Are these Pennsylvania cows giving off too much gas?
Some days, the world of agricultural news just organizes itself for you.
Today is a good example. The three headlines below all came in the same e-mail document from a service, PR Newswire for Journalists.
What’s curious about the language of press releases sometimes is how certain words and phrases stick in your mind, and I give you these examples:
Revolutionary New Invention Receives World-Wide Attention - Portable Farms
Portable Farms is an invention that will "solve world hunger and poverty" if a lot of people would use it to grow their own tilapia fish and organic vegetables in backyards and basements. The company’s "light-hearted" motto, "Fish don’t fart," makes the point that the technology is designed "to save the world from gas emissions from cattle." It's a big idea, saving the world from hunger with these fish tanks, but I confess that it's the motto that got my attention. Fart is a word you don’t see much in the farm press, even though a fair amount of it takes place in the countryside.
New Farm Odor Management Regulations to Take Effect
Because farm animals do fart, and otherwise behave biologically, the state of Pennsylvania is enacting new regulations for livestock facilities that will "help minimize the potential for conflicts between neighbors." The program involves an "odor site index."
But, here's the part that caught my eye: The new regs "help minimize conflict between those not accustomed to farm odors and the agricultural producers working to meet our increasing world food needs." This index may be all we have these days to keep agriculture part of the busy countryside. No longer are good fences enough to make good neighbors. But I’m also getting a picture in my mind of some fellow in tassel-loafers tip-toeing around a feedlot sniffing the wind, trying to fashion his odor site index, which may smell a lot different than, well, your and my idea of smell.
The EntreTech Forum Presents... Greening Of America - The Conversion of Bio-Agriculture, Bio-Energy, and Bio-Products to Eco-Sustainable Businesses
I’ve read this headline several times, and am still finding it a little hard to digest. It's explained in the release that this "Triple Bio" play of bio-agriculture, bio-energy, and bio-products is leading us to a Bio-Economy, in our "national quest for energy independence and sustainability." Maybe it’s just all the high-fiber hyphenated words that make this language hard to chew. Bio-agriculture, we learn, is "a suite of concepts, practices and technologies which capitalize on biological processes to maximize resource conservation and resource-use." That's a mouthful, too.
And now it would seem we have come full circle....
1 comment:
I had a really sour experience with Colle Davis of Portable Farms. I ordered a kit from him and sent him all my information. The next day he emailed me a non-disclosure agreement and started getting a tad odd about his “intellectual property”. I signed the NDA and faxed it back to him. The next day, I had to call him back again. He didn’t answer my voicemail. The next day, he sent me an email stating that they no longer sell kits and I had to have a certified installer install the system. This will double the price of the system and they have no certified installers in my area. What was a reasonably priced system will now be effectively not worth the money you spend.
Be very cautious with this man, all he is interested in is the green of the money, not the green of the veggies!
Do a cost analysis and ask yourself if it is really worth $5000 for fresh fish and veggies. How long would it take you to recoup your investment?
I hope that this helps someone who is considering Portable Farms in making their decision.
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