Plastics made from corn and other plants are carving a tiny niche from the market for conventional petroleum-based plastics and being promoted as green alternatives for everything from bulk food containers to lipstick tubes and clothing fiber - as well as gift cards. Plastics made from corn and other plants are carving a tiny niche from the market for conventional petroleum-based plastics and being promoted as green alternatives for everything from bulk food containers to lipstick tubes...

Barley and wheat prices have skyrocketed as more farmers plant corn to meet increasing demand for ethanol, while others plant feed crops to replace acres lost to corn. Those contracts also enabled Tommyknocker to mostly hold the line on prices, with only a 50-cent increase per case wholesale, largely due to rising glass prices. Small brewers from Australia to Oregon face the daunting prospect of tweaking their recipes or experimenting less with new brews thanks to shortages of key beer...

Often called cover crops, green manures are simply fast-growing plants (usually annuals) that are broadcast as seed over an empty field or vegetable bed. With mature plantings, always layer the compost thinly around each plant's neck, trunk or crown, then pile it on more generously as you reach the drip line. Traditionally, mature cover crops were tilled in, but now that we know soil is alive, WSU soil scientists say that tilling is no longer a recommended technique. Good garden soil is a...

Published October 17, 2007 09:09 pm - WEST LAFAYETTE Farmers are facing pressure from sales representatives to place their seed orders earlier each year, but the problem with this is that the current year's yield trial information is not yet available, a Purdue University expert said. Published October 17, 2007 09:09 pm - WEST LAFAYETTE Farmers are facing pressure from sales representatives to place their seed orders earlier each year, but the problem with this is that the current year's...

Still, SunOpta is in an agriculture-based business and thus subject to vagaries of weather, crops and commodity pricing that even its hedging program can't fully neutralize. Around the same time, the company, new to the sunflower market, gambled on a seed, rushing it to farmers without taking its usual time for testing. The seed flopped, making the crop useful for little more than bird feed. It entered the fibre business just as food makers began responding to the Atkins diet craze and...