because the concept of “substantial equivalence” is scientific hokum, and yet its persistence, even entrenchment, within regulatory agencies may be a harbinger of forthcoming same-but-different debates for nanotechnology and other future bioengineering. The appeal of “substantial equivalence” has been a brake on the creation of GMO-specific regulations and on rigorous GMO testing. The food nanotechnology industry can be expected to look to the precedent of the GMO debate to head off specific nano-regulations and nano-testing. As cloning becomes economically viable, then this may be another wave of food innovation that muddies the regulatory waters with the confused – and ultimately self-contradictory – concept of “substantial equivalence”. Nanotechnology engineers particles in the size range 1 to 100 nanometres – a nanometre is one billionth of a metre. This is interesting for manufacturers because at this size chemicals behave differently, or as the Australian Office of Nanotechnology expresses it, “new functionalities are obtained” (AON). Globally, government expenditure on nanotechnology research reached US$4.6 billion in 2006 (Roco 3.12). While there are now many patents (ETC Group; Roco), regulation specific to nanoparticles is lacking (Bowman and Hodge; Miller and Senjen). The USFDA advises that nano-manufacturers “must show a reasonable assurance of safety … or substantial equivalence” (FDA). A recent inventory of nano-products already on the market identified 580 products. Of these 11.4% were categorised as “Food and Beverage” (WWICS). This is at a time when public confidence in regulatory bodies is declining (HRA). In an Australian consumer survey on nanotechnology, 65% of respondents indicated they were concerned about “unknown and long term side effects”, and 71% agreed that it is important “to know if products are made with nanotechnology” (MARS 22). Cloned animals are currently more expensive to produce than traditional animal progeny. In the course of 678 pages, the USFDA Animal Cloning: A Draft Risk Assessment has not a single mention of “substantial equivalence”. However the Federation of Animal Science Societies (FASS) in its single page “Statement in Support of USFDA’s Risk Assessment Conclusion That Food from Cloned Animals Is Safe for Human Consumption” states that “FASS endorses the use of this comparative evaluation process as the foundation of establishing substantial equivalence of any food being evaluated. It must be emphasized that it is the food product itself that should be the focus of the evaluation rather than the technology used to generate cloned animals” (FASS 1). Contrary to the FASS derogation of the importance of process in food production, for consumers both the process and provenance of production is an important and integral aspect of a food product’s value and identity. Some consumers will legitimately insist that their Kalamata olives are from Greece, or their balsamic vinegar is from Modena. It was the British public’s growing awareness that their sugar was being produced by slave labour that enabled the boycotting of the product, and ultimately the outlawing of slavery (Hochschild). When consumers boycott Nestle, because of past or present marketing practices, or boycott produce of USA because of, for example, US foreign policy or animal welfare concerns, they are distinguishing the food based on the narrative of the food, the production process and/or production context which are a part of the identity of the food. Consumers attribute value to food based on production process and provenance information (Paull). Products produced by slave labour, by child labour, by political prisoners, by means of torture, theft, immoral, unethical or unsustainable practices are different from their alternatives. The process of production is a part of the identity of a product and consumers are increasingly interested in food narrative. It requires vigilance to ensure that these narratives are delivered with the product to the consumer, and are neither lost nor suppressed. Throughout the GM debate, the organic sector has successfully skirted the “substantial equivalence” debate by excluding GMOs from the certified organic food production process. This GMO-exclusion from the organic food stream is the one reprieve available to consumers worldwide who are keen to avoid GMOs in their diet. The organic industry carries the expectation of providing food produced without artificial pesticides and fertilizers, and by extension, without GMOs. Most recently, the Soil Association, the leading organic certifier in the UK, claims to be the first organisation in the world to exclude manufactured nonoparticles from their products (Soil Association). There has been the call that engineered nanoparticles be excluded from organic standards worldwide, given that there is no mandatory safety testing and no compulsory labelling in place (Paull and Lyons). The twisted rhetoric of oxymorons does not make the ideal foundation for policy. Setting food policy on the shifting sands of “substantial equivalence” seems foolhardy when we consider the potentially profound ramifications of globally mass marketing a dysfunctional food. If there is a 2×2 matrix of terms – “substantial equivalence”, substantial difference, insubstantial equivalence, insubstantial difference – while only one corner of this matrix is engaged for food policy, and while the elements remain matters of opinion rather than being testable by science, or by some other regime, then the public is the dupe, and potentially the victim. “Substantial equivalence” has served the GMO corporates well and the public poorly, and this asymmetry is slated to escalate if nano-food and clone-food are also folded into the “substantial equivalence” paradigm. Only in Orwellian Newspeak is war peace, or is same different. It is time to jettison the pseudo-scientific doctrine of “substantial equivalence”, as a convenient oxymoron, and embrace full disclosure of provenance, process and difference, so that consumers are not collateral in a continuing asymmetric knowledge war. References Australian Office of Nanotechnology (AON). 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