Inflatable greenhouses

This is a special type of greenhouse I produced many years ago. From two sheets of 6 mil greenhouse film. Folded under at the edges for the black tube of 6 mil water tube for the bottom hold down on the edges. It worked very good even in the winter months. I used 2x2 inch for the door and air lock.Blower is small centrifical blower at a cost of $3.00 per month electrical.

These worked out well and think I need to make more again. Snow melted off each day in winter.
It was very stable.

Inside view of inflatable greenhouse

This is a water tube hold down on each side, these worked well.

Feeding the starving people with alfalfa protein

Intro to this document:  (Importance of Alfalfa) from  http:www,usda,gov/gov/nass/pubs/agr98/aero98.htm 

Alfalfa is also important due to its high biomass production. The record yield of one acre of alfalfa is 10 tons/acre (22Mg/ha) without irrigation and 24 tons/acre (54Mg/ha) with irrigation. Alfalfa is a widely adapted crop, energy-efficient and an imporant source of biological nitrogen fixation. The average acre of alfalfa will fix about 200 kg of nitrogen per year, thus reducing the need to apply expensive nitrogen fertilizers.

One of the most important characteristics of alfalfa is it's high nutritional quality as animal feed. Alfalfa contains between 15 to 22% crude protein as well as an excellent source of vitamins and minerals. Specifically, alfalfa contains vitamins A, D, E, K, U, C, B1, B2, B6, B12, Niacin, Panthothanic acid, inocitole, Biotin, and Folic acid. Alfalfa also contains the following minerals: Phosphorous, Calcium, Potassium, Sodium, Chlorine, Sulfur, Magnesium, Copper, Manganese, Iron,Cobolt, Boron,and Molybdenum and trace elements such as Nickel Lead, Strontium and Palladium. Alfalfa is also directly consumed by humans in the form of alfalfa sprouts. According to International Sprout Growers There are approximately $250 million dollars worth of sprouts sold in North America. Alfalfa juice is used in some health food product. Alfalfa hay in milk, meat, wool,and other animal products is about a  $132 billion level per year.This author has used alfalfa protein curd for feeding starving children in Mexico for over 20 years with great results. We should feel free to feed many millions of persons the complete nutritional protein from alfalfa to eliminate hunger in all populations.

A Treatise

By Lance Crombie Ph.D.

The processing of Alfalfa----------Long Range Economic and Health Impacts

The Economic Impact on Health and Agriculture in Minnesota:

The wet fractionation of fresh alfalfa to produce high-valued products will reshape the economics of Minnesota Agriculture. It will drastically reshape our health. This is the "New Medicine" of prevention. This is biotechnology that is ready today. Now! There is no need for cloned animals, no gene transfers, no genetically modified organisms, no new medical device developments, no new drug developments, no EPA approvals, no long term studies, no FDA approvals. Yet this technology will radically alter the practice of medicine and the healthcare delivery system in a few years. It is starting to happen now without traditional medicine's knowledge. It is almost covert, underground, and growing daily. Read any Prevention Magazine; look at any Vitamin or Herbal supplement catalog. The Alternative Health Care- Wellness Medicine is on the march because traditional hospitals, clinics, wonder drugs, treatments, doctors and HMO's are not delivering HEALTH and WELLNESS. They only do "Treatments". Treatments require that first you get sick so "we can treat you" with a drug or such, not prevent illness or promote wellness. The word "Prevention" is never used in modern medicine. Is It? And as a bonus, will improve our agricultural economics dramatically because it is about food, the right food. It is really true that "You are what you eat". Especially when it comes to being healthy. Has your doctor ever told you how to stay "well"?

Imagine almost no heart disease, or colon cancer, or osteoporosis, or obesity, or breast cancer, or rheumatoid arthritis, or strokes, or loss of vision due to cataracts or macular degeneration, or Crohns disease or irritable bowl syndrome, and no need for antibiotics in animal feeds or in humans. No more attention deficit disorders or hyperactivity in children. These and so many other conditions that science has already proven can be cured or prevented, not with drugs but with specific natural compounds from foods, better diet and/or fractions found in plants. The scientific literature is full of proof. (See literature review).  This provides huge money savings over current "drugs or surgical treatments". Remember. Whenever you go to any doctor or clinic they never tell you how you could have prevented the disease in the first place. They "treat it". Why?  Because they are totally trained to think "treatment" in medical school and the drug companies push "pills" as cures. Yet we are sicker than ever with more chronic debilitating diseases. Or use the latest medical machine or lab test or stem cells of other new "experimental" treatments to effect a cure. "Prevention" is a word not spoken by traditional medicine. Is anyone listening? Ask "Why are there healthy people, not why are there sick ones?"

How about having better memory, better overall health, and a better quality of life into old age because these conditions aren't present? Or just plain feeling good?

Chronic diseases can all be a thing of the past. Health will prevail. How can this all be true? Through the fractionation of fresh plants into specific components that not only cure diseases but prevent these diseases in the first place? Yea, right! Well let's explain.

You all know the ill effects of smoking in causing cancer and heart disease. So the Heart Association and Cancer Society push us all to QUIT smoking. It is one small way to create better health; it is called prevention. Or how too much sun causes sunburns and a high incidence of skin cancer. Or how too much alcohol causes cirrhosis and DWI's. Or how too much fat and sugar cause obesity, diabetes, heart diseases, high blood pressure, certain cancers, and so many other bad conditions. Or how excessive noise causes hearing losses. Or how too much of the bad fats and trans fats, (cholesterol etc.) cause heart attacks and early death. Or how air pollution causes lung problems. Since, improper diet or life style or environment causes all the remaining non-infectious diseases, if diet or lifestyle changes are for the positive, these conditions can be prevented or cured. Too simple? But how?

Now let us look at the effects of specific causes and effects for just a few of these conditions and how they impact Minnesota agriculture.

It is a simple fact that many times many of us do not eat a balanced diet. You know that without me harping about eating your veggies, fruits, limited fats and sweets that you will be healthier. The real problem is we have been so conditioned and accustomed to specific foods and food "groups" that are not always the best for us. The bread, cereal, pasta group, the dairy group, the fruit group, the meat and protein group, the sweets or sugar group, the fats and oils group and the vitamin and mineral group. Now, I, being a biochemist of sound mind and experience see this as very confusing to most people.

But really, FOOD is made up of only a few compounds and molecules:

            Water=H2O is 10-90+% of food; We are 92% water.

            Salts=Phosphorous (P), Potassium (K), Sodium (Na) and others

            Sugars=simple sugars, starches, (complex?) and cellulosic types

Proteins=amino acids-some are essential and others are non-essential; the enzymes are proteins, the key metabolic catalysts.

Fats=free fatty acids, complexes of fatty acids with sugars and proteins, the saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. Also fats are simple and complex. (Steroids)

Vitamins=Vitamin A, C, E and all the others are all catalysts for enzymes.

Trace Minerals=Zinc, Magnesium, Copper, Selenium, Iron, and others

Pigments, hormones & other unique compounds that are good or bad types.

Man made additives are also in foods-Trans fatty acids, BHA preservatives, and all kinds of "modified" natural materials for flavor or structure improvements.

Mixtures all of the above compounds and molecules. That's Food.

So where does Agriculture fit into this?

All food starts with a crop grown on some farm. The fresh vegetables are grown in California and refrigerated to you door, the same with fruits. All grains-corn, wheat, barley, canola, soybeans, oats, rice, and all the others are dried, polished, milled, wet milled, ground, fractionated into hundreds of "ingredient products" to be made into "food". Some of this is good, some not so good from a biochemists point of view. Go to any grocery store and read the ingredient list on any product. All have some components that came from or were processed from some farm crop. Even milk from cows comes from the hay and grain that cows eat, eggs from chicken fed (grains), beef and pork from grain fed animals. Most foods start with a seed crop. What happened to the plant that produced the seeds? That is the fodder, the straw, the waste, and the low valued material-not food.

The question is why not eat it, as it is, in the raw state? Some we do, fruits and vegetables-carrots, celery, lettuce, broccoli, spinach, and others, but most food comes from some form of dried grain material. Why? Because it don't last very long when fresh, or they don't taste good, they are seasonal, they need to be shipped, they need to be stored, packaged and preserved for the mass markets. All these reasons cause many fragile or liable or sensitive compounds to be lost in the foods we eat. We overprocess our foods. Hence, we are in fact starving for specific compounds in our diet. The classic example comes from the study of our blood levels of the trace element, Selenium. We as a population are very deficient in Selenium because our soils have been depleted of this element by excessive erosion and over cropping with selenium removing crops. Low blood levels of Selenium dramatically increases the risks for colon, prostate, and lung cancer. It is a strong antioxidant and is implicated in prevention of heart disease. This is only one case of dietary deficiency. There are many many more cases of dietary deficiency. Most vitamin, mineral, and protein deficiencies have been known for over 100 years. Most dietary excesses like sugars and fats, have also been know for many years. 

There are several hundred definitive studies all over the world that clearly demonstrates the value of proper nutrition in the prevention of the chronic diseases.

In most cases of chronic disease conditions there is a scientific link to the lack of specific nutrients or the excessive amounts of the wrong nutrients as the cause of these conditions. The evidence is so overwhelming that some of the general population is driving the food-agricultural producers to change their ways because the public is becoming aware of the nutritional data. And when people get sick, the medical "treatments" cost a fortune and really do not work very well. So, the public is taking it upon themselves to "eat right" with the new knowledge of how the "Nutraceuticals" and "Functional Foods" prevent people from getting sick. The Food Pyramid has been severely challenged and a balanced biochemical approach is being used. Ask you health care HMO or Insurance Company or doctor about prevention to see where they stand. If you follow the health care money, you would understand how the incentives are not there to prevent having a triple coronary bypass. What is the cause of these high priced medical procedures? Who really benefits?

A few examples of the role of food excesses and deficiencies in disease conditions are as follows.

·         Sugars-excesses cause diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease, cancers and a host of other chronic conditions. Plus fat people. Hence unhappy people.

·         Fats-excessive saturated fats-soy oils, animal fats, peanut oils, palm and coconut oils are not only mostly saturated or at best Omega 6 type fats which cause a lack of Omega 3 fatty acids for good healthy eyes, brain, and inflamations.

·         Lack of Vitamin A-loss of night vision, impaired immune system.

·         Lack of Vitamin C weakens the immune systems.

·         Lack of Vitamin D- "the sunshine vitamin" causes rickets, and bone weakening.

·         Lack of Calcium-causes bone decay, osteoporosis.

·         Lack of B vitamins-increase in heart disease and immune function depression.

·         Lack of lutein-is antioxidant pigment in the macula of the eye-prevents vision losses due to macular degeneration and cataracts.

·         Lack of estrogenic hormones-cause bone losses, dry skin, and aging-prevent this with plant phytoestrogens for hormone replacement therapy.

·         Lack of fiber-causes many types of intestinal and bowel problems including colon cancer, weak immune system and high cholesterol. Need Inulin intake to prevent E coli, Salmonella and dysentery bacterial infections. Need Bifidobacter

·         Lack of Folic Acid- causes birth defects and spinal and brain development problems and heart problems due to homocysteine buildup.

·         Lack of Omega 3 fatty acids-Linolenic acid shortage in the diet causes brain development problems, heart diseases, strokes, memory problems, vision problems, extensive inflammation in arthritis, a defective immune system and a long list of chronic disease conditions. Our diet has excessive Omega 6 fatty acids and saturated fats. Low intake of Omega 3's is one our greatest deficiencies.

·         Lack of Chromium-causes an abnormal sugar metabolism and high blood sugar.

A complete review of these and all the other biochemical compounds in foods can be found in Dr. Atkins "Vita-Nutrient Solution" by Robert C. Atkins, MD A Fireside Book from Simon & Schuster, 1999. Many other publications support these studies.

How does this information effect Minnesota's Agriculture Economy?

There were 79,000 farms in Minnesota in 2000 with some 28.6 million acres under cultivation. There were 7.1 million acres of corn planted worth $1.175 billion dollars went to the growers and we had 7.3 million acres of soybeans worth $1.320 billion dollars. There was 2.02 million acres of wheat for $249 million in revenue and 2.25 million acres of hay for $ 44.5 million in revenue. The 28.6 million acres of cropland produced a total of $3.647 billion dollars to the farmers. Hay accounted for 7.8% of the total acres and only 1.2% of the revenue.

The processing of these crops into foods, like cereal, flour, breads, starches, corn meal and sweeteners and others by General Mills, Pillsbury, Cargill, Land O' Lakes, ConAgra, ADM and all the other processors produce income at about 5 times the raw material costs. This would be a value of about $18.2 billion dollars in revenue to the state and companies directly. Agriculture is big business.

 

If we would only focus on 10% of the hay crop acres, or 225,000 acres for alfalfa production. If the crop of alfalfa was fractionated into only three additional products: (1) Alfalfa protein concentrate for human food, (2) Lutein for halting vision losses due to macular degeneration and cataracts and (3) The phytoestrogen, coumestrol, to prevent osteoporosis in women. Then the following economics are expected: The yield of protein, lutein and phytoestrogens is 1,800 pounds, 1,800 grams and 400 grams per acre respectively per year. Current wholesale values for these three components are $0.70 / pound for the food grade protein; Lutein is $5.00 per gram and phytoestrogens is $30 per gram. Therefore, 225,000 acres of alfalfa will produce about $284 million in protein revenues, $2.025 billion in Lutein, and $2.7 billion in hormone revenues at wholesale values. This total of $5.009 billion dollars represents a 66% increase in farm revenues and would generate some $25.0 billion at the retail level. That is only for 10% of the current crop acres of hay and is a small part of the potential products that can be produced from the wet fractionation of fresh green plant crops. What if we used 2 million acres?

Other very important products that can be produced from this processing include saponins to prevent heart disease, lycopene to prevent prostate cancer, Vitamin and mineral concentrates to overcome current deficiencies of Zinc, Chromium, Selenium, Magnesium, Calcium, Manganese, Copper, Iron and Vitamins A, B's, C, D, E, K, and essential amino acids, hormones, fatty acids that all are specific disease prevention ingredients. The additional revenues will easily triple the returns to the processors.

This technology requires no expensive R & D program over 20 years, but only the attention but some visionary sources of financing to build the processing plants for the crop fractionations. This is easily a $15.0 billion dollar industry over the next 6-10 years that will benefit not only agriculture, the rural economy, the processors, the food companies, but the overall health and quality of life for all citizens. The medical cost savings alone by the insurance companies should provide all the financing for this project. This is a new paradigm shift in agriculture, biotechnology, food ingredients, medical disease prevention and public health delivery. Do you have the vision? It is not just hay anymore but so much more.

FOODS

I have worked for 10 years on different food products and sources. My Primary efforts have looked for alpha  linolenic acid sources in plants, the real omega 3 essential acid. The fatty acid is essential for good health. Most people get their fatty acids from fish which are not the essential fatty acids. They are omega 3's but only the alpha one linolenic acid is the "essential" fatty acid we need.