agriculture Archives - Amazing Health Advances

Strawberries Bloom Once Again Near the Gaza Border

The AHA! Team — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 05:32:14 +0000

Zachy Hennessey via Israel21c – Owner of Uri Tutim farm says it will take the region’s agriculture a long time to recover, but its very existence is nothing short of a miracle. “Let me take you down ’cause I’m going to strawberry fields.” This line from the Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever” was ringing in my ears as I made my way to Uri Tutim (Uri’s Strawberries) farm in Moshav Yesha near the Gaza border. The strawberry fields the Beatles sang about were actually a reference to Salvation Army Homes. Meanwhile, I was heading to a farm located in the Western Negev that was among many others that were ravaged by the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023. “Even before October 7, there were rocket hits in our greenhouses; an American woman was killed inside the moshav by a rocket once,” the farm’s owner, Uri Patkin, tells ISRAEL21c. From high-tech to farming Patkin, 55, grew up in Yesha, helping his father run the family farm. Eventually he moved to the center of the country, where he worked in high-tech for nearly a decade. “At the age of 35, I left my job and I told my parents I was coming back to the Negev to become a farmer. My dad told me I was crazy,” he says with a laugh. “But by that time I was already married and had children. I thought it would be better to raise a family in a moshav than in the city, closer to the land and nature.” At first, he worked at his father’s prominent flower farm. Shortly afterwards, however, he decided to start cultivating strawberries and business took off. For years, Uri’s Strawberries exported most of its produce to the biggest supermarket chains in Europe. When it became more financially lucrative for Europeans to import produce from countries like Egypt and Morocco, Patkin didn’t scale back; he just redirected the goods to the local market. Special technique One of the main reasons for Patkin’s success was the introduction of a special growing technique that not many Israeli farms were using at the time: planting in containers or baskets suspended from the top of the greenhouse. “The results of the method are high-quality berries with a shelf life that’s longer than what is customary for strawberries,” notes Patkin. Avoiding direct contact with the soil leads to less fungi and mold, requires fewer pesticides and makes picking easier for farm workers. “We also pluck out the bottom leaves, so that way the strawberry is always ventilated by dry air, free of invaders.” Although this method requires infrastructure and larger investments per unit area, he says, it also yields much more produce per unit. ‘The worst day of my life’ Patkin says that even before the October 7 attacks, there were constant “rounds of violence” launched by Gaza terrorist groups toward Israel. “It used to discourage people from coming to work or live here because every few weeks, sometimes every few days, missiles can start falling from the sky,” notes Patkin. But nothing could have prepared Patkin or other residents of the area for that Black Saturday. “It was the worst day of my life; people were being killed all around me,” he recalls. Five of the six were killed in the fighting Yesha was among the very few communities in the area that managed to fight off the invading terrorists thanks to six members of moshav’s emergency squad. However, five of the six were killed in the fighting: Lior Ben Yaakov, Gil Avital, Itai Nachmias, Tal Maban and Dan Assulin. And as they retreated from the moshav, the surviving terrorists kidnapped or killed foreign workers from Thailand. “The foreign workers are not part of this conflict between Palestinians and Israel, and they found themselves on the battlefield. I feel a lot of personal responsibility over that,” Patkin tells ISRAEL21c. Patkin himself was out helping the few IDF soldiers who finally reach the moshav in the afternoon hours. “I had to accompany the army, while taking care of the dead and the wounded, something I don’t recommend anyone go through in their life,” he says. A long time for full rehabilitation By October 8, nearly all Yesha residents were evacuated, except for the replacement emergency squad. A day later, all foreign workers followed. Patkin was among the few residents who never left the moshav, even when his entire family was evacuated. “We were ready to give up on agriculture. We thought, ‘At least we’re alive and healthy.’ But three days later, waves upon waves of volunteers from all over the country showed up, telling us they’re here to save agriculture,” Patkin recalls. He says that for the first three to four months after the attack, agriculture at the moshav was kept going by volunteers, who ultimately saved it. “Our type of agriculture is intense; it’s not like wheat that you plant and it just grows. Every day you have to do agrotechnical work and supervision.” Eventually, Israel began recruiting new agricultural workers from around the world to help rehabilitate the region. “This is what got the farms back on their feet, but still not to the scale they were before October 7,” he says. “I personally revived only about 50% of my farm; it will take a long time for it to fully rehabilitate.” By now, 90 percent of Yesha residents have come back to the moshav. Uri Tutim welcomes tourists to visit and pick strawberries by hand for a small admission fee. These visits help support not only the farm, but the entire region that is still hurting from what it endured. For more information, click here. To read the original article click here.

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Can an Ancient Farming Method Improve Sustainability?

The AHA! Team — Thu, 06 Feb 2025 06:14:38 +0000

John Jeffay via Israel21c – Researchers say plot-and-berm method could address current challenges of water scarcity and food insecurity, especially in arid areas. An ancient farming method that made the deserts of the Middle East bloom 1,000 years ago should be revived today, say experts in Israel. The “plot-and-berm” system, developed in the early Islamic period along the Mediterranean coast, used innovative water-harvesting and soil-enrichment technologies to grow vegetables, watermelons, dates, and grapes. Plots were dug in places where the water table was high, and farmers added urban waste to the sand to improve its fertility. Berms were the sand barriers built to stop the sand/waste mix from being blown away by wind or washed away by water. Experts at Bar-Ilan University, University of Haifa and the Israel Antiquities Authority say an updated form of plot-and-berm could work effectively as a sustainable, modern-day alternative to existing forms of agriculture in hot, sandy parts of the world. They’ve been studying what they call SGHAS (traditional sunken groundwater-harvesting agroecosystems) in sandy areas of Israel, Iran, Egypt, Algeria, Gaza and the Atlantic coast of Iberia. They used a combination of geospatial analysis, archeological findings, and historical documentation. Their conclusion is that this early Islamic farming method was way ahead of its time in terms of agricultural knowhow. But plot-and-berms were largely abandoned after the 12th century Crusader conquest. The method was adopted elsewhere, in the Middle Ages and again in the early 20th century, but not in Israel or many other parts of the region. The research team says plot-and-berm has much to offer and neatly addresses current challenges of water scarcity and food insecurity, especially in arid areas. “The reappearance in the Middle Ages … and early 20th century in Iberia suggests that this type of agriculture is adaptable to varying economic and cultural settings and therefore may possess potential for certain, current socio-agronomic scenarios,” said Prof. Joel Roskin from Bar-Ilan’s Department of Environment, Planning and Sustainability. His team’s research on plot-and-berms, which was funded by the Israel Science Foundation, has been published in the journal Environmental Archaeology, entitled “Character and Evolution of Sunken Groundwater-Harvesting Agroecosystems in Aeolian Sand since Early Islamic Times, between Iran and Iberia.” The paper explains how modern agriculture often relies on intensive water usage and practices that deplete soil quality, while traditional systems like plot-and-berm are low-impact and more sustainable. Farmers living in hot, dry and sandy conditions between the ninth and 12th centuries made the most of the limited assets they had — shallow groundwater and a ready supply of organic waste from nearby towns and cities. To read the original article click here.

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It’s Time to Get Off the “Pesticide Treadmill” and Here Is Why

AHA Publisher — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 08:00:20 +0000

Stephanie Woods via NaturalHealth365 – For decades we’ve known that pesticides and agriculture are a deadly combination. Over the years, the government has passed regulations that make it look like they are making an earnest effort to “clean up” our food when, in fact, they are simply exchanging one pesticide that has come onto our radar and garnered a lot of attention for another that is more obscure. The less you know, the more you will accept. Your government is riding on the hope, the assumption, that the people are largely uninformed – and they’re absolutely correct. The truth is, pesticides have made their way into not only the crops but also the animal herds. And the effects are long-lasting as well as devastating. The pesticide treadmill is real, and it is detrimental to your health. What Is the “Pesticide Treadmill” and Why Is it Detrimental to Your Health? The pesticide treadmill is a trap that gets farmers caught up in a vicious cycle of pesticide use. They begin innocently enough with minimal product. That doesn’t last long, though. As weeds and insects develop resistance to pesticides, the farmers must use a higher quantity and more toxic chemicals to maintain control. The resistance that insects and weeds develop due to pesticide use breeds superbugs and superweeds which do not respond to the chemicals being used. When this happens, and farmers begin seeing it in their crops, they use more potent chemicals like 2,4-D, linked to reproductive problems, brain damage, and several types of cancer. To put this into perspective, farmers in the United States in the 1940s lost 7% of their crops to pests. Today, that number has increased to 13% despite the increased use of pesticides. It is estimated that since 1945 as many as 1,000 weed and insect species have developed a resistance to pesticides. The sad truth is that this is entirely unnecessary. There are several alternatives available for managing garden, lawn, and home pests without harmful, toxic pesticides. But Wait, the Damage Does Not Stop There! Pesticide Use Leads to MANY Serious Problems Several serious problems can emerge from this pesticide use. As the farmer must use stronger and more toxic chemicals, those chemicals are transferred to the people who eat the crops. But they are also transferred to the animals that graze on the lands and are fed either from food grown on the farm or stored in close proximity to the pesticide use or storage. These chemicals have been linked to a number of health problems, an increased risk of death, and birth defects. These chemicals are seeping into our water, soil, and food chain. There isn’t much that pesticides haven’t touched. And that’s a problem. The U.S. Geological Survey conducted tests on rural waterways and found that pesticides contaminated more than 61% at high enough levels that it was harmful to the aquatic life there. In the soil, pesticides decrease microbial diversity, which destroys the organic matter that holds water in the soil, increasing the farmland’s resiliency to drought. And if that isn’t enough, this pesticide problem is not only confined to the farms using the chemicals. The chemicals can also find their way onto other farms via water runoff and other ways. So even farms that are not caught up in the pesticide treadmill are still affected. Here Is how to Reduce Your Exposure to Toxic Chemicals in Your Food One of the best ways to escape the effects of the pesticide treadmill is to turn to small, local farms instead of massive commercial farms. These farms use cottage gardening, a small-scale plan that uses smaller plots of land for farming. As a result, it is easier to manage, and pesticide use, if any, is on a much smaller scale. While there are companies out there developing alternatives and products that may help break that cycle, they still have a way to go. Today, your best bet is to look to the small, local farmers to get your food. You have a better chance of staying pesticide-free that way. Sources for this article include: Panna.org ChildrensHealthDefense.org Panna.org Enviropaedia.com To read the original article click here.

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DISASTER in the Making: Pesticides Are Damaging Vital Soil Organisms, New Study Suggests

AHA Publisher — Fri, 28 May 2021 07:00:36 +0000

Damon Hines via NaturalHealth365 – Global soils are the source of all life on land. They produce food, store carbon, and purify water. If topsoil is lost through “bad treatment,” it takes thousands of years until the soil is produced again. Pesticides and chemical poisons qualify as “bad treatment,” and without urgent action to halt the degradation caused by pesticides, pollution, and intensive farming, the future of global soils is bleak. The pesticides and chemical poisons applied to agricultural soil are causing widespread damage to the vital organisms and microbial life that help keep soils healthy. According to research published in Frontiers in Environmental Science, “negative effects are evident in both lab and field studies, across all studied pesticide classes, and in a wide variety of soil organisms and endpoints.” Scientists found 71% of the tested parameters showed negative effects from pesticide exposure, including earthworms, beetles, springtails, and other organisms. It’s Time to Stop Treating Soil Like Dirt The numbers are staggering. A third of the Earth’s land is severely degraded, and fertile soil is being lost at the rate of 24 billion tons a year. According to soil scientist Dr. Rattan Lal, 135 billion tons of soil have been lost from farmland since the Industrial Revolution. If that rate of degradation continues, researchers say the world’s topsoil could be gone in 60 years, which is a grim projection considering topsoil is where 95% of the planet’s food is grown. Out of Sight, Out Mind … But the Damage Is Being Done It’s easy to overlook that vital soil organisms play a crucial role in the food web. While toxic pesticides lurk in up to 70% of the produce in the U.S., contaminate groundwater in rural areas, and have been found to concentrate in the milk and meat of farmed animals through contaminated feed, researchers warn that soil organisms aren’t often considered when accessing the impact of pesticides and toxic farm chemicals. For example, why is it that the U.S. tests chemicals on honeybees – insects that may never come into contact with soil – but not invertebrates? According to Professor Nico Eisenhauer of Leipzig University, microbial species are essential for turning waste into nutrients, but 99% of them have yet to be studied by scientists. In fact, a quarter of all the animal species on Earth live beneath our feet -out of sight, out of mind -and provide the nutrients for our food. One teaspoon of healthy soil can contain up to a billion bacteria and more than 1km of fungi, algae, and other microfauna. How to Tackle the Decline in Biodiversity Protecting soil structure needs to be included in the modern farming system. While the UN continually stresses the importance of soils to future food security, “soil awareness” and the impact toxic pesticides have on vital organisms doesn’t get the big headlines like, say, Roundup cancer lawsuits or the increasing threat of dicamba drift. It’s time to work with the natural system and not fight against it. Raising awareness is the first step — the next step: better land regulation, improved farming efficiency, and EPA regulations on agricultural pesticides. Sources for this article include: Theguardian.com Theguardian.com To read the original article click here. For more articles from NaturalHealth365 click here.

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Fungi Could Manipulate Bacteria to Enrich Soil with Nutrients

AHA Publisher — Mon, 05 Apr 2021 07:00:16 +0000

Boyce Thompson Institute via EurekAlert – ITHACA, NY, April 2, 2021 – A team of researchers from the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) has discovered a distinct group of bacteria that may help fungi and plants acquire soil nutrients. The findings could point the way to cost-effective and eco-friendly methods of enriching soil and improving crop yields, reducing farmers’ reliance on conventional fertilizers. Researchers know that arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi establish symbiotic relationships with the roots of 70% of all land plants. In this relationship, plants trade fatty acids for the fungi’s nitrogen and phosphorus. However, AM fungi lack the enzymes needed to free nitrogen and phosphorus from complex organic molecules. A trio of BTI scientists led by Maria Harrison, the William H. Crocker Professor at BTI, wondered whether other soil microbes might help the fungi access those nutrients. In a first step towards examining that possibility, the team investigated whether AM fungi associate with a specific community of bacteria. The research was described in a paper published in The ISME Journal on March 1. The team examined bacteria living on the surfaces of long filament-like structures called hyphae, which the fungi extend into the soil far from their host plant. On hyphae from two species of fungi, the team discovered highly similar bacterial communities whose composition was distinct from those in the surrounding soil. “This tells us that, just like the human gut or plant roots, the hyphae of AM fungi have their own unique microbiomes,” said Harrison, who is also an adjunct professor in Cornell University’s School of Integrative Plant Science. “We’re already testing a few interesting predictions as to what these bacteria might do, such as helping with phosphate acquisition.” “If we’re right, then enriching the soil for some of these bacteria could increase crop yields and, ultimately, reduce the need for conventional fertilizers along with their associated costs and environmental impacts,” she added. Her co-researchers on the study were former BTI scientists Bryan Emmett and Véronique Lévesque-Tremblay. Among the Fungi In the study, the team used two species of AM fungi, Glomus versiforme and Rhizophagus irregularis, and grew them in three different types of soil in symbiosis with Brachypodium distachyon, a grass species related to wheat. After letting the fungus grow with the grass for up to 65 days, the researchers used gene sequencing to identify bacteria sticking to the hyphae surfaces. The team found remarkable consistency in the makeup of bacterial communities from the two fungal species. Those communities were similar in all three soil types, but very different from those found in soil away from the filaments. The function of these bacteria is not yet clear, but their composition has already sparked some interesting possibilities, Harrison said. “We predict that some of these bacteria liberate phosphorus ions in the immediate vicinity of the filaments, giving the fungus the best chance to capture those ions,” Harrison said. “Learning which bacteria have this function could be key to enhancing the fungi’s phosphate acquisition process to benefit plants.” Harrison’s group is investigating the factors that control which bacteria assemble on the filaments. Harrison thinks the AM fungi may secrete molecules that attract these bacteria, and in turn, the bacterial communities may influence which molecules the fungus secretes. Highway Patrol Among the hyphae microbiomes were members of Myxococcales and other taxa that include “bacterial predators” that kill and eat other bacteria by causing them to burst and release their contents. These predators move by gliding along surfaces so “the fungal filaments could serve as linear feeding lanes,” said Emmett, who is currently a research microbiologist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service in Ames, Iowa. “Many soil bacteria appear to travel along fungal hyphae in soil, and these predators may make it a more perilous journey.” While not every member of those taxa on the filaments may be predatory, Harrison’s group plans to investigate how and why those putative predators assemble there. “It’s possible that the actions of predatory bacteria make mineral nutrients available to everyone in the surrounding soil – predators and fungi alike,” she said. To read the original article click here.

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