Please note that RSVP to sbir@htdc.org is requested. The seminars are being offered in Manoa on June 28, Kona on June 29, and Hilo on June 30.

Class begins Tues. Jan. 11, 2011. Class includes labs that will provide ‘hands-on’ experience in horticulture practices, as well as satisfying one of the science requirements for the community college’s 2-year Associates Degree!

Location: West Hawaii Center
More info: http://www.sis.hawaii.edu/uhdad/avail.classes

Release No. HI-10-10

USDA Invites Applications for Renewable Energy Funding

Funds Will Help Increase Production and Use of Renewable Energy, Create Jobs, and Protect Natural Resources

HILO, HI, May 4, 2010 – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that USDA is seeking applications to increase the production and use of renewable energy sources. Funding is available from four USDA Rural Development renewable energy programs authorized by the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (Farm Bill).

“This funding will help spur investments in technologies that will reduce reliance on fossil fuels, conserve natural resources and help build a sustained renewable energy industry in rural America,” Vilsack said. “Support provided by USDA through these programs will not only benefit the environment, it will create green jobs and help America become more energy self-sufficient.”

USDA is accepting applications for grants and loan guarantees in the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) until June 30, 2010. More information on how to apply for funding is available in the April 26, 2010 Federal Register. The Rural Energy for America Program provides funds to agricultural producers and rural small businesses to purchase and install renewable energy systems and make energy efficiency improvements.

Eligible projects include installing renewable energy systems such as wind turbines, solar, geothermal, biomass, anaerobic digesters, hydroelectric, and ocean or hydrogen systems. Funding may also be used to purchase energy-efficient equipment, add insulation, and improve heating and cooling systems. In fiscal year 2009, this program helped fund 1,485 REAP projects in 50 states, the commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the Western Pacific Islands.

“The Rural Energy for America Program enables owners of small rural businesses, farms and ranches to reduce energy consumption, part of President Obama’s effort to reduce our reliance on foreign oil and the destabilizing effects of a changing climate,” Vilsack said. “Through this program, farmers, agricultural producers and small business owners will be able to upgrade or replace outdated, inefficient systems in their operations. That not only saves money, it supports job creation.”

One rural company that used REAP funds to reduce energy costs is Energex American, Inc., a Mifflintown, Penn., based pellet manufacturing firm. In 2009, the company received a $476,685 grant to help fund the installation of an industrial dryer powered by woody biomass. The company reduced its annual demand for propane by 150,000 gallons and realized energy savings of nearly 98 percent.

The Hawaii State Rural Development Office has received an allocation of REAP funds. State Director Chris J. Kanazawa has established a deadline of May 21 2010 for the receipt of applications from the State of Hawaii and American Samoa; and a deadline of June 4, 2010 for the receipt of applications from Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, the Republic of Palau, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia. Applications received after these due dates will have to compete Nationally for funding consideration. Please contact Denise Oda, Business Programs Specialist in Hilo at 808-933-8323 (denise.oda@hi.usda.gov) for further information.

In addition to the REAP program, Secretary Vilsack announced that USDA is also planning to accept applications for three other renewable energy programs: the Biorefinery Assistance Program, Repowering Assistance Program and the Bioenergy Program for Advanced Biofuels. Details on how to apply will be released later this week in the Federal Register. USDA’s Biorefinery Assistance Program provides guaranteed loans to develop and construct commercial-scale biorefineries or to retrofit existing facilities using eligible technology for the development of advanced biofuels. The amount of a loan guaranteed for a project under this program cannot exceed 80 percent of total eligible project costs.

The Repowering Assistance Program is designed to encourage the use of renewable biomass as a replacement fuel source for fossil fuels used to provide process heat or power in the operation of eligible biorefineries (those biorefineries in existence on June 18, 2008 — the date the 2008 Farm Bill was enacted).

The Bioenergy Program for Advanced Biofuels works to support and ensure expanding production of advanced biofuels by providing payments to eligible advanced biofuels producers. Advanced biofuels are derived from renewable biomass, other than corn kernel starch. These include cellulose, sugar and starch, crop residue, vegetative waste material, animal waste, food and yard waste, vegetable oil, animal fat, and biogas (including landfill gas and sewage waste treatment gas). This program is an important part of achieving the Obama administration’s goal to increase biofuels production and use. USDA, through its Rural Development mission area, administers and manages more than 40 housing, business and community infrastructure and facility programs through a national network of 6,100 employees located in the nation’s capital and 500 national, state and local offices. These programs are designed to improve the economic stability of rural communities, businesses, residents, farmers and ranchers and improve the quality of life in rural America. Rural Development has an existing portfolio of more than $134 billion in loans and loan guarantees. USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender. To file a complaint of discrimination, write: USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410 or call (800) 795-3272 (voice), or (202) 720-6382 (TDD).

When we think of tea, our minds usually turn to exotic places, far from American soil. But that long-held geographical reference may be changing. From the volcanic soil of the Big Island of Hawaii and a sea island off the coast of South Carolina to the relatively rural Yolo County of northern California and the fields of northern Washington State, Camellia sinensis and assamica varieties may be thought of as an agricultural product grown closer to home.

To listen to the tea master/grower William Hall tell it, it’s been a long road from the Charleston Tea Plantation’s original incarnation as an agricultural tea station to its current-day status as a commercial tea estate in partnership with Bigelow, producing from 127 acres, in his words, “light, bright, and mellow” teas for a limited regional distribution, attuned to American tastes. Combining horticultural knowledge and a well-trained, fine-tuned palate, Hall has helmed the operation at Wadmalaw Island for more than 20 years.

A relative newcomer, Tea Hawaii’s Eva Lee, enjoys the hands-on involvement in cultivating and processing tea leaf on the Big Island of Hawaii in the shadow of the volcanoes of Kilauea, where the climate favors growing activity nearly year round – even at lower elevations – a situation that most of the world’s tea-growing countries can’t claim to enjoy. (Stay tuned for a future post on some culinary uses for fresh tea leaves, which arrived in my kitchen in perfect condition, thanks to Eva, from Tea Hawaii).

Spurred by a visit to the Hawaiian tea-growing region, Chinese tea expert and importer Roy Fong sees the potential for growing tea in California’s Yolo County, where he will add 10 acres of tea plants to his newly purchased 23-acre parcel of land not far from Sacramento. But patience is the name of the game, as the plants will take approximately three years before they produce harvestable leaves.

Richard Sakuma has looked to his Japanese heritage for inspiration, devoting 3.5 acres on his family’s berry farm to the cultivation of tea plants. In truly artisanal fashion, with the help of tea-processing equipment from Taiwan, he currently produces small quantities of white tea, green tea, and a lightly oxidized oolong for sale on the farm. Time will tell which direction Sakuma will take in tea horticulture.

Though the returns aren’t all in on the domestic tea-growing front, which is truly in its infancy in the U.S., there is change afoot. Rest assured that American horticultural ingenuity and a hunger to return to the land on the part of passionate, brave, and dedicated tea growers and tea lovers, along with the foodie public’s increased interest in consuming locally grown products will all fuel interesting developments along these lines. Remember that it was just 30 years ago – a blink of an eye when compared to the long history of tea – when the French thought that the only good sparkling wine came from Champagne, France, that is, until they found the microclimates and soils of Napa to be perfectly suited to growing grapes that yielded Champagne-style wines that would rival the best of French bubbly. Who says that the same may not be true for tea?