Solar, wind energy a missed opportunity for Cuba - Boston Globe

var archivedState=0;

RAMON GORDO, Cuba (AP) — The sleepy country setting that farmer Juan Alonso calls home hasn’t changed much since he was born 74 years ago, with the two rustic wooden houses nestled among palm trees against a backdrop of green hills and clear skies.

Incongruously perched atop the homes are the only visual clues that his 150-acre (60-hectare) farm inhabits the 21st century: the gleaming solar panels that revolutionized the lives of Alonso and his family.

‘‘Just imagine, you toil all day in the field and then when you get home you have to grope around doing things with a gas lantern, with a torch to illuminate the patio at night,’’ Alonso said, describing life during decades past. Now his family has electric lights, a television and a DVD player. ‘‘It’s a change as radical as night to day.’’

Cuba is proud of its success in using alternative energy to bring electricity to isolated hamlets like Ramon Gordo, 90 miles (150 kilometers) west of Havana. Some 2,000 schools and at least 400 hospitals are lit up by solar panels in rural areas not plugged into the national grid. But scientists say the island, blessed with year-around sunshine and sea breezes but plagued with chronic energy shortages, could be doing much more on the national level, and that its communist government is missing a golden opportunity to reduce its dependence on subsidized oil from uber-ally Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez is sick with cancer.

It is vital that Cuba expand its energy horizons ‘‘so it doesn’t remain at the mercy of political changes in the region that could affect it adversely,’’ said Judith Cherni, an alternative energy expert at the Imperial College London Center for Environmental Policy.

The urgency to find alternative energy sources was driven home last month when an exploratory offshore oil well drilled by Spanish company Repsol turned out to be dry, a setback to Cuba’s hopes for a big strike that could be a boon for the limping economy, though exploration continues.

Despite recent essays by revolutionary hero Fidel Castro on impending global catastrophe due to climate change, Cuba gets just 3.8 percent of its electricity from renewables, a pittance even by regional standards and far behind global leaders.

In the nearby Dominican Republic, where a 2007 law establishes tax breaks for investment in alternative energy, renewables account for 14 percent of electrical generation. Germany, the gold standard for high-tech green energy, gets 20 percent of its considerably larger electrical consumption from renewables, mostly from wind.

The reality in Cuba today is that wind and solar energy sources are almost exclusively for local consumption and there has been little attempt to expand them to augment the national grid, which is powered mostly by fossil fuels. Scientists say the country lacks the investment and expertise for such a move.

Around the region, examples abound for Cuba to emulate. Central American nations are using hydroelectric facilities to harness the power of rivers. Caribbean islands are passing laws stimulating foreign investment in renewables. Wind and solar farms are popping up where viable. Faraway in Europe, and nearby in the United States, individuals with solar panels can get paid for any extra energy they generate that goes back into the grid.

‘‘Possessing apt natural resources to generate energies is a tremendous boon, but that alone is not enough to create energy,’’ said Cherni.

Another obstacle to boosting renewable energy is a stubbornly fixed mindset that equates development with oil.

Memories are still vivid here of the ‘‘Special Period’’ of the 1990s, when the island’s economy tanked with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, ushering in years of hunger, prolonged blackouts and fuel shortages. People thumbed rides to work on the back of bicycles as cars sat idle and empty-tanked.

To cope, Cuba began installing its first solar panels, building small hydroelectric plants, restoring old windmills and extracting gas from animal waste.

But after Chavez’s election in 1998 in oil-rich Venezuela, Cuba once again embraced fossil fuels wholeheartedly with the appearance of a new benefactor and ideological ally willing to help keep the lights on. Today Caracas provides nearly half Cuba’s petroleum needs, shipping about 100,000 barrels of oil a day to the island on beneficial terms while Cuba sends doctors and technical advisers to Venezuela.

‘‘Cuba is a nation that is dependent on oil, yes, but in addition the culture of its leaders and technicians, of its common citizens, is one of fossil fuels,’’ said Alejandro Montesinos, a renewable energy expert at Cubasolar, the island’s chief NGO for sustainable energy.Continued...

View the original article here

Solar, wind energy a missed opportunity for Cuba - Boston Globe

var archivedState=0;

RAMON GORDO, Cuba (AP) — The sleepy country setting that farmer Juan Alonso calls home hasn’t changed much since he was born 74 years ago, with the two rustic wooden houses nestled among palm trees against a backdrop of green hills and clear skies.

Incongruously perched atop the homes are the only visual clues that his 150-acre (60-hectare) farm inhabits the 21st century: the gleaming solar panels that revolutionized the lives of Alonso and his family.

‘‘Just imagine, you toil all day in the field and then when you get home you have to grope around doing things with a gas lantern, with a torch to illuminate the patio at night,’’ Alonso said, describing life during decades past. Now his family has electric lights, a television and a DVD player. ‘‘It’s a change as radical as night to day.’’

Cuba is proud of its success in using alternative energy to bring electricity to isolated hamlets like Ramon Gordo, 90 miles (150 kilometers) west of Havana. Some 2,000 schools and at least 400 hospitals are lit up by solar panels in rural areas not plugged into the national grid. But scientists say the island, blessed with year-around sunshine and sea breezes but plagued with chronic energy shortages, could be doing much more on the national level, and that its communist government is missing a golden opportunity to reduce its dependence on subsidized oil from uber-ally Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez is sick with cancer.

It is vital that Cuba expand its energy horizons ‘‘so it doesn’t remain at the mercy of political changes in the region that could affect it adversely,’’ said Judith Cherni, an alternative energy expert at the Imperial College London Center for Environmental Policy.

The urgency to find alternative energy sources was driven home last month when an exploratory offshore oil well drilled by Spanish company Repsol turned out to be dry, a setback to Cuba’s hopes for a big strike that could be a boon for the limping economy, though exploration continues.

Despite recent essays by revolutionary hero Fidel Castro on impending global catastrophe due to climate change, Cuba gets just 3.8 percent of its electricity from renewables, a pittance even by regional standards and far behind global leaders.

In the nearby Dominican Republic, where a 2007 law establishes tax breaks for investment in alternative energy, renewables account for 14 percent of electrical generation. Germany, the gold standard for high-tech green energy, gets 20 percent of its considerably larger electrical consumption from renewables, mostly from wind.

The reality in Cuba today is that wind and solar energy sources are almost exclusively for local consumption and there has been little attempt to expand them to augment the national grid, which is powered mostly by fossil fuels. Scientists say the country lacks the investment and expertise for such a move.

Around the region, examples abound for Cuba to emulate. Central American nations are using hydroelectric facilities to harness the power of rivers. Caribbean islands are passing laws stimulating foreign investment in renewables. Wind and solar farms are popping up where viable. Faraway in Europe, and nearby in the United States, individuals with solar panels can get paid for any extra energy they generate that goes back into the grid.

‘‘Possessing apt natural resources to generate energies is a tremendous boon, but that alone is not enough to create energy,’’ said Cherni.

Another obstacle to boosting renewable energy is a stubbornly fixed mindset that equates development with oil.

Memories are still vivid here of the ‘‘Special Period’’ of the 1990s, when the island’s economy tanked with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, ushering in years of hunger, prolonged blackouts and fuel shortages. People thumbed rides to work on the back of bicycles as cars sat idle and empty-tanked.

To cope, Cuba began installing its first solar panels, building small hydroelectric plants, restoring old windmills and extracting gas from animal waste.

But after Chavez’s election in 1998 in oil-rich Venezuela, Cuba once again embraced fossil fuels wholeheartedly with the appearance of a new benefactor and ideological ally willing to help keep the lights on. Today Caracas provides nearly half Cuba’s petroleum needs, shipping about 100,000 barrels of oil a day to the island on beneficial terms while Cuba sends doctors and technical advisers to Venezuela.

‘‘Cuba is a nation that is dependent on oil, yes, but in addition the culture of its leaders and technicians, of its common citizens, is one of fossil fuels,’’ said Alejandro Montesinos, a renewable energy expert at Cubasolar, the island’s chief NGO for sustainable energy.Continued...

View the original article here

Solar, wind energy a missed opportunity for Cuba - Boston Globe

var archivedState=0;

RAMON GORDO, Cuba (AP) — The sleepy country setting that farmer Juan Alonso calls home hasn’t changed much since he was born 74 years ago, with the two rustic wooden houses nestled among palm trees against a backdrop of green hills and clear skies.

Incongruously perched atop the homes are the only visual clues that his 150-acre (60-hectare) farm inhabits the 21st century: the gleaming solar panels that revolutionized the lives of Alonso and his family.

‘‘Just imagine, you toil all day in the field and then when you get home you have to grope around doing things with a gas lantern, with a torch to illuminate the patio at night,’’ Alonso said, describing life during decades past. Now his family has electric lights, a television and a DVD player. ‘‘It’s a change as radical as night to day.’’

Cuba is proud of its success in using alternative energy to bring electricity to isolated hamlets like Ramon Gordo, 90 miles (150 kilometers) west of Havana. Some 2,000 schools and at least 400 hospitals are lit up by solar panels in rural areas not plugged into the national grid. But scientists say the island, blessed with year-around sunshine and sea breezes but plagued with chronic energy shortages, could be doing much more on the national level, and that its communist government is missing a golden opportunity to reduce its dependence on subsidized oil from uber-ally Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez is sick with cancer.

It is vital that Cuba expand its energy horizons ‘‘so it doesn’t remain at the mercy of political changes in the region that could affect it adversely,’’ said Judith Cherni, an alternative energy expert at the Imperial College London Center for Environmental Policy.

The urgency to find alternative energy sources was driven home last month when an exploratory offshore oil well drilled by Spanish company Repsol turned out to be dry, a setback to Cuba’s hopes for a big strike that could be a boon for the limping economy, though exploration continues.

Despite recent essays by revolutionary hero Fidel Castro on impending global catastrophe due to climate change, Cuba gets just 3.8 percent of its electricity from renewables, a pittance even by regional standards and far behind global leaders.

In the nearby Dominican Republic, where a 2007 law establishes tax breaks for investment in alternative energy, renewables account for 14 percent of electrical generation. Germany, the gold standard for high-tech green energy, gets 20 percent of its considerably larger electrical consumption from renewables, mostly from wind.

The reality in Cuba today is that wind and solar energy sources are almost exclusively for local consumption and there has been little attempt to expand them to augment the national grid, which is powered mostly by fossil fuels. Scientists say the country lacks the investment and expertise for such a move.

Around the region, examples abound for Cuba to emulate. Central American nations are using hydroelectric facilities to harness the power of rivers. Caribbean islands are passing laws stimulating foreign investment in renewables. Wind and solar farms are popping up where viable. Faraway in Europe, and nearby in the United States, individuals with solar panels can get paid for any extra energy they generate that goes back into the grid.

‘‘Possessing apt natural resources to generate energies is a tremendous boon, but that alone is not enough to create energy,’’ said Cherni.

Another obstacle to boosting renewable energy is a stubbornly fixed mindset that equates development with oil.

Memories are still vivid here of the ‘‘Special Period’’ of the 1990s, when the island’s economy tanked with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, ushering in years of hunger, prolonged blackouts and fuel shortages. People thumbed rides to work on the back of bicycles as cars sat idle and empty-tanked.

To cope, Cuba began installing its first solar panels, building small hydroelectric plants, restoring old windmills and extracting gas from animal waste.

But after Chavez’s election in 1998 in oil-rich Venezuela, Cuba once again embraced fossil fuels wholeheartedly with the appearance of a new benefactor and ideological ally willing to help keep the lights on. Today Caracas provides nearly half Cuba’s petroleum needs, shipping about 100,000 barrels of oil a day to the island on beneficial terms while Cuba sends doctors and technical advisers to Venezuela.

‘‘Cuba is a nation that is dependent on oil, yes, but in addition the culture of its leaders and technicians, of its common citizens, is one of fossil fuels,’’ said Alejandro Montesinos, a renewable energy expert at Cubasolar, the island’s chief NGO for sustainable energy.Continued...

View the original article here

Solar, wind energy a missed opportunity for Cuba - Boston Globe

var archivedState=0;

RAMON GORDO, Cuba (AP) — The sleepy country setting that farmer Juan Alonso calls home hasn’t changed much since he was born 74 years ago, with the two rustic wooden houses nestled among palm trees against a backdrop of green hills and clear skies.

Incongruously perched atop the homes are the only visual clues that his 150-acre (60-hectare) farm inhabits the 21st century: the gleaming solar panels that revolutionized the lives of Alonso and his family.

‘‘Just imagine, you toil all day in the field and then when you get home you have to grope around doing things with a gas lantern, with a torch to illuminate the patio at night,’’ Alonso said, describing life during decades past. Now his family has electric lights, a television and a DVD player. ‘‘It’s a change as radical as night to day.’’

Cuba is proud of its success in using alternative energy to bring electricity to isolated hamlets like Ramon Gordo, 90 miles (150 kilometers) west of Havana. Some 2,000 schools and at least 400 hospitals are lit up by solar panels in rural areas not plugged into the national grid. But scientists say the island, blessed with year-around sunshine and sea breezes but plagued with chronic energy shortages, could be doing much more on the national level, and that its communist government is missing a golden opportunity to reduce its dependence on subsidized oil from uber-ally Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez is sick with cancer.

It is vital that Cuba expand its energy horizons ‘‘so it doesn’t remain at the mercy of political changes in the region that could affect it adversely,’’ said Judith Cherni, an alternative energy expert at the Imperial College London Center for Environmental Policy.

The urgency to find alternative energy sources was driven home last month when an exploratory offshore oil well drilled by Spanish company Repsol turned out to be dry, a setback to Cuba’s hopes for a big strike that could be a boon for the limping economy, though exploration continues.

Despite recent essays by revolutionary hero Fidel Castro on impending global catastrophe due to climate change, Cuba gets just 3.8 percent of its electricity from renewables, a pittance even by regional standards and far behind global leaders.

In the nearby Dominican Republic, where a 2007 law establishes tax breaks for investment in alternative energy, renewables account for 14 percent of electrical generation. Germany, the gold standard for high-tech green energy, gets 20 percent of its considerably larger electrical consumption from renewables, mostly from wind.

The reality in Cuba today is that wind and solar energy sources are almost exclusively for local consumption and there has been little attempt to expand them to augment the national grid, which is powered mostly by fossil fuels. Scientists say the country lacks the investment and expertise for such a move.

Around the region, examples abound for Cuba to emulate. Central American nations are using hydroelectric facilities to harness the power of rivers. Caribbean islands are passing laws stimulating foreign investment in renewables. Wind and solar farms are popping up where viable. Faraway in Europe, and nearby in the United States, individuals with solar panels can get paid for any extra energy they generate that goes back into the grid.

‘‘Possessing apt natural resources to generate energies is a tremendous boon, but that alone is not enough to create energy,’’ said Cherni.

Another obstacle to boosting renewable energy is a stubbornly fixed mindset that equates development with oil.

Memories are still vivid here of the ‘‘Special Period’’ of the 1990s, when the island’s economy tanked with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, ushering in years of hunger, prolonged blackouts and fuel shortages. People thumbed rides to work on the back of bicycles as cars sat idle and empty-tanked.

To cope, Cuba began installing its first solar panels, building small hydroelectric plants, restoring old windmills and extracting gas from animal waste.

But after Chavez’s election in 1998 in oil-rich Venezuela, Cuba once again embraced fossil fuels wholeheartedly with the appearance of a new benefactor and ideological ally willing to help keep the lights on. Today Caracas provides nearly half Cuba’s petroleum needs, shipping about 100,000 barrels of oil a day to the island on beneficial terms while Cuba sends doctors and technical advisers to Venezuela.

‘‘Cuba is a nation that is dependent on oil, yes, but in addition the culture of its leaders and technicians, of its common citizens, is one of fossil fuels,’’ said Alejandro Montesinos, a renewable energy expert at Cubasolar, the island’s chief NGO for sustainable energy.Continued...

View the original article here

Solar, wind energy a missed opportunity for Cuba - Boston Globe

var archivedState=0;

RAMON GORDO, Cuba (AP) — The sleepy country setting that farmer Juan Alonso calls home hasn’t changed much since he was born 74 years ago, with the two rustic wooden houses nestled among palm trees against a backdrop of green hills and clear skies.

Incongruously perched atop the homes are the only visual clues that his 150-acre (60-hectare) farm inhabits the 21st century: the gleaming solar panels that revolutionized the lives of Alonso and his family.

‘‘Just imagine, you toil all day in the field and then when you get home you have to grope around doing things with a gas lantern, with a torch to illuminate the patio at night,’’ Alonso said, describing life during decades past. Now his family has electric lights, a television and a DVD player. ‘‘It’s a change as radical as night to day.’’

Cuba is proud of its success in using alternative energy to bring electricity to isolated hamlets like Ramon Gordo, 90 miles (150 kilometers) west of Havana. Some 2,000 schools and at least 400 hospitals are lit up by solar panels in rural areas not plugged into the national grid. But scientists say the island, blessed with year-around sunshine and sea breezes but plagued with chronic energy shortages, could be doing much more on the national level, and that its communist government is missing a golden opportunity to reduce its dependence on subsidized oil from uber-ally Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez is sick with cancer.

It is vital that Cuba expand its energy horizons ‘‘so it doesn’t remain at the mercy of political changes in the region that could affect it adversely,’’ said Judith Cherni, an alternative energy expert at the Imperial College London Center for Environmental Policy.

The urgency to find alternative energy sources was driven home last month when an exploratory offshore oil well drilled by Spanish company Repsol turned out to be dry, a setback to Cuba’s hopes for a big strike that could be a boon for the limping economy, though exploration continues.

Despite recent essays by revolutionary hero Fidel Castro on impending global catastrophe due to climate change, Cuba gets just 3.8 percent of its electricity from renewables, a pittance even by regional standards and far behind global leaders.

In the nearby Dominican Republic, where a 2007 law establishes tax breaks for investment in alternative energy, renewables account for 14 percent of electrical generation. Germany, the gold standard for high-tech green energy, gets 20 percent of its considerably larger electrical consumption from renewables, mostly from wind.

The reality in Cuba today is that wind and solar energy sources are almost exclusively for local consumption and there has been little attempt to expand them to augment the national grid, which is powered mostly by fossil fuels. Scientists say the country lacks the investment and expertise for such a move.

Around the region, examples abound for Cuba to emulate. Central American nations are using hydroelectric facilities to harness the power of rivers. Caribbean islands are passing laws stimulating foreign investment in renewables. Wind and solar farms are popping up where viable. Faraway in Europe, and nearby in the United States, individuals with solar panels can get paid for any extra energy they generate that goes back into the grid.

‘‘Possessing apt natural resources to generate energies is a tremendous boon, but that alone is not enough to create energy,’’ said Cherni.

Another obstacle to boosting renewable energy is a stubbornly fixed mindset that equates development with oil.

Memories are still vivid here of the ‘‘Special Period’’ of the 1990s, when the island’s economy tanked with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, ushering in years of hunger, prolonged blackouts and fuel shortages. People thumbed rides to work on the back of bicycles as cars sat idle and empty-tanked.

To cope, Cuba began installing its first solar panels, building small hydroelectric plants, restoring old windmills and extracting gas from animal waste.

But after Chavez’s election in 1998 in oil-rich Venezuela, Cuba once again embraced fossil fuels wholeheartedly with the appearance of a new benefactor and ideological ally willing to help keep the lights on. Today Caracas provides nearly half Cuba’s petroleum needs, shipping about 100,000 barrels of oil a day to the island on beneficial terms while Cuba sends doctors and technical advisers to Venezuela.

‘‘Cuba is a nation that is dependent on oil, yes, but in addition the culture of its leaders and technicians, of its common citizens, is one of fossil fuels,’’ said Alejandro Montesinos, a renewable energy expert at Cubasolar, the island’s chief NGO for sustainable energy.Continued...

View the original article here

An opportunity missed in China - Financial Times

The recent call by Wen Jiabao, China’s premier, for urgent political and economic reform, has reignited debate over the state of the Chinese economy and Chinese industry. However, his call for change also embraces the antiquated and conservative Chinese business education system. Without urgent reform what chance is there for Chinese industry to achieve any sustainable competitive advantage?

Business education in China and MBA programmes in particular, are attracting record numbers of students. But despite the large numbers flocking to business school, this is failing to translate into business success among China’s corporations, even the most well known.

Last year marked the 20th anniversary of MBA education in China. There are now a total of 236 MBA programmes on offer at China’s business schools, compared with only nine piloted in 1991. Nevertheless, China’s myriad organisations fail to make the mark both domestically and on the international stage.

The Chinese government is aware of this paradox. In 1995 the Chinese central government publicly pledged to instigate major education reform on the mainland, and in 2009 education appeared once again as a key feature in China’s transition, with further government proclamations of sweeping policy changes.

Nonetheless, despite so much attention, education in mainland China – and business education in particular – remains woefully inferior compared with most European and US universities and business schools.

An academic brain drain continues to present a serious issue, with leading Chinese professors and students seeking career paths overseas.

Several factors may be at work here. Average starting salaries for graduating MBAs from leading US and European business schools are some 30-40 per cent higher than for graduates from Chinese business schools.

Leading US and European Union business schools are also viewed as producing superior academic research, with research conducted by the elite US (Ivy league) and UK (Russell Group) universities ranking among the most highly respected worldwide. Even academics at the leading Chinese business schools rarely publish in top-rated academic journals.

Top Chinese students still favour business education from a leading US or European business school and on graduation they invariably seek employment in the west, or choose a career in an international company based in China.

As a result there is a paucity of sufficiently knowledgeable and talented Chinese business professionals, meaning that Chinese companies are under-represented on the world stage.

The challenges facing business education in mainland China are even more serious given the country’s gradual shift from being the world’s lowest-cost producer and Beijing’s recent attention to domestic consumption and the development of local industry. For example, the government recently withdrew support for international direct investment in certain industries, including automobile manufacturing, to allow Chinese companies to become more competitive domestically and internationally. However, without a critical mass of suitably educated Chinese business graduates, such an improvement in competitiveness is highly unlikely.

The recent change in China’s political leadership was the opportunity for the government to reform its approach to business education. Changes could have included tailored executive education for Chinese companies and industry sectors; MBA and related programmes aimed at creating and maintaining a direct link between business education and business improvement; and the establishment of entrepreneurship as a core part of most business education programmes, allowing China to move closer to a culture that values innovation and creativity.

Such changes would have transformed China’s business education landscape and helped to make it a competitive force on the international stage. Sadly it was an opportunity missed.

Mike Bastin is a resea rcher at Nottingham University’s School of Contemporary Chinese Studies

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2012. You may share using our article tools.
Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.

View the original article here

Farming Talk: Opportunity is missed by new Coalition budget - Shropshire Star

The Budget represented a missed opportunity for the Treasury to introduce measures that might have helped farmers.

Chancellor George Osborne was right to focus on growth and I was pleased to see measures that could create a more competitive business environment in the UK.

John Mercer

In particular, the Chancellor’s ambition to increase exports over the next decade to £1 trillion should benefit farmers who are the backbone of a food and drink industry which constitutes our biggest manufacturing sector.

I was also interested to hear that Michael Heseltine will be conducting a review into how spending departments interact with the private sector to deliver pro-growth policies, and I look forward to more details.

The Treasury has also mentioned a couple of imminent announcements which I await with interest – the review of the Habitats Directive to be published this week, and the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) due out next week.

I was pleased that the Chancellor confirmed the latter will contain a commitment to permitting sustainable development, something we welcomed when the draft policy statement was published.

Both announcements could contribute to reducing the regulatory burden on farmers, freeing them to invest and making businesses, and the industry, more competitive.

Nevertheless, before the Budget, I called on the Chancellor to bring forward policies that encourage and incentivise private sector investment in farm businesses, and build on the relative stability farmers have experienced since the economic crisis of 2008.

Changes to the tax treatment of farm reservoirs, for example, are crucial at a time when farmers need to prepare for scarcer water resources in some parts of the country, while a reversal of the decision to reduce the Annual Investment Allowance (AIA) on plant and machinery to £25k would encourage farmers to invest in costly machinery needed on modern, productive farms.

However, these are just a couple of the relatively small measures that seem to have been ignored by the Treasury.

With regard to capital allowances, the Chancellor’s focus on giving Britain the lowest corporation tax rate in the G20 ignores those businesses which are not incorporated. This includes a majority of farms – and it is they who will be discouraged from investing by the reduction in the AIA.

I know farmers will also be unhappy with the Chancellor’s decision not to stop the rise in fuel duty planned for August, especially as rural areas tend to suffer from higher fuel prices while the price of fuel on-farm continues to rise.

Whatever the economic circumstances, farming must prepare itself for a period of sustainable intensification of food production, allowing us to meet the future needs of a growing population. At the heart of this is the need for farmers to invest in their businesses, in new technology and techniques that will allow them to operate competitive and productive enterprises while minimising their environmental impact.

Unfortunately, the Budget didn’t do enough to remove some of the barriers preventing farmers from meeting this challenge.

John Mercer is NFU regional director.

View the original article here

State Patty's -- a missed opportunity - Centre Daily

It is truly ashame that downtown State College workers will lose out on a day of pay and businesses will lose out of a strong Saturday when they close for State Patty's Day.

This student drink fest holiday is a mess but it's not because of bars and local workers. They are doing their jobs.

Again, the community and Penn State has dropped the ball and has not expanding their horizons when planning for State Patty's.

Again, they are content with asking businesses to close, jacking up parking rates, bringing every officer from here to Pittsburgh here and hoping for the best.

The community will be held hostage -- again. State Patty's is here.

I've written several times that State College and Penn State should build on State Patty's and create a winter festival with activities for green-clad students and community members. Add music, sports and other activities to the mix, encourage businesses to open and sell great food, and enjoy it together.

Every time I've written this I've gotten calls and emails from readers thanking me, agreeing. Every time. Yet I don't remember one of these readers writing a letter or coming forward publicly to talk about this.

What do we have this weekend? A 9 p.m. start for Penn State's game with Northwestern. Anything else? Any activities in State College that could be put together for a winter festival?

Not this year. I hope State Patty's goes as well as it can and nobody gets hurt.

I suggest for next year Penn State and State College officials and Penn State student leaders and organizations get together and plan something big. The community and the students would deserve it.

-- Bob Heisse

View the original article here