Work day on Tuesday and some current events

I got an email from Jewely a few days ago asking when she could stop by the school to help out a bit.... so our first summer work day will be Tuesday, the 17th. I'd like to start around 9am so we'll have a little time before it's crazily hot, but I can work around your schedules. Email me if/when you can come. I'll bring some refreshments. If it's raining, we'll have to reschedule.

There's bell peppers, eggplant, onions, and maybe a few other things you can take home with you.


Some current events:

Up to 20% of the Midwest's corn crop maybe be lost do to the unending rains and flooding they've had to deal with. That means 6 months to a year from now, there could be a pretty big shortage. As you know from class, the price of corn has already more than doubled over the past few years, which has contributed to a world food crisis. And we learned from King Corn that corn is the main livestock feed, as well as an ingredient in almost all processed foods. So low corn harvest this year could contribute significantly to increasing food prices. Sadly, this is a sign that the food crisis will be getting worse.
http://talkradionews.com/2008/06/iowa-flood-the-katrina-of-the-midwest/

Some more bad news... Contaminated tomatoes have been causing a Salmonella outbreak (not in FL!) Florida and California tomatoes currently being harvest have been cleared for consumption, though. The FDA is still pinpointing the cause and source of the contamination. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gTdemzWcpeDQ9QFeEyMaHk5U20GQD918PH600


Some up beat news you might need to cheer you up after those articles...
Some plants have a social life! They can tell who their relatives are.... or which plants they can take advantage of... http://earthfriendlygardening.wordpress.com/2008/06/11/plants-social-life/

FL is now home to the largest biomass pellet factory. But for some reason they're shipping a lot of their output to Europe...? Alachua County may be building a new biomass power plant.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/06/worlds-largest-biomass-plant-fla.php

Take care!