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Accordingly, Kubota and Escorts
will hold 60-40% shareholding respectively in KAI.The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has
approved acquisition (i) in Escorts by Kubota Corporation (Kubota) and (ii) in
Kubota Agricultural Machinery India (KAI) by Escorts, under Section 31(1) of
the Competition Act 2002.
The proposed combination is relating to acquisition of 9.09% of the total
issued, subscribed and paid-up share capital of Escorts by Kubota.
Upon completion of capital reduction process by Escorts, this will constitute
10% of its total issued, subscribed and paid-up share capital.
Further, Escorts will acquire 40% shareholding in KAI. Accordingly, Kubota
and Escorts will hold 60-40% shareholding respectively in KAI.
Kubota is a company incorporated under the laws of Japan. It is a comprehensive
agriculture product manufacturer and offers various machinery such as tractors,
combine harvesters and rice transplanters. It also offers engineering,
procurement, construction to maintenance, contributing to safety and security
of water.
Escorts is engaged in the business of manufacturing and sale of agri-machinery,
construction equipment and railway equipment in India.
The
government yesterday approved a Tk 3,020 crore project -- the biggest ever
scheme for farm sector -- to provide price support to farmers in purchasing
agricultural machinery.
The aim
is to enable them to timely plant and harvest crops by getting rid of worries
over the availability of farm workers.
Farmers
throughout the country will get subsidies to buy agricultural machinery, namely
combine harvester, rice transplanter, power thresher, drier, power weeder,
power sprayer, potato digger and maize sheller, to reduce production cost and
post-harvest losses.
Food
producers in haors in the northeastern and southern coastal regions will be
able to buy the farm machinery by paying only 30 per cent of the prices of the
items. The government will pay the rest 70 per cent from the state coffer.
Growers
in the remaining areas will have to pay half the price of the farm equipment
and the government will bear the remaining cost.
The
objective is to speed up mechanised planting and harvesting, 99 per cent of
which are still done manually owing to the sluggish pace of mechanisation in
these two major operations.
"We
are giving importance to expand mechanisation throughout the country,"
said Planning Minister MA Mannan after the meeting of the Executive Committee
of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) at the planning ministry yesterday.
The
government aims to reduce post-harvest losses of crops, including the main crop
rice, by up to 15 per cent, save 50 per cent time in cultivation time and cut
costs by 20 per cent, according to a brief of the Ecnec meeting.
Mannan quoted
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as saying at the meeting that local entrepreneurs
were making agricultural equipment and quality product makers should be
encouraged to facilitate domestic industrialisation and job creation.
This is
the third project that the government has undertaken since 2009 to provide
subsidy to farmers to buy agricultural machinery to facilitate mechanised
cultivation.
Beginning
with Tk 150 crore for a three-year project to finance the purchase of
equipment, namely power tillers, the government spent Tk 339 crore in a second
project that ended in June 2019.
The
government also provided Tk 200 crore last fiscal year as subsidy so that
farmers can buy combine harvesters and reapers to harvest their crops timely.
Farmers
got the subsidy to buy 1,240 combine harvesters, 500 reapers and 13 rice
transplanters under the initiative, said agricultural officials.
And
under the new project, the government will offer purchase support to farmers so
that they can buy 51,300 units of machinery until June 2025 when the five-year
project will end.
The
initiative comes as farms have trouble planting and harvesting their crops
timely for want of workers in the peak seasons for harvest and plantation.
The
delay in plantation and harvest causes a loss in the yield of rice, said
agriculturists.
Paddy is
cultivated on 71 per cent of the total croplands of 1.54 crore hectares in the
country, according to official data.
The
average daily agricultural labour wage remains high during harvesting seasons
of aman and boro rice crops, which account for more than 90 per cent of the
total annual production, showed data by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
Farmers
harvest most of their aman paddy during November and December and the principal
crop boro during May and June.
The cost
of production of farmers would reduce for the use of machines for harvesting
and transplanting, said Agriculture Secretary Md Nasiruzzaman.
Farmers
incur relatively high post-harvest losses for manual harvesting of potato and
onion, which the use of potato digger and combine harvester would take care of.
"Thus,
the overall production of crops will increase. The famers' profitability will
also increase."
Locally-manufactured
agricultural machinery would be bought.
"We
will sit with machine tools factory to see whether they can make and supply
quality farm machinery," Nasiruzzaman said.
Under
the project, the government also wants to train 9,000 mechanics and
agricultural extension officials to provide support to farmers.
Apart
from giving a boost to farm mechanisation, the government also gave the nod to
a Tk 278 crore project to expand cultivation of improved varieties of oilseeds
such as mustard, sunflower, soybeans and peanut and sesame.
This
will be to increase coverage and production of oilseeds by up to 20 per cent
from 7.20 lakh hectares and reduce import dependence.
Bangladesh
spent Tk 5,500 crore to import oilseeds in fiscal 2018-19, which was 31 per
cent higher year-on-year, showed Bangladesh Bank data.
The
Ecnec brief said 40,000 demonstration plots would be set up apart from
production and distribution of improved varieties of seeds of various crops
including rice, jute and maize.
The Japanese government on Monday
temporarily allowed the import of mangoes from Pakistan.
According to the Ministry of National Food
Security and Research, exporters despatched three shipments of local mango
varieties ‘Sindhri’ and ‘Chaunsa’ to Japan as per agreed procedures between the
Department of Plant Protection (DPP) and the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture,
Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF).
Normally, the Japanese government sends its
inspectors to Pakistan and other mango exporting countries for quality checks
and clearance before allowing imports into Japan.
However, this year, the Japanese government
could not send inspectors due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2019, mango exports to Japan rose to a
record high of 120 tonnes and were favorably received in the Japanese market.
A press release of the Japanese embassy on
Monday said that Japan will continue to support Pakistan in the agricultural
field such as taking measures against locust control, expanding export of
agricultural products, and investment in the food processing sector.
The MAFF has granted market access to fresh
Pakistani mangoes but its import in Japan is subject to offshore disinfestation
treatment and sterilization using saturated steam at vapour heat treatment
facility duly approved by the DPP and MAFF and pre-clearance programme by
Japanese inspectors.
Japan’s Ambassador to Pakistan Matsuda Kuninori
held a meeting with Minister for National Food Security and Research Syed Fakhr
Imam on Monday and admired the quality of Pakistani mangoes.
Imam also showed interest in the increasing
export of Pakistani basmati rice to Japan.
Minister Imam appreciated the MAFF for
facilitating mango exports from Pakistan by exempting pre-clearance in the wake
of Covid-19 outbreak instead of restricting it due to difficulty in implementation.
Imam asked Japanese envoy for market access to
Pakistani citrus in light of the country’s historical trade of citrus fruit
with China, Russia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Iran. He said the cold treatment
of the citrus fruit prescribed by the US government is acceptable to various
citrus exporting countries.
There has been no report of non-compliance ever
from citrus importing countries since it works well to eliminate all fruit
flies from Pakistani kinnow, he said.
The Japanese government is assisting Pakistan
in fighting the desert locust with 58,502 liters of insecticide to be sprayed
in the affected regions.
It also provided assistance to Pakistan for
agricultural development, scholarships for higher studies, on-job training
courses, and supported agricultural research systems through the provision of
equipment.
The Plant Genetic Resources Research Institute
at the National Agricultural Research Centre was set up with assistance from
Japan. The Japanese government has also provided funds to the UN Industrial
Development Organisation at the request of Pakistan to launch the
‘Agri-Business and Agro-Industry Development’ project at a cost of $3.02
million.
The $1
million fund was made to encourage faculty members to research the coronavirus
and racism. | Christopher Charleston/The Cougar
A $1 million dollar fund to support faculty
research on racism and COVID-19 will be launched at the University, President
Renu Khator announced following
asimilar
research fund started by Rice University.
As the latest addition to the Division of
Research’s internal
awards, the “Grants to Enhance Research on COVID-19”
and the “Grants to Enhance Research on Racism”
are initiatives by Khator to encourage more faculty to directly address
systematic racism and the pandemic.
The fund will be equally divided between both
initiatives.
“These are the Division of Research’s existing
funds that weren’t allocated, so the President allocated them for those
internal award initiatives,” said the associate vice president for research
Jack Fletcher, who manages the processes of the internal awards.
“But they are not from the CARES fund or our
endowment,” Fletcher added.
Faculty members from all colleges may team up
in groups to compete for the grants. Community organizations are also eligible
to apply.
“We are a Carnegie Tier-One research University
and we have a long standing focus on diversity, so the University of Houston is
well poised to address these types of issues,” Fletcher said.
Participants may utilize the campus including
labs, offices and theaters that are most appropriate for the research but
there’s not a designated research building, according to Fletcher.
The application process is still ongoing but he
has received many questions of interest from faculty, Fletcher said.
Faculty have until Aug. 3 to submit their
research proposals for both grants.
For more of The Cougar’s coronavirus coverage,
click here.
The new variety sown last year has
inspired a majority of cultivators in Golaghat district to shift over from
traditional ones
Nitu Bora took a “risk” with an unfamiliar
variety of paddy in 2019. A year later, he has inspired a majority of some
1,500 farmers who saw their hard work undone by floods in Assam’s Golaghat
district.
According to the Assam State Disaster
Management Authority, this year’s flood since May 22 has affected crop, mainly
paddy, on more than 125,097 hectares of land across 25 of the State’s 33
districts.
Nitu Bora’s 0.9-hectare paddy field in Balidua
village of Golaghat district’s West Brahmaputra area was flooded too. But
unlike that of most other farmers in Assam, his paddy crop of the Ranjit Sub1
variety withstood the deluge.
He had tested waters in July 2019 with the
variety – the Sub in its name means submergence – on about 0.2 hectares of his
plot.
“I decided to take the risk with the new
variety after listening to crop experts. This paddy survived 15 days under
water while the flood damaged the common varieties in the rest of my plot,” the
45-year-old farmer said.
He had virtually dragged neighbours Luhit Bora
and Babu Bora to the District Agriculture Office in Golaghat town two days
after crop specialists had campaigned for adopting Ranit Sub1 and two other
flood-tolerant varieties named Swarna Sub1 and Bahadur Sub1.
The other two farmers too used a fraction of
their respective plot to invest in seedlings of the flood-resistant paddy
collected from the Agriculture Department.
Farmers in flood-prone areas of Assam have been
harvesting the water-resistant Swarna Sub1, developed by the Indian Council of
Agricultural Research and the Manila-based International Rice Research
Institute, since 2009. But the switchover from traditional varieties of paddy
has been slow.
Flood impact study
“We introduced the flood-resistant varieties in
2018 and the 5.6 tonnes of rice per hectare that Nitu Bora harvested was the
first flood-impact study, although we cannot compare with the traditional
varieties since they were damaged,” said Abhishek Singha, research technician
of the Assam Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project (APART).
The Assam Rural Infrastructure and Agricultural
Services Society headed by bureaucrat Laya Madduri is the coordinating agency
for the World Bank-funded project.
“The experiment of the Boras has this year made
about 60% of the farmers in the West Brahmaputra area switch to the
flood-tolerant paddy. Some 1,500 farmers cultivate on about 950 hectares in
this area,” Mr Singha told The Hindu on July 5.
Nitu Bora’s example has made convincing the
other farmers easier for Golaghat’s District Agriculture Officer Nabin Chandra
Bora and APART’s Golaghat nodal officer Syed Rajibur Rahman.
ARLINGTON, VA -- Last September, USA Rice partnered with five
Registered Dietitian (RD) influencers, known for their nutritional expertise
and recipe development, to bring attention to U.S.-grown rice as an integral
part of a healthy diet and lifestyle. This strategy used the knowledge
and reach of the team of RDs to raise awareness for the versatility and
nutritional benefits of U.S.-grown rice.
Each RD created social media posts featuring
unique nutrition-focused rice recipes that included USA Rice messaging and key
nutritional benefits of the specific U.S.-grown rice variety used. The
posts were pushed out on the individual influencer's platforms including
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. To further increase
exposure, the RD content was amplified by USA Rice on Facebook and Instagram.
The new recipes included Vegetarian Paella, Wild
Rice & Cheesy Broccoli Casserole, Curried Rice Salad, Chicken Berry and
Brown Rice Bowls, Roasted Vegetable & Wild Rice Soup, Rainbow Asian Rice
Salad with Shrimp, Brown Rice and Sweet Potato Hash, Stuffed Poblano Peppers
with Chimichurri Rice, Easy Weeknight Fried Rice, Instant Pot Chicken Teriyaki
Bowls, Chicken & Sausage Gumbo, and a Buffalo Vegetable Bowl.
In late March, as the response to the COVID-19
pandemic shutdown resulted in changing consumer shopping and cooking habits,
the overall recipe strategy was tweaked to incorporate more pantry staples
and/or minimal steps.
By the end of the campaign, 12 new rice recipes
had been created with 102 social placements that generated more than 1.8
million impressions and 15,000 engagements. In addition to the immediate
impact of the campaign, USA Rice owns the rights to the created recipes and
associated photography that will be used in future promotions.
"Year One of the Registered Dietitian
Blogger program really delivered," said Nutrition Subcommittee Chair Bryon
Holmes. "Not only were we able to reach new consumers with our
nutritional messaging, but we were able to quickly adapt to the impact of
COVID-19 and provide new at-home chefs with a great collection of
nutrition-focused recipes."
Due to the success of this year's RD Blogger
campaign, the 2020-21 program will be strengthened with the addition of two
more registered dietitians and program outputs will increase to a minimum of 20
new recipes, 120 placements, and 2 million consumer impressions. Next
year's program will also expand its focus to incorporate not only
nutrition-facing recipes, but also more consumer-friendly dishes to meet the
growing demand of newly created at-home chefs.
All recipes are available on the USA Rice
consumer recipe database located here.
Delegation of PRIA today called upon Food and Civil
Supplies Minister
ASHU ASSURES
SYMPATHETICALLY CONSIDER THE DEMANDS OF RICE MILLERS
Web
Admin
5 Dariya News
Chandigarh , 15 Jul 2020
To mitigate the woes of
industrialists, Punjab Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister
Bharat Bhushan Ashu today met delegation of newly formed Punjab Rice Industry
Association (PRIA) at his office in Anaj Bhawan, Sector-39 here.The delegation
led by President Mr. Bharat Bhushan Binta, apprised the cabinet minister about
their demands during the meeting. They demanded immediately changes in new
Punjab Customs Policy for Paddy 2020-21 and the levy security (refundable and
non-refundable) will be returned to Millers. They also raised the issue of
entire milling bill related to CMR, green zone classification, Bank Guarantee,
usage charges on gunny bags, freight issue on paddy and many more.On the
occasion, the Cabinet Minister Mr. Ashu assured the Rice Millers to consider
their legitimate demands sympathetically as per rules.
Increased
methane emissions linked to fossil fuel usage: Study
A new study
published by the University of Rochester in Nature magazine has found that
human activity has been contributing significantly to the rise of methane
emissions via the use of fossil fuels.
An
international effort to get a handle on methane emissions has revealed the
potent gas is rising in the atmosphere faster than it has for 20 years.
Long-running
measurements of the air at Wellington’s windy Baring Head contributed to
the French-led
study, which involves researchers from Australia, the United States,
Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand’s Niwa and elsewhere, all working under the
umbrella of the Global Carbon
Project.
The
goal is pinning down how much methane is being released to the air, and where
from.
The
study found current rates of methane emissions are at the highest, hottest end
of the range of scenarios put out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) – though the authors say that trend needs confirming in the next
few years.
New device
captures cows' methane-filled burps
An
England-based company is aiming to reduce the cattle industry's impact on the
environment through a new device that turns each methane-filled cow burp into
carbon dioxide and water.
Methane’s
current trajectory is in between the two worst IPCC emissions scenarios – a
trajectory putting the world on track for more than 3 degrees Celsius of
warming by the end of this century, said the authors.
“This
trajectory implies that large reductions of methane emissions are needed to
meet the 1.5 to 2C target of the Paris Agreement,” they said.
The
researchers found people’s activities – not natural sources – seemed to be
behind most of the increase, with equal shares coming from the fossil fuel
sector, agriculture and the waste sector.
Globally,
livestock are the biggest source of methane from human activities, the research
shows, closely followed by oil and gas drilling, then waste and landfills, then
coal mining. Next comes rice-growing. If oil, gas and coal extraction and use
are added together, fossil fuels rival animal farming as a methane source, even
leaving aside the climate impact of carbon dioxide from burning oil, gas and
coal.
Rice
paddies, cows’ and sheeps’ guts and landfills all produce methane by creating
an oxygen-free environment where methane-making microbes thrive.
Natural
sources are also a large contributor, making an estimated 40 per cent of the
output, compared with 60 per cent from people’s activities.
Natural
methane emissions are dominated by wetlands, with much smaller contributions
from other sources, such as wild animals.
Even
wild termites are a non-trivial source of the greenhouse gas, the study shows.
Like cows, termites produce methane when they digest plants.
Oil and gas
drilling is a major source of methane emissions, from gas leaks, as is coal
mining.
But
it is human-created sources that are rising quickly and causing concern among
researchers.
Niwa
principal scientist Mike Harvey said the analysis showed methane in the
atmosphere was increasing faster than any time in the past 20 years.
“There
has been a 9 per cent global increase in annual emissions, or 50 million tonnes
a year, between the beginning of the 21st Century (when methane in the
atmosphere was stable) and 2017,” he said. “Methane concentrations are now at
the highest levels we have recorded at Baring Head since the start of the 21st
Century.”
“This
trend is a significant cause for concern in tackling global warming.”
There
remains uncertainty about some estimates of methane sources.
Despite
improvements in understanding since the last tally, the study’s authors ended
up with a large gap – about 30 per cent – between the estimates of how much
methane was coming from sources on the ground, versus how much was actually
found in the atmosphere.
The
study drew together two different techniques: records monitoring methane levels
in the air, from different parts of the globe, and ground-up estimates of what
human and natural activities are making (for example, by adding up the output
of all the individual cows).
The
authors acknowledged the uncertainties, especially in the tallies of natural
sources, particularly wetlands, geological leaks and inland water bodies,
suggesting there might be some double-counting.
New
Zealand researchers who were not directly involved in the study said it was a
shame the findings didn’t incorporate isotope data.
Victoria
University Adjunct Professor Martin Manning, a methane specialist, said
although the isotope data has limits, proceeding without it made the claim of
“best estimates” optimistic. Isotopes can be used to “fingerprint” methane
molecules and tag them as coming from either hundreds-of-millions-of-year-old
fossil fuel sources or fresher sources, such as agriculture.
GNS
Science’s Jocelyn Turnbull said isotope information was likely to be added to
the next iteration of the methane budget. The MethaneSAT
project to track methane by satellite – which has $26m New
Zealand government funding – could also help fill in some unknowns, said
Turnbull.
Satellite
data was not used this time, because the work is still fairly new.
“This
latest effort shows that, although there is now a good general understanding of
methane emissions, the devil is in the details, and there is still a lot left
to understand, particularly at the national and regional scales,” Turnbull
said.
Globally,
methane is the second major climate-heating gas after carbon dioxide.
Chandigarh:
To make people aware about preventive measures to be taken regarding COVID-19
pandemic, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal released the 308-309, special
joint issue for the months of April-May of monthly magazine 'Harigandha'
published by Haryana Sahitya Akademi. He outlined the efficacy and significance
of this special issue of 'Harigandha', in which comprehensive information
regarding the global pandemic was also highlighted. He said, through this
special issue, people will be able to know about the measures to be taken to
prevent Coronavirus and other necessary information.
Over 1 lakh apply for water connection under
VDS: Pb Min
Chandigarh:
Voluntary Disclosure Scheme (VDS) notified by Water Supply and Sanitation
Department has received unprecedented response from the consumers. Since the
launch of this scheme over 1 lakh applications have already been received,
which includes 52913 applications for approval of unapproved connections and
55717 applications for new water connections., said Razia Sultana, Punjab Water
Supply and Sanitation Minister.
Nafed, Hafed commence sale of oilseed and
pulses
Chandigarh:
Electronic agri mandi AgriBazaar is now registered for selling the procurement
of India's leading co-operatives Nafed and Hafed. Both these co-operatives
commenced sales on a non-exclusive and are accessing the e-mandi platform to
reach out to a larger number of millers, processors and corporate buyers.
Buyers can register or download the agribazaar app and start buying. Agribazaar
has received encouraging response in its first month with over 40,000 MT of
buying and selling on the platform of Rs 150 crores value, said a spokesman.
Many processors, millers and large corporates already registered on the
platform have benefitted, and additional registrations are happening regularly.
Renuka Sondhi placed amongst top 6 artists
Chandigarh:
During a recently organized Art competition by New York Art competition called
“Inspiration From Isolation” Renuka Sondhi from Model Town, Yamunanagar got a
place amongst the top six artists of the world and the only lady artist from
India. First she competed and won the daily contest, then the bi-weekly contest
and then she came in the top six and was awarded a one year display at Agora
Art gallery at Chelsea, New York.
campaign to make villages plastic-free in Hry
soon
Chandigarh:
While turning the Haryana cleanliness drive into a mass movement, the work of
construction of sheds at village-level for solid waste management will be
expedited. With this, wet and dry waste can be disposed off separately in the
villages, said Mahipal Dhanda, MLA from Panipat (Rural) Assembly Constituency
and President of the State Level Task Force of Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin.
Hry Police seizes 11.5 tonnes drugs, arrests
1821 people
Chandigarh:
Haryana Police has seized 11.5 tonnes of drugs, arrested1821 people for drug
trafficking and possession of drugs while 1343 cases have been registered under
the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act in the first half of the
year 2020 under its special campaign to arrest drug smugglers. Director General
of Police (DGP), Manoj Yadava said, in all 11,568 kg 680 grams of illegal drugs
were confiscated between January and June, this year. Poppy husk was on top on
the list of recoveries with 8043.2 kg followed by 3150 kg 96 grams ganja and
243 kg 436 gram opium.
Delegation of PRIA called on Food & Civil
Supplies Min
Chandigarh:
To mitigate the woes of industrialists, Punjab Food, Civil Supplies and
Consumer Affairs Minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu met a delegation of newly formed
Punjab Rice Industry Association (PRIA) here. The delegation demanded immediate
changes in new Punjab Customs Policy for Paddy 2020-21 and the levy security
(refundable and non-refundable) be returned to Millers. They also raised the
issue of entire milling bill related to CMR, green zone classification, Bank
Guarantee, usage charges on gunny bags, freight issue on paddy and many more.
The Minister Ashu assured the rice millers to consider their legitimate demands
sympathetically as per rules.
NABARD, Haryana celebrated 39th Foundation Day
Chandigarh:
NABARD, Haryana regional office here celebrated its 39th foundation day on
Wednesday. The programme was presided over by Rajiv Mahajan, Chief General
Manager, Haryana RO. On this occasion, an e-Chaupal was organized with various
beneficiaries and stakeholders of NABARD assisted programmmes and its district
level functionaries. Mahajan spoke about various schemes and developmental
programmes conducted by NABARD for the last 38 years of its existence.
It’s
no secret that cauliflower has been having a moment over the last few years as
food manufacturers have discovered that those florets are remarkably adaptable
and moldable.
These
days, cauliflower is used to make a variety of formerly carb-heavy foods from
pizza crust and pasta to gnocchi and tater tots. Alongside the bags of frozen
peas and corn, you can now find “rice” made from the cruciferous veggie in the
freezer aisle, too. You can even try baking up a batch of muffins using
cauliflower flour.
What’s
the reason behind the cauliflower trend? It generally started with the rise of
diets like paleo and keto that steer
followers away from eating grains and promote scaling down carbohydrate intake.
Want rice but don’t want rice? Now there’s a low-carb cauliflower sub for that.
MORE FROM RUNNER'S WORLD
But carbs are a
runner’s friend—without them, your miles feel sluggish and hard. So how does
cauliflower fit into an endurance athlete’s diet? We tapped a registered
dietitian and the most definitive research to find out.
Cauliflower Nutrition Facts and Benefits
Here’s
a breakdown of 1 cup of raw cauliflower’s nutritional value, as per the USDA:
·27 calories
·2g of protein
·5g of carbs
·2g of fiber
·24 mg of calcium
·16mg of magnesium
·47mg of phosphorus
·320mg of potassium
·32mg of sodium
·52mg of vitamin C
“Cauliflower
is low in calories and high in fiber which
makes for a great food to provide satiety without adding a lot of calories to
the diet,” says Marni Sumbal, M.S., R.D., owner of Trimarni
Coaching and Nutrition.
Although
low in calories, cauliflower contains many important nutrients, such as vitamin C, folate,
antioxidants, and electrolytes. Folate helps
convert carbs into energy and electrolytes regulate
muscle contraction and the balance fluids in your body.
Research
suggests that higher intakes of vitamin C may slash the risk for heart disease and could help reduce
the severity or duration the common cold for
runners. Plus, one study in the
journal Stroke found that for every 25-gram increase in the
daily intake of white vegetables and fruits (about 1/4 cup cauliflower), the
risk for suffering a stroke dropped by 9 percent. Another investigation showed that higher
intakes of isothiocyanates—potent antioxidants found in cruciferous vegetables
like cauliflower—can slash the chances of developing bladder cancer.
But
just keep in mind that studies like these looked at consuming whole forms of the
food and not necessarily cauliflower linguini, crispy cauli puffs, or
cauliflower “chicken wings” doused in buffalo sauce, which are all slightly
processed.
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Should Runners Sub Out Grains for Cauliflower?
One
cup of cooked rice has about 205 calories and 45 grams of carbohydrate; whereas
a cup of cauliflower “rice” supplies a mere 40 calories and 8 grams of
carbohydrate.
If
you are looking to lose weight, these stats probably appear helpful. But Sumbal
cautions that if other dietary habits are not changed, cauliflower-based foods
themselves are not a magic food that will initiate weight loss. “It
needs to be part of an overall wholesome diet that factor in other lifestyle
habits like exercise and sleep.”
The
question you need to ask yourself is this: Are these more processed forms of
cauliflower as nearly as nutritious as eating the whole vegetable? Perhaps it’s
best not to think of cauliflower pizza crust as counting towards a daily
serving of vegetables if
it’s made by adding a bunch of parmesan cheese and deep frying it.
“When
you cook products like cauliflower rice, there will be some loss of nutrients,”
adds Sumbal.
If
your goal is not weight loss, but rather running performance, cauliflower-based
products don’t have to and should not replace your beloved regular spaghetti
and rice that you use when carb-loading for
races or refueling after a long run.
“Reducing
your overall intake of carbohydrates to a level lower than what the body needs
to support training stress can prove to be unhealthy to physical and mental
health—not to mention it can sabotage your workouts,” Sumbal
says.
For
instance, eating cauliflower breadsticks with your prerace dinner could leave
your carb stores on the low end, resulting in a less-than-stellar performance
the next day.
“Instead
of eliminating starchy carbs like pasta and bread
and replacing them with cruciferous veggies, it’s better for many runners to
simply focus on consuming appropriate portions and then incorporating
cruciferous veggies to bulk up meals,” Sumbal says.
There
is the risk that your body will sense it’s getting fewer calories than expected
from a bowl of cauliflower rice, which Sumbal cautions could bring on a serious
case of the munchies later on, resulting in overeating and no net reduction in
overall calorie intake.
“Your
body requires the carbohydrates it needs to support metabolic processes, so a
good intention of swapping out starchy carbs for cauliflower could end up
backfiring.”
You
also need to look past the cauliflower in the ingredient list and make sure
less-healthy additions like added sugars aren’t
tagging along. Sumbal cautions that it’s best to approach these items like you
would other processed foods and
read labels carefully.
The Bottom Line
The
cauliflower craze shows no signs of grinding to a halt, especially with the
trend towards more vegetable-centric eating. And there is nothing wrong with
eating one or more of the endless iterations of cauliflower, including a slice
of cauli-crust pizza or serving up a General Tso’s version of the veggie.
But
always keep in mind that active bodies still need enough carbohydrates from
items like real rice and real pasta to fuel the engine, as well as plenty of
lesser processed forms of veggies, like steamed cauliflower florets. As per
usual, everything in moderation is key.
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New study shows how
plants regulate their growth-inhibiting hormones to survive
Date:
July 15, 2020
Source:
Nagoya University
Summary:
Scientists have, for the first time, observed
one of the natural mechanisms underlying the regulation of the levels of growth
inhibiting hormone in plants. This mechanism had been hitherto seen in
bacteria, but its discovery in plants will enable novel ways of increasing crop
productivity globally.
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FULL STORY
In a world with
a consistently growing population and a climate crisis, food shortage is a
looming threat. To alleviate this threat, crop scientists, botanists, genetic
engineers, and others, have been exploring ways of boosting crop productivity
and resilience. One way to control plant growth and physiology is to regulate
the levels of "phytohormones" or plant hormones.
However, much
remains to be known about the mechanisms that underlie this hormonal regulation
in plants, limiting advancement in this direction. Now, in a study led by
Nagoya University Japan, a team of scientists has discovered, using rice plants
as the study model, that a process called "allosteric regulation" is
involved in maintaining the phytohormonal balance in plants. Their findings, published
in Nature Communications, could hold the key to significantly
advancing the research on plant growth and development, providing a potential
solution for food security.
Plants survive
by adapting their development and physiology to their surrounding environments
by controlling the levels of enzymes driving the synthesis of two
phytohormones, gibberellin and auxin. Enzymes are proteins that bind to one or
more reactant chemicals and speed up a reaction process. The binding site is
called the activation site. In 1961, it was discovered that in bacteria, enzyme
activity is enhanced or inhibited via allosteric regulation, which essentially
is the binding of a molecule called the "effector" at a site other
than the active site of the enzyme. In allosteric regulation, the structure of
the enzyme changes to either support or hinder the reaction that the enzyme
enables.
Professor
Miyako Ueguchi-Tanaka of Nagoya University, lead scientist in the team that has
now observed allosteric regulation in plants for the first time, explains their
research findings, ''We used a technique called X-ray crystallography and found
that, as molecules of the enzymes (gibberellin 2-oxidase 3 [GA2ox3], and auxin
dioxygenase [DAO]) bind to gibberellin and auxin (respectively), they interact
among themselves and form 'multimeric' structures, comprising four and two
units respectively. As the amounts of gibberellin and auxin increase, so does
the rate of multimerization of the enzymes. And multimerization enhances the
activity of the enzymes, enabling greater degradation of gibberellin and auxin.
Synchronous structural changes and activity enhancement are typical of
allosteric-regulation events."
The scientists
further carried out "phylogenetic" analysis of GA2ox3 and DAO, which
revealed that plants independently developed this hormone regulation mechanism
at three separate time-points over the course of the evolutionary process.
Enthusiastic
about the future prospects of these findings, Prof Ueguchi says, "The
activity control system revealed here can be used to artificially regulate the
activity of the growth inactivating hormones in plants. As a result, rice crop
productivity can be improved and high-biomass plants can be produced in the
event of food shortage or an environmental crisis."
Of course, this
study is only a stepping stone for now, and much remains to be done to see how
the findings of this study can be applied practically in agricultural lands.
However, these findings certainly are encouraging, and they signal the coming
of a new era of sustainable development fueled by biotechnological
advancements.
Nagoya
University. "New study shows how plants regulate their growth-inhibiting
hormones to survive." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 15 July 2020.
<www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200715095452.htm>.
