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"A low-fat diet is very efficient in terms of how much land is needed to support it. But adding some dairy products and a limited amount of meat may actually increase this efficiency, Cornell researchers suggest." Click here to learn more from the Cornell Chronicle...... Chris Peters, the lead author of the study on New York's agicultural footprint, is a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences. Chris has been honored for related work on local "foodsheds," as well as his teaching and outreach, with the 2007 Gerald O. Mott Scholarship for Meritorious Graduate Students in Crop Science. The award will be presented Nov. 6 at the American Society of Agronomy, Crops Science Society of America and Soils Science Society of America's International annual meetings in New Orleans.
“Writing in the May 10 issue of the journal Nature, a Cornell biogeochemist describes an economical and efficient way to help offset global warming: Pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere by charring, or partially burning, trees, grasses or crop residues without the use of oxygen. This process, he writes, would double the carbon concentration in the residue, which could be returned to the soil as a carbon sink. The exhaust gases from this process and other biofuel production could then be converted into energy. This so-called biochar sequestration could offset about 10 percent of the annual U.S. fossil-fuel emissions in any of several scenarios, says Johannes Lehmann, Associate Professor of Soil Biogeochemistry in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences at Cornell.” Click here for entire Cornell Chronicle story.
Related information: Johannes Lehmann website / Cornell web page on Amazonian Dark Earth / Lehmann presents research at AAAS (February 2006).
A recent study Phosphorus Speciation in Manure and Manure-Amended Soils Using XANES Spectroscopy by Shinjiro Sato, Dawit Solomon, Charles Hyland, Quirine Ketterings, and Johannes Lehmann has been selected by the National Synchrotron Light Source, Brookhaven National Laboratory, as a Science Highlight (February 9, 2006 http://www.nsls.bnl.gov/newsroom/science/2006). The study deals with phosphorus speciation in manure and manure-arnended soils in upstate New York using phosphorus K-edge XANES Spectroscopy. The investigations emphasized the importance of knowing what inorganic phosphorus species are being formed in soils subjected to excessively long term poultry- manure application in order to understand phosphorus accumulation and release patterns. Long-term manure application resulted in transformation from soluble to more stable calcium phosphates species. However, none of the amended soils showed the presence of crystalline calcium phosphates. The study suggests that maintaining a relatively high pH is an important strategy that can be used to minimize phosphates leaching in some soils in upstate New York.