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Alberta innovation wows UN but ... |
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Written by Ric Swihart Lethbridge Herald
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Tuesday, 29 September 2009 |
A southern Alberta agricultural technology has wowed officials of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization.
But the technology, and its widening promotion, has Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada officials in Lethbridge concerned.
Trevor Page returned from the Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome last week, where he met with three agencies to promote N/C Quest Inc.’s Bio-Agtive Emissions Technology.
Page said he found all “extremely excited” about the technology, which is being promoted as a climate-change fighter and fertilizer replacement. It links the exhaust system of farm tractors to giant field units where it is cooled before being injected into the soil.
Pincher Creek entrepreneur Gary Lewis has been selling the equipment to inject exhaust, memberships in Bio-Agtive and yearly fees. Participating farmers in England and Australia are reporting very good results, complementing reports from participating farmers in North America.
Buyer beware is the message offered up by Brian Freeze, manager of the Lethbridge Research Centre, who suggests what’s lacking is peer-reviewed, objective, published research confirming Lewis’s claims.
“We have never been approached by this group in any way and we are always open to doing it. It is within the realm of our programs to do such work. The company has no published data as far as we know,” he said.
Page met with Alberta Agriculture Minister George Groeneveld and his assistant deputy Jason Kripps in mid-August, seeking $700,000 in provincial support — $100,000 to put equipment in place for field trials and $600,000 to conduct them.
He said Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development has yet to respond. If the province isn’t interested in technology they claim will boost global food production with massive reductions in the use of chemical fertilizers and clean up the environment, they’ll look elsewhere.
“We’ll go to Bill Gates,” said Page, of the guardian of a massive charitable foundation.
Rome officials have asked for more information about the technology and Page was invited to display it at Europe’s largest agricultural machinery trade fair in Germany in early November.
Jill Clapperton, operating her firm Earthspirit Land Resource Consulting in Florence, Mont. and noted for her position on natural soil and crop relationships, is the lead scientist for Bio-Agtive, supported by a Manitoba scientist, Loraine Bailey.
Page said farmers are picking up on the technology, some based on the support of Clapperton, others on results reported by neighbours and other farmers.
The first formal peer-supported research has been promised by Clapperton within two years. She will release an interim report in October involving exhaust injection trials in the Daysland area and one other area.
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