CDFA’s Video Interact Project, nominated for an Outstanding Achievement Award by the National Association of Chief Information Officers

There are two widely-known trends affecting the way state government does business in California. One, of course, is the remarkable advance of technology, and the other is a challenging budget climate that has altered assumptions in the workplace. In information technology, we are finding that we must adapt and innovate more than ever before, and we know that partnering with agency programs is a key to success. We are pleased and honored that two recent CDFA IT partnerships have been selected as finalists for 2012 Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Information Technology Awards presented by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO).

The first project, the Surveillance of Animal Diseases Through an Emerging Threats Identification System, is a comprehensive solution to the problem of animal disease and dairy food safety surveillance for threats that can cause huge economic losses, the death of millions of animals and disease in humans. Its web-based, GIS-enabled features provide CDFA and its partners with accurate animal population information and milk safety surveillance information at all times. Significantly, this system will not only be useful under emergency conditions, but it will also support day to day business operations related to food safety inspections and livestock and poultry disease testing.  This daily use will ensure that the information remains current,  and will also avoid duplication of effort and improve data integrity.

We call the other initiative the Video Interact Project (VIP). It’s basically a portable Skype cart, providing two-way, interactive video conferencing that enables CDFA employees to communicate with peers by voice, video, and instant messaging over the Internet. It works across urban and remote rural offices. The VIP solution demonstrates that government truly can do more with less.

NASCIO received 120 nominations from states for consideration for this year’s awards. Winners in 10 categories will be announced on October 23.  We are thrilled to be considered.

With the month of Septepmber–National Honey Month–just ahead, it’s a good time to feature The Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven -a half-acre bee-friendly garden next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis.  The garden is designed to provide bees with a year-around food source, raise public awareness about the plight of honey bees and to encourage visitors to plant bee-friendly gardens of their own.

http://phys.org/news/2012-08-rooftop-farms-flourish-space-starved-hong.html

Against a backdrop of skyscrapers and jungle-clad hills, earth-filled boxes are spread out on the roof of the 14-storey building, where a wide variety of produce including cucumbers and potatoes are cultivated.

It is one of several such sites that have sprung up in Hong Kong’s concrete jungle, as the appetite for organic produce grows and people seek ways to escape one of the most densely populated places on earth.

“I am happier eating what I grow rather than food I buy from supermarkets,” said Melanie Lam, a 28-year-old nurse, who comes to the “City Farm” in the Quarry Bay district of Hong Kong’s main island about twice a week.

“Compared to vegetables from the supermarket, vegetables that I plant are sweeter and fresher. It gives me a greater sense of satisfaction.”

With most of the southern Chinese territory’s seven million people living in tower blocks and land prices sky-high, unused roofs are some of the few places in the most heavily populated areas for budding vegetable gardeners.

The money-obsessed city has been late to latch on to rooftop farming, which has been popular in cities such as London and New York for years.

While there are no official figures for the number of sites, as no licence is needed to set one up, anecdotal evidence suggests their popularity is growing.

“I think urban farming is becoming more popular… we have grown bigger in a short time,” said Osbert Lam, the founder of “City Farm”, which has about 100 regular gardeners two years after opening.

There are 400 growing boxes on the 10,000-square-foot (930-square-metre) rooftop available to rent for between HK$150-200 ($20-25) a month each.

“People who come to the farm are so happy — It’s like a tranquilliser, it’s a way out,” added Lam.

In To Kwa Wan in the east of the Kowloon peninsula, one of the founders of another rooftop farm says the project has given a boost to the neglected neighbourhood, which has poor transport links and a predominantly elderly population.

Chu Pui-Kwan and two friends came up with the idea of setting up a vegetable garden on the unused rooftop of a 12-storey building.

Using old planks and other materials salvaged from construction sites, they assembled growing boxes, and then decided to get the local community involved before the farm opened in November.

“We invited the older people from around this area to come up, we gave them paints and had them paint the different boxes,” she said. “They had so much fun.”

Now the brightly decorated boxes are filled with a huge variety of vegetables and herbs, including spinach, peas, lemongrass, mint and rosemary, providing a splash of colour to the drab neighbourhood.

The site has regular open days and runs classes to teach people about urban farming.

Chu is also involved in Time To Grow, a company which aims to improve access to locally produced food.

It is running classes once a week on Victoria Peak, the highest point on Hong Kong’s main island, where participants have stunning views over the city.

“The whole idea is to get into each individual home a little bit of green… rooftops, windows, even one pot at a time,” said Chu.

Official figures suggest organic food is becoming increasingly popular in Hong Kong, with the number of farms taking part in a government-run scheme to encourage organic agriculture rising to 193 in June this year, from 123 in 2008.

But despite the hobby’s growing popularity, there is little sign of Hong Kong’s rooftop farmers producing enough crops to sell for profit, unlike their counterparts in cities where space is not so scarce and the idea took root earlier.

Just three percent of vegetables consumed in Hong Kong are grown locally, according to government figures.