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Kids To Put Best Fruit Forward

January 18, 2010 by ·

kids to put best fruit forward_A healthy living campaign has gone online in a bid to get students to eat more fruit. A survey by health chiefs in 2006 and 2008 found that only slightly more than half of primary pupils eat fruit twice daily.

In an attempt to change the picture found by the EatSmart@school.hk campaign, the Department of Health has launched an interactive game to engage students.

The game starts today and runs for 100 days culminating in a “Joyful Fruit Day,” which is set for April 28.

It poses questions about fruit and fruit-eating habits to raise awareness.

Participants need to answer to chalk up points and rise through the levels of the game.

“Now the new generation is playing more online games. To give them more interest in our cause, we created this game in the hope that they will cultivate a habit of playing it for the next 100 days, so they will be constantly reminded of the benefits of eating fresh fruit,” said Sarah Chan Man-yu, a nursing officer at the Central Health Education Unit.

Including fruit as part of the daily diet helps expel waste from the body, increases immunity and reduces the chances of falling ill.

According to research in the United States, children who eat more fruit and vegetables have less overall fat intake and also perform better academically.

“We encourage people to include fruit in their diet – though some fruit such as avocados, coconuts and durians have higher fat content – and you need to eat them in moderation,” said Shanna Wu Yin-shan, a dietitian at the Central Health Education Unit.

The recommended fruit intake for children aged one to 18 ranges from half a serving to two servings, with each serving of fruit weighing about 80 grams.

Wu warned against drinking too much fresh fruit juice, as it contains more calories and sugar than fresh fruit.

She suggested having just one glass a day.

Besides targeting primary school students, the department has also prepared a different program for secondary school students.

They can take part in a filmmaking competition to promote fruit-eating as the “in” thing to do among peers.

In line with healthy eating for the Lunar New Year, officials are also urging the public to give fruit baskets as gift hampers rather than typical items such as egg rolls, which are not as healthy. By Kaylene Hong, Hongkong Standard

Filed Under: Fruits & Vegetables, Home ·

Orange Juice Prices To Rise By A Third As Crisis Hits Crop

January 3, 2010 by ·

orange juice prices_The price of orange juice is set to rise by up to a third after cold weather and disease hit citrus groves in Florida. The American state is one of the world’s main producers – and the problems it has experienced have already led to the price of concentrated juice doubling in a year.

Supermarket prices have been reasonably stable so far but experts say this is only because stores fix prices with suppliers months in advance.

Clive Webster, executive secretary of the British Fruit Juice Association, said he expects prices to rise by between ten and 30 per cent when contracts are renegotiated, depending on foreign currency fluctuations.

He said: ‘There’s bound to be an impact when the raw price goes up. Supermarkets will be very reluctant to put prices up but they will have little choice when their contracts end.’

A survey of UK supermarkets over the past year has shown prices are yet to rise significantly.

A one-litre carton of smooth Tropicana rose from £1.81 to £1.90 at Waitrose and from £1.57 to £1.66 at Sainsbury’s.

But the price of concentrated orange juice has already soared on world markets, from 43p per pound a year ago to more than 80p per pound last week.

The US government expects this season’s yield of Florida oranges to be down 17 per cent on last year, at 135million boxes, because cold weather and ‘spotty’ rainfall have meant smaller oranges and fewer fruit per tree.

The state’s orange groves have also been ravaged by the deadly, incurable ‘greening disease’, which originated in Asia and forces farmers to uproot trees.

Millions of dollars have been spent on aerial pesticide spraying in an attempt to reduce the population of the insect that spreads the disease – the citrus psyllid.

But there is little comfort for people who prefer an alternative drink with their breakfast. Other breakfast staples such as tea, coffee, sugar and cocoa are also at their highest prices for decades, again because of the fluctuating weather. By Matt Sandy, The Daily Mail

Filed Under: Crop Protection, Fruits & Vegetables ·

Grape Diseases Worry Growers

November 28, 2009 by ·

grape diseases_Grape growers in Bijapur district are battling grapevine diseases anthracnose and downy mildew that have struck the grape plants.

Many cultivators of grapes attribute the grape diseases to inclement weather conditions and untimely heavy rainfall in the last week of October and the second week of November.

Soon after the rainfall, many farmers had to destroy the plants because of their rotten roots. Many farmers have given up hopes of raising a good yield this season.

Babusingh Rajput, a grape grower of Jumnal village in Bijapur taluk, told The Hindu that those vineyards that survived the heavy rainfall are now threatened by anthracnose and downy mildew diseases.

“Since downy mildew is airborne disease, it spreads very quickly to vineyards and if it contained in the initial period, the entire crop is lost in a week’s time,” he added. By Pradeepkumar Kadkol, The Hindu

Filed Under: Disease, Fruits & Vegetables ·

September Gardens: Much To Do As Summer Ends

September 14, 2009 by ·

september gardens_Labor Day, the last of the summer holidays, marks the transition into fall, as do the return of football games and Halloween decorations in the stores.

Before summer ends, mark these garden chores off your checklist:

Shrubs and trees

Fertilize roses one last time and prune rambler roses.

Prune to remove any diseased and dead rose canes.

Perennials, annuals and bulbs

Plan your spring bulb garden now and purchase bulbs locally while supplies are at a peak. Now would be the ideal time if you want to mail order your bulbs. Planting should wait until October.

Divide and transplant perennials. Complete divisions by mid-October to allow roots time to establish themselves before winter. Be sure to keep newly divided plants watered.

If you’ve grown tender bulbs this summer such as caladium, gladiolus, and elephant ears, this is the month to dig them and put them into storage for next year’s use.

Collect seed from perennials and annuals for next year’s use. Continue to cut flowers for drying: yarrow, strawflower, gomphrena, cockscomb, etc.

Plant late-season annuals like pansies, snapdragons, Dianthus chinensis, ornamental kale and cabbage for fall through spring color.

Lawn care

De-thatch and core aerate existing cool-season lawns to promote root growth and improve fertilizer absorption and seed germination.

Lime your cool-season lawn if a soil test indicates it is necessary. Fertilize your cool-season lawn. It is the ideal time to establish a new cool-season lawn from seed or to over-seed an existing one which may be thin or have bare spots.

Get your bermuda grass or Zoysia lawns ready for winter by increasing the cutting height this month. This helps buffer these grasses from cold damage.

Applying a fertilizer with potassium can increase the hardiness of your warm-season grasses to cold. Look for fertilizers formulated with a pre-emergence herbicide to prevent weeds.

If you find your lawn is too shady for grass, now would be a great time to remove lower limbs and “dead wood” from large trees, greatly increasing the amount of light reaching your lawn.

Fruits and veggies

You can still plant cool-season veggies including leaf lettuce, spinach, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Swiss chard, parsley and radishes.

If rain is lacking, keep an eye on watering your cool-season garden. Add organic matter such as manure, compost and/or leaf mold to improve your garden soil.

Keep harvesting herbs, especially tender herbs like basil. Make pesto and freeze it, or put the basil in sealed plastic bags in the freezer.

Keep harvesting tomatoes and peppers. Harvest onions and garlic as soon as the tops fall over and begin to dry out. By Dr. Sue Hamilton, Director of the University of Tennessee Gardens which are part of the UT Institute of Agriculture..

Filed Under: Fresh Flowers, Fruits & Vegetables ·

Watermelons Seen As Source Of Fuel

September 9, 2009 by ·

watermelons_An Oklahoma-based chemist for the Department of Agriculture said his research suggests that sugars in the juice of watermelons can be used to make ethanol.

Wayne Fish works with the department’s research service laboratory in Lane. He said his research began two years ago during a study on how to enrich watermelons for their effect on human health.

“Then some watermelon producers asked us to find something they could do with their cull watermelons,” he said.

Joel Tumblson, a watermelon producer in Rush Springs, said finding a use for cull or discarded watermelons would be “amazing.” He said he sometimes has to leave as much as one-fourth of his crop in the field each season because the melons are overripe, cracked, sunburned or misshapen.

“Right now we just feed them to the animals or plow them under,” Tumblson said.

Fish said there are advantages to using watermelons. Unlike corn, in which starch must be broken down before it can be fermented, researchers working with watermelons were able to begin the process at fermentation.

But a disadvantage: cost.

Fish said the picking and transporting the fruit, along with returning the finished product to a farm, can be pricey. He said the first step toward using watermelons for ethanol “is to invent a mobile fermentation unit” that could be moved from grower to grower.

Such a unit might not be far from completion. Jim Rausch, the president of Common Sense Agriculture, a Texas-based company, said he hopes to finish a pilot project next year that would simplify the ethanol processing sequence.

“We’re looking at a mobile unit that could be moved from grower to grower, that in a three-month season could turn out 20,000 gallons,” he said. “The whole production process can eliminate transportation costs.”

He said the goal is to turn a waste crop into something that is profitable for farmers. Associated Press.

Filed Under: Fruits & Vegetables, News ·