Pitt can grow five tons of food in a fishy, freight container

David Templeton reports for
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
When it comes to efficient food production, the ideal is to produce it locally at low cost, with minimal use of water, resources and energy, along with a focus on recycling.  
Making notable advances toward that goal, the University of Pittsburgh Aquaponics Project team won first place and $35,000 in project funding during the 10th Annual Ford College Community Challenge, sponsored by the Ford Motor Company Fund or Ford Fund.
The Pitt team, including students from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Michigan, created “a 21st century food system” that raises fish and grows basil inside a 20-foot-by-8-foot shipping container, all through a process known as aquaponics. 
The process combines aquaculture — the farming of fish, crustaceans and plants in water — with hydroponics, a method of  growing plants with a continuous supply of water containing nutrients, rather than soil, said Kareem Rabbat, a 21-year-old sophomore majoring in environmental engineering at Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering. 
A nursery built atop Pitt’s freight container includes PVC towers with basil plants growing from pockets in the pipes. Water, containing fish waste from a first-floor tank of 50 tilapia, is pumped to the top of the towers and allowed to trickle through the plant roots before returning by gravity to the tank. Solar panels power the pump.
The result is “an almost entirely closed-loop system,” with fish waste feeding the plants, which in turn filter the water. Tilapia, a species of fish commonly used in aquaponics, breathe surface air. “Tilapia produce a lot of waste, which gives more nutrients to the plants, and they are good at being kept together in small spaces,” said Mr. Rabbat of Bangor, Northampton County.
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EPA halts ban on pesticide; NJ moves to implement it

When President Donald Trump’s EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt put the brakes on a ban recommended by his agency’s scientists during the Obama administration, a state-level ban bill was introduced in New Jersey.


The pesticide in question is chlorpyrifos.


Critics say it can damage the developing brains of children, cause reduced IQ, loss of working memory, and attention deficit disorders


Chlorpyrifos (trade name, Lorsban) has been banned for years for residential use but is still employed in the growing of certain crops, including apples and cranberries.


The bill was the subject of debate on November 20, 2017 in the New Jersey Senate Environment and Energy Committee.


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Philly’s wild turkeys: Where they’ve been spotted

Anna Orso provides this timely piece in today’s Billy Penn:
They were spotted waddling around West Philly earlier this year, not far from Penn’s campus. They’ve been seen in small flocks in Northeast Philly, especially around Pennypack Park. And across the city at random times, wild turkeys have been pecking and scratching away at parked cars, perplexed by their own reflections.
Look, sometimes you’ll just see wild turkeys meandering through Philadelphia streets, like this one spotted window shopping in the Northeast over the weekend — just in time for Thanksgiving.
“We have a whole lot of park land here, 9,000 acres of Fairmount Park,” said Jerry Czech, a wildlife conservation officer with the Pennsylvania Game Commission. “So people think ‘where’s this wildlife come from?’ [Wild turkeys] don’t have lines that differentiate and tell them ‘I don’t belong here.’”
These guys have been around for awhile. In 1683, William Penn wrote in a letter to the Earl of Sunderland: “Turkeys of the wood, I have had of 40- and 50-pound weight.” He was probably exaggerating. Ben Franklin was also a big fan of wild turkeys, calling them “birds of courage” (but probably not wanting them to be the national bird).
So over the years, they’ve wandered the city. Czech says he’s fielded reports of wild turkeys being spotted in West Philly — especially in the Cobb’s Creek area, anywhere in the Northeast near Pennypack Park, the Northeast Philly Airport as well as the Schuylkill Center in the Roxborough area.
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NJDEP planning ‘millionaire’s marina’ at Liberty State Park?

There’s been no official announcement, but some fear that the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection is about to enter into an agreement to turn the south end of Liberty State Park into a high-end marina off limits to common folk.


David Cruz has the story for NJTV News.


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U.S. Rep. Bob Brady’s emails searched in FBI probe

Rep Bob Brady, D-PA, addresses Democratic National Convention in 2016


Jeremy Roebuck reports for Philly.com

In their clearest language to date, federal authorities have accused U.S. Rep. Robert Brady of leading a criminal conspiracy to hide a $90,000 payment they say he made to persuade a 2012 primary opponent to drop out of the race, newly unsealed court records show.

The claim – tucked into a Nov. 1 search warrant affidavit unsealed Friday – alleges the congressman was an active participant in a scheme that has already elicited a guilty plea from Brady’s one-time challenger, former Philadelphia Municipal Court Judge Jimmie Moore, and led to indictments against Brady aides Ken Smukler and Donald “D.A.” Jones.

Agents and prosecutors filed the affidavit to persuade a judge to approve a search of bobcongress@aol.com, a personal email account used by Brady. It also lays out the potential charges that Brady might face should he be indicted – a list that includes wire fraud, lying to the FBI and making an illegal campaign contribution.

“The investigation has uncovered evidence which indicates that Brady, Smukler and Jones utilized Smukler’s and D.A. Jones’ corporations to conceal payments from Brady’s campaign … for Moore to withdraw from the 2012 Democratic primary race,” FBI Special Agent Jonathan R. Szeliga wrote.

Still, it remains unclear if the unsealing of the affidavit indicates the probe is heating up or winding down — and if one of the state’s longest-serving members of Congress and chairman of the city’s powerful Democratic City Committee will be charged.

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