An IPAD Plant ID App?

Back in the days of Infoshare (i.e., 1991), one application NRCS (then Soil conservation Service) was eager to share was their Plants database. Frankly, I was dubious then, although out of respect, or cowardice, I tried not to show it.  We were in a situation where each agency was pushing its own ideas, so it was the classic logrolling situation: the end project included the top priorities of each agency, not necessarily what the farmers would find most valuable.

Anyway, over the years I've occasionally looked at it on the NRCS web site.  Even tried to use it once when I was trying to identify some weeds in the lawn.That experience convinced me the database wasn't particularly intended for such uses.  But I may be wrong.

Today in the NY Times there's an article on the new IPhone and IPad apps for birders.  My aunt and uncle were avid birders, and they had their manuals to look up birds with which they weren't familiar.  Me, I wasn't familiar with much more than robin, sparrow, crow, blue jay, blackbird, wren.  To become interested in birding I needed something easier than the Roger whats-his-face books [ed. Tory Peterson], something more like these apps.  Apparently they build upon the existing databases of Audubon and Cornell, adding all sorts of bells and whistles. They sound great, even if they aren't quite ready to identify a bird from the sound of its song.

I wonder why NRCS, or more likely some private person, couldn't create similar apps for plants? I would think much of the logic and the user interface for birds could carry over to plants: species, location, looks, etc. Of course, when you google: "plant identification" you get lots of results from different enterprises with different takes on the subject.

Kevin Drum Misses the Best Info

Kevin links to a study of SAT scores.  Which major had the highest math score?  Which major had the highest reading score?  But he didn't highlight this from the conclusions:

2. Overachievers exist in most majors, with low SAT scores but very high GPAs. These
overachievers are disproportionately female.
3. Underachievers exist in all majors, with high SAT scores but very low GPAs. These
underachievers are disproportionately male.

I'm sure we're all surprised by these results, but maybe it explains why women are in a majority on college campuses these days.

The Tragedy of the Common Coffee Pot

Technically, it's an espresso maker, but Tom Hanks observed: ""You know you are supposed to clean this after every use."  He gave the maker to the White House press corps 6 years ago and thereby demonstrated his unrealistic liberal faith in people, only to be disillusioned when he visited this week.  Bottom line: if it's everyone's job to clean, it never will be cleaned.  Or as someone said: no one ever washed a rental car.

Jamie Oliver Costs Money

The Post has an article on Jamie Oliver, a Brit who had a short ABC TV series on his attempts to transform school lunch food in Huntington, WV.  I admit I haven't watched, but it seems he had some impact:

"Oliver has made notable progress. But the hard work, compromises and setbacks continue after the cameras have disappeared."

One of the problems for the future is that good food costs money, money to buy the raw ingredients and money to pay the people to prepare them.  So the forces of evil, as foodies see them, always have an opening argument: "we can save you money." Tie that to  the reports in both the Times and the Post about impending teacher layoffs this fall and a cynic has to believe Mr. Oliver's impact will not last long.

Fact of the Day: Indonesians on Facebook

The third leading nation in use of Facebook is Indonesia, with 22.7 million account. From NYTimes article

Why I Love the Democratic Party

As Will Rogers said, I'm not a member of any organized party, I'm a Democrat.

At a time when respected political observers predict the Dems will lose the House this fall, and possibly, a number of Dems are running against the Blue Dogs from the left (in North Carolina they're even organizing a new party). Too many Dems are lost in the euphoria of 2008, not the realities of 2010.

Master Gardeners and Extension--Musings

In the last couple days the extension.org website has had a number of posts on various aspects of the "Master Gardener" program (also a bunch on swine).  (Briefly, this is a program where Extension trains people in gardener, then they go out and train ordinary, run of the mill gardeners, novices, etc.) See here.

I recently posted on the cuts in extension in Illinois.  I think in a rational world we would probably rethink and redo the structure of the extension service.  Currently it's tied to the land grant colleges, one per state.  Traditionally it had one or more agents in each county, though that's changed over the years.  But in a world of modern communication, is it really rational for each New England state to have its own setup?  I wonder how much duplication one could find in the work of the different colleges.  (I suspect there are efforts at coordination, but my cynicism is strong enough that I doubt the results.)

Transparency in government is good, and reaching out to the grassroots is good, so master gardeners are good. But I wonder.  Part of my wondering is due to the fact that the Reston library used to have master gardeners in attendance on Saturdays, they got some business, but I haven't seen them for a couple years.  I wonder how effective the program has been.

Does Organic Pay?

Just to state my position up front:
I don't believe organic cropping can match commercial/industrial farming on a per acre basis for a given crop over a period of years. The problem is that organic operations have to rotate crops.  Over a 10-year period a commercial producer in a corn/soybean rotation will produce more corn and beans than an organic one in a corn/soybean/alfalfa (maybe small grain) rotation.  That's assuming average weather. 

I do believe organic cropping is more productive if the weather is variable or extreme--more tolerance for droughts.

With that position, it's no surprise that I should appreciate this Purdue study. Their bottom line is that, if you do things right, organic can be as profitable or more profitable than commercial farming. The summary from farmgate:

When net returns per acre are written in four digit numbers, it does not take much imagination to realize that organic production can be profitable. However, getting there takes time and patience. After suffering through the transition period without price premiums, and taking the yield penalty, organic crops can become profitable with the help of higher prices and lower production cost. Key factors to success are timing of your crop rotation and finding a market for your crop.

In other words, as long as organic is a market niche commanding price premiums, it can be profitable once you make the transition.  But if it becomes mainstream, it won't be profitable.

The Volcano and Modern Agriculture

Strikes me that the effect of the Icelandic volcano, whose name I will not bother with, on air travel might be a metaphor for disasters and modern agriculture.  Perhaps I'm super sensitive to agriculture's vulnerability because I've been reading some about the Irish potato famine of the 1840's, but here's my comparison:

First air:

• Modern society has evolved to become dependent on air travel and air freight, which assumes an absence of volcanic ash in the atmosphere
• it's a system which works very well, connecting people and products from different countries and continents.
• the overall effect is greatly to improve the standard of living globally
• the system is vulnerable to disruption by volcanic eruptions, grounding air travel

Now commodities:

• modern agriculture has evolved to become dependent on a small number of varieties for each major crop
• it's a system which works very well, maximizing the return from inputs of fertilizer and water and providing uniform outputs
• the overall effect is greatly to improve the standard of living globally
• the system is vulnerable to disruption by plant diseases which attack the varieties in use.

Extension Cuts--What Other Cuts?

From Farmgate

Illinois is the latest state to rework its Extension system. After radical changes in states like Iowa and Minnesota, Illinois will be eliminating 15 regional offices over time and regional educators will shift to county offices. However, 76 county offices will be cut to only 30, with each office serving multiple counties. Staff members will be reduced also, which results from a reduction in state financial support for Extension and 4-H.

I wonder what other areas of infrastructure for agriculture will suffer cuts?  FSA offices, NRCS offices, crop insurance agents?  Does anyone have a census of how many crop insurance agents there are?