DIVERSIFYING AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS: AN EXTERNAL ANALYSIS OF STATE VALUE-ADDED PROGRAMS

An increasing number of farmers in the United States are finding more opportunity to participate in value-added activities beyond their commodity production. Issues' such as low farm income, increasing marketing margins, and a desire to enhance demand for local commodities-generate more interest in identifying suitable value-added activities. Many states are providing programs to help promote and support farmers interested in leading the development of new food products. This paper examines the objectives and development strategies of several value-added state programs. Special attention is paid to the extent to which the programs create opportunities for farmers in different income groups. Programs profiled in this research include Iowa's Rural Economic Value-Added Mentoring Program (REVAMP), North Dakota's Agricultural Utilization Research Institute (AURI), Minnesota's Agricultural Products Utilization Commission (APUC), and other centers and programs in Colorado, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Oklahoma. A survey is conducted of the center directors to provide a profile of each program's scope and state's objectives, development strategy, and performance measures. This paper assesses the effectiveness of variously structured value-added programs as stated by the survey; it also summarizes recommended strategies for improvement. Cost considerations and long-term justification of these value-added centers is also considered. Institutional design, recommendations, central policy issues, and program performance measures are discussed. States considering the implementation or expansion of such programs will want to evaluate their design based on these findings.Agricultural and Food Policy,

Assessment of macro-micro element accumulation capabilities of Elodea nuttallii under gradient redox statuses with elevated NH4-N concentrations

Aquatic plants often encounter various redox conditions in their natural environment. Elodea nuttallii (Planch.), a submerged aquatic macrophyte, has a flexile ability to use different nutrient sources from various environments. In the present study, Elodea nuttallii was subjected to various redox conditions (+400 mV to –180 mV) at both normal (2.5 ppm) and high (10 ppm) ammonium concentrations and evaluated for macro and micro element accumulation. A reduced environment was prepared by adding glucose to growth medium and nitrogen gas bubbling, while an oxic environment was executed by atmospheric air bubbling. Plants in oxygen-deprived conditions manifested heavy metal (HM) toxicity, such as reduction of biomass and photosynthetic pigments, excess generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), lipid peroxidation and reduction of major macro elements. In reduced treatments, the bioaccumulation sequence for micro elements was Cu>Mn>Zn>Al>Cd>Fe>Pb at both normal and high NH4-N concentrations. The combined effect of low redox state and high ammonium concentration had a strong physiological impact on the submerged macrophyte. However, macro- and micronutrient accumulation was more significantly affected by reduced environment than by a high NH4-N concentratio

Toxic marine microalgae and shellfish poisoning in the British isles: history, review of epidemiology, and future implications

The relationship between toxic marine microalgae species and climate change has become a high profile and well discussed topic in recent years, with research focusing on the possible future impacts of changing hydrological conditions on Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) species around the world. However, there is very little literature concerning the epidemiology of these species on marine organisms and human health. Here, we examine the current state of toxic microalgae species around the UK, in two ways: first we describe the key toxic syndromes and gather together the disparate reported data on their epidemiology from UK records and monitoring procedures. Secondly, using NHS hospital admissions and GP records from Wales, we attempt to quantify the incidence of shellfish poisoning from an independent source. We show that within the UK, outbreaks of shellfish poisoning are rare but occurring on a yearly basis in different regions and affecting a diverse range of molluscan shellfish and other marine organisms. We also show that the abundance of a species does not necessarily correlate to the rate of toxic events. Based on routine hospital records, the numbers of shellfish poisonings in the UK are very low, but the identification of the toxin involved, or even a confirmation of a poisoning event is extremely difficult to diagnose. An effective shellfish monitoring system, which shuts down aquaculture sites when toxins exceed regularity limits, has clearly prevented serious impact to human health, and remains the only viable means of monitoring the potential threat to human health. However, the closure of these sites has an adverse economic impact, and the monitoring system does not include all toxic plankton. The possible geographic spreading of toxic microalgae species is therefore a concern, as warmer waters in the Atlantic could suit several species with southern biogeographical affinities enabling them to occupy the coastal regions of the UK, but which are not yet monitored or considered to be detrimental

First Large-Scale DNA Barcoding Assessment of Reptiles in the Biodiversity Hotspot of Madagascar, Based on Newly Designed COI Primers

BACKGROUND: DNA barcoding of non-avian reptiles based on the cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene is still in a very early stage, mainly due to technical problems. Using a newly developed set of reptile-specific primers for COI we present the first comprehensive study targeting the entire reptile fauna of the fourth-largest island in the world, the biodiversity hotspot of Madagascar. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Representatives of the majority of Madagascan non-avian reptile species (including Squamata and Testudines) were sampled and successfully DNA barcoded. The new primer pair achieved a constantly high success rate (72.7-100%) for most squamates. More than 250 species of reptiles (out of the 393 described ones; representing around 64% of the known diversity of species) were barcoded. The average interspecific genetic distance within families ranged from a low of 13.4% in the Boidae to a high of 29.8% in the Gekkonidae. Using the average genetic divergence between sister species as a threshold, 41-48 new candidate (undescribed) species were identified. Simulations were used to evaluate the performance of DNA barcoding as a function of completeness of taxon sampling and fragment length. Compared with available multi-gene phylogenies, DNA barcoding correctly assigned most samples to species, genus and family with high confidence and the analysis of fewer taxa resulted in an increased number of well supported lineages. Shorter marker-lengths generally decreased the number of well supported nodes, but even mini-barcodes of 100 bp correctly assigned many samples to genus and family. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The new protocols might help to promote DNA barcoding of reptiles and the established library of reference DNA barcodes will facilitate the molecular identification of Madagascan reptiles. Our results might be useful to easily recognize undescribed diversity (i.e. novel taxa), to resolve taxonomic problems, and to monitor the international pet trade without specialized expert knowledge

DIVERSIFYING AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS: AN EXTERNAL ANALYSIS OF STATE VALUE-ADDED PROGRAMS

An increasing number of farmers in the United States are finding more opportunity to participate in value-added activities beyond their commodity production. Issues' such as low farm income, increasing marketing margins, and a desire to enhance demand for local commodities-generate more interest in identifying suitable value-added activities. Many states are providing programs to help promote and support farmers interested in leading the development of new food products. This paper examines the objectives and development strategies of several value-added state programs. Special attention is paid to the extent to which the programs create opportunities for farmers in different income groups. Programs profiled in this research include Iowa's Rural Economic Value-Added Mentoring Program (REVAMP), North Dakota's Agricultural Utilization Research Institute (AURI), Minnesota's Agricultural Products Utilization Commission (APUC), and other centers and programs in Colorado, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Oklahoma. A survey is conducted of the center directors to provide a profile of each program's scope and state's objectives, development strategy, and performance measures. This paper assesses the effectiveness of variously structured value-added programs as stated by the survey; it also summarizes recommended strategies for improvement. Cost considerations and long-term justification of these value-added centers is also considered. Institutional design, recommendations, central policy issues, and program performance measures are discussed. States considering the implementation or expansion of such programs will want to evaluate their design based on these findings