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8 THE RURAL VOICE
Scrap Book
Carbon in soil helps crops, environment
Farmers kill two birds with one
stone when they keep carbon in their
soil, says the director of Agriculture
Canada's research centre in Swift
Current, Saskatchewan.
Speaking at the recent FarmTech
2000 conference in Red Deer, Alberta,
Wayne Lindwall said farmers are not
only increasing their field's
productivity when they keep carbon in
the soil, but they're doing their part to
help the environment.
"If your soil goes up in carbon it is
generally more productive." he said.
"It is still the number one indicator of
soil productivity."
Lindwall said farmers can keep
carbon in their soil by planting forages
in rotations, improving pasture
management and reducing tillage. The
reverse is also true. he said, estimating
that 25-30 per cent of soil carbon has
been lost due to cultivation.
"It is estimated we have lost about
a million tonnes of carbon since the
land was broken in Canada," Lindwall
said.
Besides restoring soil productivity,
scientists argue that good farming
practices also play an important role
in reducing carbon emissions.
Canada was one of the countries in
Kyoto, Japan, which agreed to reduce
levels of greenhouse gases like
methane, nitrous oxide and carbon
dioxide to 1990 levels. To do this,
Canada must remove 200 million
tonnes of emissions. Lindwall said
keeping carbon in the soil can help
Canada reach that goal.
He said discussions surrounding
carbon sinks are probably at the same
place as conservation tillage theories
were 30 years ago. A sink is any
activity or process that removes a
greenhouse gas from the atmosphere.
For example. trees remove carbon
dioxide from the atmosphere as part of
the photosynthesis process.
Green plants take carbon dioxide
from the air, and when they die,
microbes break down the plants and
the carbon becomes part of the soil but
it can be returned to the air if the soil
is disturbed by tillage. Grassland soil
contains more carbon per unit than
most other ecosystems worldwide.°
—Source: Western Producer
First pigs for transplants unveiled
The promise of pigs genetically
engineered to provide organs for
transplanting to hutnans came a step
closer to reality March 5 when PPL
Therapeutics of Edinburgh, Scotland
delivered the first offspring of a
genetically -altered sow in a Caesarean
section at Virginia -Maryland College
of Veterinary Medicine.
"The birth of these pigs is a very
significant accomplishment," said
Dave Ayares, PPL's vice-president of
research. "It has the potential to
essentially revolutionize the
transplantation field."
The company, which was the first
to clone an adult mammal four years
ago with Dolly the sheep, cloned the
five little pigs from an adult sow
named Destiny using a slightly
different technique than the one that
produced Dolly. The company said
that independent DNA tests proved the
piglets were clones of the sow.
PPL says the clones are a major
step toward creating genetically
altered pigs whose organs and cells
could be successfully transplanted in
humans since pigs are physiologically
one of the closest animals to humans.
Pig organs may be tested in humans in
as little as four years, PPL officials
said. Analysts believe the market
could be worth $6 billion (U.S.)
Dr. Fritz Bach of Harvard Medical
School, who studies genetic and
immunological aspects of people and
•
was not involved in the cloning,
applauded the announcement.
"I think this is a big step forward
they've made," Bach said.
"We hope in the very near-term to
overcome the shortage of human
organs," said PPL's Ayares. Already
other cloning pregnancies are ongoing
at the company's Blacksburg, Virginia
farm.
Other uses for the pigs could be
cellular therapies such as
transplantable cells that produce
insulin for treatment of diabetes.0
— Source: Associated Press