Working hand in hand?

Perhaps? New Agri-Enviornment initiatives? Killing two bird, with one stone!

Plus, it gives the Re-Earth nutters, and I say nutters in an affectionate manner, something to REALLY do!

What can they do together, you reckon?
:confused:

One law i would like to see is the outlawing of bulldozing every living thing on a piece of property. Homeowners should also get a discount on property tax if they have 1) a rainwater tank 2) fruit trees and 3) renewable energy installed (solar, wind)

One law i would like to see is the outlawing of bulldozing every living thing on a piece of property. Homeowners should also get a discount on property tax if they have 1) a rainwater tank 2) fruit trees and 3) renewable energy installed (solar, wind)

I heard they have a solar company in this country now. Don't know how much work they do, but it may be worth giving them a call!

Alien:

Here is an idea that might appeal to you (or you could find it so far out, that you instantly dismiss it). I present it to you merely for your consideration.

I have an old school chum from Trinity who went on to be a biochemical engineer. As a bit of a backgrounder, see this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochemical_engineering

He is building a bio reactor incorporating tissue culture. Here is the plan that he laid out to me on the back of a napkin.

Let us take a commodity like oil -- soybean oil for example. This is an oil that can be made into a bio fuel like bio diesel. To make this oil, you grow a whole field of soy. Then the plants flowers, the bees pollinate, you get seeds. You let the plant die on the vine, the fruit (the bean) dries out. You harvest the beans, crush them for oil and then you process the oil to make bio diesel. But to grow this crop, you must use a lot of fuel. You must run the tractor up and down the fields to plow the land, seed the land, condition and water the plants and harvest the plants. One of the highest component cost of agriculture is fuel.

My friend has a different system. What he has done, is at his university he has build a bio reactor. It is just a big tub. He has filled the bio-reactor with nutritive medium and just grows the cells that produce the oil using tissue culture. No plant. No stems. No roots. No flowers, or birds or tractors running up and down. The oil-producing cells are a thick slurry in the bio reactor. Once the bio-reactor fills up with all of these cells, he dumps it out and uses a centrifuge to break up the cells, and the oil flows to the top. It is decanted and there you go.

This means of agriculture can be used for spices (just grow the aromatic cells that produce the capsicum or the heat), and even grains and starches. (Just grow the cells that produce wheat starch -- which is flour).

This is a mode of agriculture that could really work in the energy starved Bahamas.

Alien:
Here is an idea that might appeal to you (or you could find it so far out, that you instantly dismiss it). I present it to you merely for your consideration.
I have an old school chum from Trinity who went on to be a biochemical engineer. As a bit of a backgrounder, see this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochemical_engineering
He is building a bio reactor incorporating tissue culture. Here is the plan that he laid out to me on the back of a napkin.
Let us take a commodity like oil -- soybean oil for example. This is an oil that can be made into a bio fuel like bio diesel. To make this oil, you grow a whole field of soy. Then the plants flowers, the bees pollinate, you get seeds. You let the plant die on the vine, the fruit (the bean) dries out. You harvest the beans, crush them for oil and then you process the oil to make bio diesel. But to grow this crop, you must use a lot of fuel. You must run the tractor up and down the fields to plow the land, seed the land, condition and water the plants and harvest the plants. One of the highest component cost of agriculture is fuel.
My friend has a different system. What he has done, is at his university he has build a bio reactor. It is just a big tub. He has filled the bio-reactor with nutritive medium and just grows the cells that produce the oil using tissue culture. No plant. No stems. No roots. No flowers, or birds or tractors running up and down. The oil-producing cells are a thick slurry in the bio reactor. Once the bio-reactor fills up with all of these cells, he dumps it out and uses a centrifuge to break up the cells, and the oil flows to the top. It is decanted and there you go.
This means of agriculture can be used for spices (just grow the aromatic cells that produce the capsicum or the heat), and even grains and starches. (Just grow the cells that produce wheat starch -- which is flour).
This is a mode of agriculture that could really work in the energy starved Bahamas.

Sounds like something we should be doing in the Bahamas. In fact, it makes perfect sense. Make enough for domestic consumption and for bio-fuels....

I never knew would have fathomed at how green I'm turning. Not nutter like, but totally green!
:hammer:

I studied in Hawaii, when I came home I talked to a lot of Bahamians who were getting involved in politics (I real old). Told them that we need to go to aeroculture, we could feed everybody, using greenhouses. Don't need no soil. Even gave contact names at the University of Hawaii Department of Agriculture. Nothing happened. I got pat on the head and that was that. Maybe some of you young ones would like to look into that??

Wouldn't we need more biochemical engineers?? Assuming Bahamians cannot efficiently build a field of bioreactors to sufficiently offset the cost of fossil fuels - what would be the cost-benefit of purchasing hundreds of bioreactors from foreigners?? What do we do with the waste??

Wouldn't we need more biochemical engineers?? Assuming Bahamians cannot efficiently build a field of bioreactors to sufficiently offset the cost of fossil fuels - what would be the cost-benefit of purchasing hundreds of bioreactors from foreigners?? What do we do with the waste??
Good point, every one thinks they have the answer and that somehow this or that new technology will save the bahamas.
Reminds me of all those who keep talking about biofuels, solar or wind energy, all of which at this time are still more expensive to use and implement than oil based solutions even with oil at 135+ per barrel.

I'm not against the idea(s). I just want an understanding of the cost. I think in net present value terms. Which means paying attention to opportunity costs and time.

I am not against the idea either, but the point I was trying to make was that the whole solution has to be analysed against what we have today.
The farming type that was mentioned is doable, but is it cost effective to do it and do we have the expertise to do it.

The reason I used the alternative energy example is because that aspect of it is never looked at. For instance it would be very easy to implement solar energy in the Bahamas, but right now the up front cost and even the maintainance cost will not justify doing it on a large scale, it is still cheaper to use BEC in the long and short run than to use solar on a large scale.