5 results
Fall-sown cover crops as mulches for weed suppression in organic small-scale diversified vegetable production
- Eric Bietila, Erin M. Silva, Anne C. Pfeiffer, Jed B. Colquhoun
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- Journal:
- Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems / Volume 32 / Issue 4 / August 2017
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 27 July 2016, pp. 349-357
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Cover crop-based reduced tillage (CCBRT) has achieved positive impacts in organic row crop systems, contributing to the conservation of soil resources and the facilitation of weed management. This technique, which uses cover crop residues as mulches to suppress weeds, has shown more variable success in organic vegetable production systems. This experiment examined CCBRT for small-scale organic vegetable production in the upper Midwestern USA, specifically evaluating weed suppression, labor inputs and crop yields. Cereal rye (Secale cereale L.) and winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) were fall-sown in 2012 and 2013 in a strip-plot design, including control treatments with no cover crop and spring-applied oat straw mulch. Cover crop plots were strip-tilled in mid-April to establish a planting zone, with cover crops terminated in late May at anthesis with a hand-tractor mounted sickle-bar mower. Bell peppers (Capsicum annuum L. var. ‘Revolution’), snap beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L. var. ‘Tavera’), and potatoes (Solanum tuberosum L. var. ‘Red La Soda’) were hand-planted either as transplants or seed in each treatment immediately following cover crop termination. During each summer growing season, weeds were completely eliminated from each plot by hand approximately every 10–14 days, with time for manual weeding recorded for each treatment. Vegetable crop yields and quality were measured at harvest during 2013 and 2014. Cereal rye and winter wheat produced similar biomass at the time of termination. Greater weed biomass was collected in the wheat treatment as compared with the cereal rye, increasing the in-season labor required for manual weeding. Bean yields were decreased in the all CCBRT treatments compared with control treatments in both years of the study. Pepper yields did not differ in CCBRT treatments as compared with the control in both 2012 and 2013, although the CCBRT treatments did yield lower marketable peppers compared with the straw mulch plots. Potato tuber yields were not different in the CCBRT treatments as compared with the control in 2012, but were lower in 2013. These data indicate that, if CCBRT is to be more widely adopted in small-scale vegetable production, further optimization of the system must be achieved to ensure consistent and adequate weed suppression while maintaining crop yield and quality.
Living mulch cover crops for weed control in small-scale applications
- Anne Pfeiffer, Erin Silva, Jed Colquhoun
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- Journal:
- Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems / Volume 31 / Issue 4 / August 2016
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 02 September 2015, pp. 309-317
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A primary challenge of managing vegetable production on a small land base is the maintenance and building of soil quality. Previous studies have demonstrated the benefits of cover crops for improved soil quality; however, small growers struggle to fit cover crops into rotations. Small-scale growers with limited available land are under significant pressure to maximize their saleable yield and often work to maximize output by using intensive cropping practices that may include both early and late season crops, thus limiting the typical shoulder season windows in which cover crops can be grown. In-season living mulches may be an effective strategy to provide small-scale growers the benefits of cover crops with less land commitment than cover crops used in typical rotations. However, research on living mulches is generally not suited to small-scale organic production systems due to the typical reliance on chemical herbicide to suppress mulches. An experiment was designed with the goal of evaluating living mulch systems for space-limited organic vegetable production. In a 2-year study, four living mulch crops (buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum), field pea (Pisum sativum), crimson clover (Trifolium incarnatum) and medium red clover (Trifolium pratense)) and a cultivated control with no mulch cover were planted in early spring each year. Snap beans (Phaseolus vulgaris var. Tavera), transplanted bell peppers (Capsicum annuum var. Revolution), and transplanted fall broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. Imperial) were then planted directly into living mulches. During each summer growing season, living mulches and weeds were mown between-rows and hand-weeded in-row approximately every 10–14 days as needed for management. Labor times for mowing and cultivation were found to be higher in all treatments relative to the cultivated control. An inverse relationship between living mulch biomass and weed biomass was observed, demonstrating that living mulches may contribute to weed suppression. However, lower vegetable yields were seen in the living mulch treatments, most likely due to resource competition among vegetables, living mulches and weeds. High pre-existing weed seedbank and drought conditions likely increased competition and contributed to reduced vegetable yield.
Innovation in urban agricultural practices: Responding to diverse production environments
- Anne Pfeiffer, Erin Silva, Jed Colquhoun
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- Journal:
- Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems / Volume 30 / Issue 1 / February 2015
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 22 January 2014, pp. 79-91
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Although discussion of the role of urban agriculture in developing nations has occurred over the past decade, dialogue relating to urban agriculture in industrialized countries, including the United States (US) has only recently begun to attract significant attention. The unique factors that influence urban agriculture, including limited and non-traditional land access, use of reclaimed soils and alternative growing mediums, local legal and political environments, social and community-based missions, and involvement of non-traditional farmers, create a production system distinct from rural agricultural enterprises. In many cases, specific local environmental and external factors drive urban farms to develop unique innovations for space-intensive production systems, often creating a dominant paradigm for urban farming for a given location. Furthermore, non-production-related organizational goals are often the primary focus of urban agricultural operations, with the food production becoming a secondary objective. In order to address this information gap regarding the status of urban agriculture in the US, our project, centered at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, gathered data through site visits to and interviews of organizations in seven cities, examining how structural and strategic food system factors shape urban agricultural efforts. A broad range of operations are considered, including diverse business and production models based on both commercial and community-based management strategies and production in parking and vacant lots, warehouses, public land and peri-urban locations. Based on these observations, the unique innovations in space-intensive agricultural production that have arisen in response to urban food system factors are discussed. We conclude with an assessment of the most significant challenges continuing to face urban agriculture.
27 - Public access defibrillation
- from Part IV - Therapy of sudden death
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- By Roger D. White, College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, MN, USA, Mick Colquhoun, Resuscitation Council, Tavistock Sq., London, UK, Sian Davies, Department of Health, London, UK, Mary Ann Peberdy, Department of Medicine and Emergency Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA, Sergio Timerman, Resuscitation Department, Heart Institute of Sao Paolo, Brazil
- Edited by Norman A. Paradis, University of Colorado, Denver, Henry R. Halperin, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Karl B. Kern, University of Arizona, Volker Wenzel, Douglas A. Chamberlain, Cardiff University
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- Book:
- Cardiac Arrest
- Published online:
- 06 January 2010
- Print publication:
- 18 October 2007, pp 496-505
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Summary
Introduction
The development of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) enabled the potential life-saving benefit of rapid defibrillation to be extended into locations outside traditional boundaries. Defibrillation with these devices could now be provided by minimally medically trained persons such as firefighters and police officers. The survival benefit from AED deployment by such users led to the presumption that even more rapid defibrillation might be provided by placement of AEDs in public settings where large numbers of persons are present, and where defibrillation might be accomplished by even less-trained persons, and possibly even by persons not trained at all in AED use. And thus emerged the initiative known as public access defibrillation, or PAD. In this chapter, experience with PAD is described in several different settings, fortunately with acquisition and reporting of data to permit analysis of outcomes. Experience to date is surely encouraging, yet questions remain. Pell and colleagues have raised such questions pertaining to cost-effectiveness and have recommended expansion of first-responder defibrillation such as by police or firefighters and bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation as more defensible options to PAD.
In the PAD Trial reported by Peberdy in this chapter the low number of events is disheartening in light of the magnitude of the commitment in terms of numbers of persons trained and devices deployed, and the multiple locations in which AEDs were deployed. This observation may reflect yet another reality: the incidence of ventricular fibrillation (VF) as the presenting rhythm in out-of-hospital arrest settings is declining at an impressive rate, as reported now by several cardiac arrest investigators.
Home, hearth and table: a centennial review of the nutritional circumstances of older people living alone
- PHIL LYON, ANNE COLQUHOUN
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- Journal:
- Ageing & Society / Volume 19 / Issue 1 / January 1999
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 01 January 1999, pp. 53-67
- Print publication:
- January 1999
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Survey evidence on the living conditions of older people has a long and creditable history in Britain. Booth's work alerted policy makers to the often dire circumstances of older people, and accounts of their housing, diet, domestic arrangements and general quality of life stiffened resolve to ensure an adequate minimum standard of living in old age. At the start of what has been termed the welfare state, there were two important studies of old age in the works of Rowntree and Sheldon. In their depiction of the lives of independent elderly people, they provided a useful mid-century benchmark on progress.
The question of income and support infrastructure recurs over the decades and, in many ways, these concerns are central to the question of adequate diets with implications for health and wellbeing. The possibility, or otherwise, of being able to afford, buy and prepare food which is of appropriate nutritional and social quality, is fundamental to an independent life in old age. Using food as a focus for review, this article maps what has been said about the circumstances of independent elderly people and what has been done to support them in the community. It is concluded that while considerable progress has been made over the century, their relative position remains problematic. This is especially the case for those living on their own in old age and with a reliance on the basic state pension.
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