First commercially-grown BLACK TRUFFLES for KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) - Las primeras TRUFAS NEGRAS cultivadas comercialmente en KwaZulu-Natal (Sudáfrica)

The very first black Périgord truffle grown commercially in KwaZulu-Natal, a 97g specimen found on Max Bastard’s Willowdale Farm in the Kokstad area. Photo: Courtesy of Max Bastard 

There has been much excitement on Max Bastard’s Willowdale Farm near Kokstad in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), following the recent discovery of three black Périgord truffles (Tuber melanosporum). These were the first commercially-grown specimens in KZN.

The first-ever black Périgord truffle to be commercially-grown in South Africa was discovered on a farm near Dullstroom in Mpumalanga in August 2014. This was followed by a similar discovery on a Western Cape farm in August 2015. Bastard’s three truffles were produced in a 20 ha orchard of host trees inoculated with black Périgord truffle spores four-and-a-half years ago.

“Black Périgord truffles are prized for their unique, pungent, earthy aroma, and [are] utilised in the best kitchens and restaurants around the world. They are one of the most expensive culinary ingredients globally, fetching up to US$2,000/Kg (R30,700/Kg),” said Bastard.

Prof Alessandra Zambonelli of the University of Bologna in Italy, told Farmer’s Weekly when the first commercially-grown black truffle was discovered in South Africa, that successful commercial production could be achieved in this country if sufficient host tree orchards were planted. These host trees also needed to be of good quality, and the areas selected for truffle production had to be suitable.
Source: Lloyd Phillips (http://www.farmersweekly.co.za)

'Arctic Fuji', the next GMO APPLE - 'Arctic Fuji', la próxima MANZANA OGM

'Arctic Fuji' apple  (Courtesy Okanagan Specialty Fruits)

After 20 years of development, a Canadian company is expecting its first commercial crop of genetically modified apples in 2016 while awaiting approval to forge ahead with its third and latest variety, 'Arctic Fuji'. Okanagan Specialty Fruits plans to harvest and pack about 50 bins of Arctic Golden Delicious apples and plant its first Arctic Granny Smith apples this year. The Summerland, British Columbia, company develops and produces apples genetically modified to not turn brown when sliced.

Specialty Fruits received approval for Arctic Golden and Arctic Granny apples from food and plant health agencies in both countries early in 2015 and planted about 15 acres of Goldens in Washington, said Neal Carter, company president and founder. Those trees will yield a small crop this fall, while the company plans to plant significantly more acreage of both varieties in 2016, mostly in Washington, with increasing quantities in the following years in other states and Canada.

The company will test market the first apples from this year in a few select stores, but as it ramps up production, it will distribute to a variety of locations in both the U.S. and Canada, Carter said. Carter declined to say which growers, packers or retailers will be working with Arctic apples. At the same time, the firm expects U.S. approval sometime this year of its latest variety, the Arctic Fuji, with Canadian approval to follow within another year.

Arctic Fuji

Specialty Fruits applied for U.S. deregulation for the Fuji on Dec. 31, 2015, in the form of an extension to the documents of previously approved varieties. The process should move faster than the original application, filed with the U.S. authorities in 2010 and the year after in Canada. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service have regulatory oversight of biotechnology in America. In Canada, the two agencies involved are Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Once approvals are in place, the company may propagate and market the apples as if there was nothing different about them. “What that approval means is it’s treated like any other apple variety,” Carter said. At its laboratory in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Specialty Fruits alters the DNA of apples to silence an enzyme that causes apple flesh to brown when exposed to oxygen, such as when it’s sliced or bitten. Specialty Fruits plans to apply for approval for an Arctic Gala by the end of 2017, with other varieties to follow. The company also is seeking agreements to grow and market its Arctic apples in other countries, a lengthy process just as it is in North America. “The regulatory thing is quite onerous no matter where you are in the world,” Carter said.

In Mexico, the company is seeking a food safety assessment to ship Arctic apples in the country and slice them there, he said, while a group of Australians is discussing growing the apples with the company’s representatives. The company both plants its own orchards and contracts with outside growers. Either way, and no matter where the trees are planted, Okanagan Specialty Fruits will own the trees and apples, unlike the royalty arrangements that usually accompany club varieties, Carter said. Such a structure will give Specialty Fruits more control to prevent cross-pollination and other co-mingling of conventional fruit, one of the biggest objections to the controversial genetic techniques, Carter said.

So far, the company has contracted with two large, well-established growers, one in Washington, one in the Eastern U.S. Carter declined to specify the locations. Okanagan Specialty Fruits was purchased in April 2015 by Intrexon Corp., a biotechnology company based in Germantown, Maryland.

Source: Ross Courtney (http://www.goodfruit.com)

Dry weather speeds BLUEBERRY harvest - El tiempo seco acelera la cosecha de ARÁNDANO

Rabbiteye blueberries make up 80 to 90 percent of the Mississippi’s blueberry crop. Recent dry weather has made harvesting easier than normal. (Photo by MSU Extension Service/File)

The first half of June is usually a busy time for blueberry growers in Mississippi, and this year is no different, as recent dry conditions have expedited the crop’s harvest. A few scattered small-market “U-Picks” can be found in north and central portions of the state, but most of the commercial activity is happening south of Interstate 20, where rain has been in short supply lately. Wayne County boasts the highest blueberry production in the state. 

“The dry weather has accelerated the ripening but also made harvest easier than normal,” said Eric Stafne, an associate Extension and research professor in fruit crops with the Mississippi State University Extension Service and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station in Poplarville. “It’s been smooth sailing this year with no major worries about split berries or disease issues.” Amy Phelps, a Pearl River County grower, has grown blueberries commercially in the past but is operating a U-Pick farm this year after a tornado damaged some of her property in February. Despite the setback, she said this year’s crop was one of her best in 16 years.“Whenever the field is stressed by Mother Nature, whatever follows is always big,” Phelps said. “It’s almost like the field is expressing its desire to survive. What we have out there right now is beautiful, and we’ve had ideal picking conditions.”

The Mississippi Agricultural Statistics Service reported 89 percent of the blueberry crop is in good to excellent condition for the week ending May 29. Mandy McCormick grows organic blueberries commercially and opens a U-Pick to the public June 1 each year in Poplarville. She said prices for berries have typically run around $25 to $32 for a 9.5-pound flat, with little change this year. “We can’t pick wet berries because we don’t have a harvester and pick by hand,” she said, “so we welcome all the sunshine we’re getting.” Rabbiteye varieties, which make up 80 to 90 percent of the state’s crop, are generally ready for harvest in late May. The remaining crop mostly consists of Southern highbush varieties, which tend to produce in late April and early May. Rain at the end of this period may have stopped the Southern highbush harvest season prematurely, Stafne said.   

“The rabbiteyes started around May 20, and volumes are increasing at this point,” he said. “We’ll be in the peak of it in mid-June, then we’ll start going into later varieties with lesser volumes in terms of commercial production.” Blueberry production typically continues into July, depending on market demand. Each year, Mississippi has anywhere from 2,000 to 2,500 acres of commercial blueberries. That number was closer to 2,500 acres in recent years, but market conditions are stalling, causing a few growers to switch to other opportunities, Stafne said. “A lot of our production is in the processed market, which means primarily frozen berries. Right now there is a backlog of freezer stock nationwide,” he said. “It’s been difficult to sell that product, so some growers have moved out of the business, and we’re starting to see some slight attrition. But these markets can change quickly. There is always interest from new growers.”

Growers continue to watch for fungi and pests that have compromised crop conditions in the last five years. Exobasidium, a fungal disease found mostly in the Southeast, can be problematic if left untreated. Spotted-wing drosophila fruit flies attack healthy, ripe fruit. Stafne said the pests are relatively new to Mississippi and have been a challenge to control. “We’re just now starting to get into the time period where these fruit flies become a real problem,” he said. “Early varieties miss them for the most part because populations have not yet built up and any that are there are controlled as long as growers are spraying. Timely fungicide sprayings have also limited damage from exobasidium. Growers who have had major problems didn’t treat for the disease.”

Source: Robert Nathan Gregory. Mississippi State University (http://extension.msstate.edu)

Día del Horticultor - Horticulturist Day

25 STRAWBERRY cultivars were patented in 2015 - 25 variedades de FRUTILLA (FRESA) fueron patentadas en 2015

New strawberry cultivars: 25 patents were granted in 2015. Driscoll (US) was the applicant with more patents: 6 cultivars, followed by Plant Science Inc (US): 4; Darbonne (France/Spain): 3;  Sweet Darling Sales Inc (US): 3, etc. (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Left column is the applicant. The right column shows the name of the cultivars patented by each applicant in 2015.

From the 25 patents, 19 were granted to companies based in the US, 3 in France/Spain; 2 in Italy and 1 in the UK (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2. Applicants nationality

Source: Prepared by Daniel Kirschbaum with information taken from patentinspiration.com

A modeling study predicts and quantifies the fall in consumption of FRUITS and VEGETABLES due to climate change - Modelo predice y cuantifica la caída del consumo de FRUTAS y VERDURAS debido al cambio climático

Photo source: http://www.cbc.ca/.  (Philippe Desmazes/AFP/Getty Images)

One of the most important consequences of climate change could be its effects on agriculture. Although much research has focused on questions of food security, less has been devoted to assessing the wider health impacts of future changes in agricultural production. In this modelling study, we estimate excess mortality attributable to agriculturally mediated changes in dietary and weight-related risk factors by cause of death for 155 world regions in the year 2050.

For this modelling study, we linked a detailed agricultural modelling framework, the International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and Trade (IMPACT), to a comparative risk assessment of changes in fruit and vegetable consumption, red meat consumption, and bodyweight for deaths from coronary heart disease, stroke, cancer, and an aggregate of other causes. We calculated the change in the number of deaths attributable to climate-related changes in weight and diets for the combination of four emissions pathways (a high emissions pathway, two medium emissions pathways, and a low emissions pathway) and three socioeconomic pathways (sustainable development, middle of the road, and more fragmented development), which each included six scenarios with variable climatic inputs.

The model projects that by 2050, climate change will lead to per-person reductions of 3·2% (SD 0·4%) in global food availability, 4·0% (0·7%) in fruit and vegetable consumption, and 0·7% (0·1%) in red meat consumption. These changes will be associated with 529 000 climate-related deaths worldwide (95% CI 314 000–736 000), representing a 28% (95% CI 26–33) reduction in the number of deaths that would be avoided because of changes in dietary and weight-related risk factors between 2010 and 2050. Twice as many climate-related deaths were associated with reductions in fruit and vegetable consumption than with climate-related increases in the prevalence of underweight, and most climate-related deaths were projected to occur in south and east Asia. Adoption of climate-stabilisation pathways would reduce the number of climate-related deaths by 29–71%, depending on their stringency.

The health effects of climate change from changes in dietary and weight-related risk factors could be substantial, and exceed other climate-related health impacts that have been estimated. Climate change mitigation could prevent many climate-related deaths. Strengthening of public health programmes aimed at preventing and treating diet and weight-related risk factors could be a suitable climate change adaptation strategy.

Source: Global and regional health effects of future food production under climate change: a modelling study. Springmann, Marco,  Daniel Mason-D'Croz, Sherman Robinson, Tara Garnett, Charles J Godfray, Douglas Gollin, Mike Rayner, Paola Ballon, Peter Scarborough, The Lancet, 387(10031): 1937 - 1946.

Asparation, bimi, broccoletti, broccolette y tenderstem... qué VERDURA es? - Asparation, bimi, broccoletti, broccolette and tenderstem... what VEGETABLE is it?

Bimi versus bróccoli (foto de http://img.interempresas.net)

Para muchos, ese gran desconocido. Se trata del bimi, una hortaliza innovadora y con personalidad que surge del cruce entre el brócoli y un tipo de col oriental Kai- Ian aunque en apariencia evoca, incluso, al espárrago.Sorprendente en boca, su sabor en esencia es similar al brócoli pero con un toque más dulce. Pese a parecerse a este, tiene algunas diferencias entre las que destacan sus propiedades nutricionales y las múltiples formas en las que puede ser cocinado. Bimi puede comerse incluso crudo. Como detalle, su sabor en crudo es apimentado. Tiene un sabor dulce y tierno que da a los platos un toque original, diferente y sorprendente. 

Bimi, una nueva y única de verduras con matices gourmet. Sakata Seeds, la compañía japonesa con presencia en todo el mundo, conocida por la calidad de sus semillas del género Brassica y cucurbitáceas, creó una nueva brassica llamada Brassica Bimi, híbrido natural de brócoli y la col rizada china. Que tiene una forma única, ya que se ve como el brócoli, gracias a sus floretes, pero tiene un tallo largo y delgado, con un sabor más dulce y más suave, como el espárrago verde.

Por a su alto contenido de nutrientes esenciales que se ha llamado un super-hortaliza. Se ha demostrado que contienen más cantidad de zinc, ácido fólico, antioxidantes y vitamina C que el espárrago verde, el brócoli tradicional, la col rizada y las espinacas. Por lo tanto, en base a su alto contenido de vitaminas y minerales, muchos estudios confirman que Bimi ofrece una extraordinaria variedad de beneficios para la salud si uno come sólo tres porciones a la semana.

También se cree que ayuda a prevenir el cáncer de estómago, colon y pulmón, ya que tiene 45% más de glucosinolatos -un agente anticancerígeno que se encuentra en las brassicas- que otras variedades de brócoli. También contiene sinigrin, que ayuda a eliminar las células pre-cancerosas.

Bimi es algo totalmente nuevo para la mayoría de la gente. Bimi, en boca, dulce y muy tierno. Anima el plato y a la vez lo suaviza. Bimi viene pisando fuerte, ya no sólo por ser la novedad, si no por los múltiples beneficios que aporta a nuestro cuerpo. Todos quieren probarlo. Al vapor, a la plancha o crudo. Bimi apunta buenas maneras.

Fuentes: Andrea Carrillo (http://www.elmundo.es) y http://www.sakata-vegetables.eu