Our Guarantee
Our Mission
What is Biotech
Soil Health
Facts & Figures
Relevant Info
Soft Target
The New Landfill
Terms of Use
Environmental Issues
Pesticides in our bodies
Green World
Manure a Natural Fertilizer
Soil Analysis
Perchlorate
Lawn Pesticides
Plant DNA
Bermuda Grass
Mulch
Nitrogen Fixing Bacteria
Plants Die in Autumn
Potassium Deficiency
Growing Organic Potatoes
Bio Nitrogen Fixation
Natural Surfactants
Symbiosis
Grow Organic Tomatoes
Photosynthesis & Respiration

AG FACTS & FIGURES

Over a 14 year period in Canada, cultivated brown prairie soils lost 26% of their soil organic matter and 33% of their N (Campbell et al, 1975 in Blaine 1993).

Waste production?
There are over 73,000,000 pigs in North America. On average, each pig produces 10 - 12 lbs. of manure per day. Using 10 lbs. per day, pigs produce a minimum of 365,000 tons of manure each day or 133,225,000 tons per year.

Yield Increasing Technology:
In the opinion of an international conference of experts convened by the World Bank, UNDP and FAO, a solution to the problem of ensuring world food supplies while preserving the environment is inconceivable without biotechnology. 

The Population Reference Bureau projects a world population of more than 7 billion in 2010 increasing to almost 8.4 billion in 2025. To ensure an adequate food supply for this ever increasing population, food output will have to more than doubled by 2010.

We are losing about 1,000 tons of topsoil every second and year after year arable land shrinks by 20,000 hectares. Erosion alone has made a billion hectares of soil unusable for agriculture.

Legislation
The 1997 Indiana State Legislature passed legislation (H.B. 1915) that affects approximately 3800 Indiana livestock producers. Operations with confinement facilities who have more than 600 hogs or sheep, 300 cattle or 30,000 poultry at any one time (or those who have been found to have caused a water quality violation) will need to develop a manure management plan and submit it to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) by July 1 of the year 2000.

BOD5
The pollution strength of the organic matter in manure or waste water is expressed as the Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD5). A comparison of the BOD5 values for livestock wastes and municipal wastes reveals that the pollution strength of raw manure is 160 times greater than raw municipal sewage. For example, in undiluted livestock waste BOD5 in (Mg/1) is around 40,000 while in raw municipal sewage BOD5 in (Mg/1) is about 250.

Controlling and or eliminating odor:
There are many compounds available with claims as to their effectiveness in controlling and/or eliminating odors. There are four general types of chemicals. The masking agent is a "perfume" odor to override the offensive odor. Counteractants are chemically designed to block the sensing of particular odors. Odor-absorption chemicals are reactive compounds to change the odor-causing chemical. Biological compounds such as enzymatic or bacterial products alter the decomposition pathway so that the odorous compounds are not generated. These compounds can be added directly to the manure storage, and some are available to add to the feed.

The latest research:
Smoke appears to be the missing link in understanding the horticulture of some plant species. It has been known for many years that fire has played a significant role in the evolution of plants and habitat burning triggers germination in many plants.

Recent experiments have shown that smoke from the burning of plant material enhances seed germination in a wide range of native species. Smoke can either be applied directly or as smoked water; however, smoked water is more practical for people propagating on a small scale.

Smoked water and details on its use are available from:

Friends of Kings Park
Kings Park and Botanic Garden
West Perth WA 6005

Manure - a Valuable Resource
Let's assume that a producer handles his livestock manure in a manner which prevents the loss of nutrients. If we assess a value of $0.22 per pound for nitrogen, $0.20 per pound of phosphorus and $0.10 per pound for potassium:

• A 500-head swine finishing herd produces $4,370 worth of fertilizer per year.

• A 100-head beef herd produces $4,410 worth of fertilizer per year.

• A 100-head dairy herd produces $4,810 worth of fertilizer per year.

• A 10,000 layer flock produces $3,580 worth of fertilizer per year.

Source: Ohio State University Extension
Department of Horticulture and Crop Science

Livestock Facility Site Selection
Three factors to consider when selecting a livestock facility site that minimizes odor nuisance potential. None of these factors is controlling in itself.

• Isolation of the facility site

• Direction and distance to neighbors

• Prevailing wind direction

In 26 of the 40 low-income countries listed by the World Bank, and in 26 of the 50 reporting countries in the middle and higher income category, per capita food output decreased substantially in the period from 1979 to 1991.

In most African countries south of the Sahara and in the Middle East the degree of self-sufficiency in grains continues to decrease.

Annual growth rates in yields per hectare of rice and wheat fell off in some of the most productive areas of cultivation in Asia, mainly in areas that practiced intensive agriculture. In the opinion of FAO, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, this trend will continue well into the 21st century. The FAO anticipates that by 2010 many developing countries that were previously net exporters will have become net importers of agricultural products.

In China arable land is getting to be scarce and the use of chemical fertilizers and plant protection agents is nearing the ecologically tolerable limit.

As a result of soil erosion, air pollution, soil compaction, aquifer depletion, the loss of soil organic matter and salting of irrigated land yields are decreasing.

EcoChem's yield increasing technology can lessen dependence on chemical fertilizers, lower input costs, increase yield and bring us closer to solving our agricultural problems.

Sustainable Development - Biotechnology
Living as we do at the onset of the first global revolution, on a small planet which we seem hell-bent to destroy, beset with conflicts, in an ideological and political vacuum, faced with problems of global dimensions which the fading nation states are impotent to solve, with immense scientific and technological possibilities for the improvement of the human condition, rich in knowledge but poor in wisdom, we search for the keys to survival and sustainability. Sustainable development and sustainable food security will not be achievable without biotechnology.
(club of Rome)