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Agricultural
Projects
Agri-Business and advanced agricultural research is vital
to our goals in producing food on a large scale. MNL
Consulting offers support to the PTC’s advanced
agricultural project facility currently being financed in
Southern California. Our partnered groups have invested in
new agricultural programs and PTC's facility near Bakersfield
California. Developing new fast growth, disease resistant,
and genetically enhanced crops are a primary concern to the
goals of our partnered groups.
MNL Consulting has been working with agri-business
groups in China to improve rice production with a 40% less
strain on water resources. Developing methods to reclaim arid
lands is vital our goals to increase food productions worldwide.
MNL is working together in the planning of
major agr-business projects for West Africa. Developing viable
agr-businesses worldwide is the goal of every organization
we are partnered with.
We
believe that providing emergency food to famine stricken communities
is a problem that must be addressed. It is our responsibility
to not only consider short-term problems but to address and
provide a viable sustainability source of food to starving
communities.
Malnourished
people like these are a common site in many parts of the world
today, even though our world is filled with agricultural abundance.
Our Agricultural Business Center Project does NOT provide
food handouts as is common with most humanitarian organizations,
but rather Teachers modern agricultural techniques combined
with a cooperative farm ownership program to allow starving
people to grow their own food and sell off the excess to create
a self-sustainable business enterprise.
A
multi-faceted program is put into place that results in a
modern agri-business center that includes a food processing
facility (canning), a manufacturing facility to produce state-of-the-art
drip irrigation systems, a marketing center for exporting
fresh and processed fruits and vegetables, and a center for
the education and hands-on training of local personnel in
the practical elements of agriculture, manufacturing, food
processing, business, logistics/marketing and finance. The
size of a typical Agricultural Business Center is 10,000 hectares.
The
Agricultural Business Center would ultimately operate
much like a typical California farming co-operative. That
is, once the farm is developed and operationally profitable,
individual plots of not less than 40 hectares would be sold
to individual, local farmers. The buyers are given shares
in the “co-operative” as part of the purchase
of their land. The co-operative provides a variety of services
and materials at discounted prices to its members. This will
include the rental or purchase of irrigation and harvesting
equipment, soil conditioning equipment and chemicals, education,
and training. It can even act like a local water district
for the distribution of irrigation water to other farm areas.
Modern drip-irrigation technology is employed with the final
assembly and maintenance of the components provided on-site.
Algae
Farming
In
seeking an alternative agricultural project we turned our
attention to complex proteins and high chlorophyll producing
plants. That requires arid regions to grow and no soil, to
reduce production costs and increase growth production. Hydroponics
became our focus and in that moment we knew that the only
plant that can provide high levels of chlorophyll and protein
was a blue green algae.
Give
algae water, sunlight and minerals, it will do nothing else
but produce food and more algae plants. Algae is such a sufficient
food producer that it photosynthesizes at a rate of 10 percent
sun/food conversion. (In comparison, soybeans can only manage
a three percent efficiency rate.) Japanese Buddhist monks
are said to survive on Spirulina and water alone. Micro-algae,
unlike many other types of algae, can live in brackish, still
waters that are not suitable for other uses, such as drinking,
fishing, or irrigation. The algae called Spirulina can also
live in very warm waters, such as desert lakes and ponds that
are too hot to sustain other algae. Because Spirulina grows
in mineral-rich brackish water, Spirulina is an excellent
source of many important minerals, including potassium, calcium,
zinc, magnesium, selenium, iron, and phosphorus. The only
single natural plant source that provides the highest amount
of protein known to man that contains over 70% protein. Ounce
for ounce, it provides more complete protein than meat, 5
times higher than meat and 3 times greater than soybeans.
In fact the protein in Spirulina is 85-95% digestible, one
of the highest available. Spirulina is second only to a dried
egg supplement with regards to usable protein.
What
we are talking about is "sustainability," "biodiversity,"
"integrated systems" and "low-input" with
producing a crop economically in diverse environments with
high yield harvesting.
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