North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Sonja & Raymond Barker" <orchard1@telus.net>]

Hi you can buy ethylene absorbers in packets or in bulk from various sorces 
on the internet it's just pottasiun permanganate you only need a small 
amount

                                 Ray
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "loneroc" <loneroc@mwt.net>
To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 28, 2007 7:01 AM
Subject: [NAFEX] Ethylene and fruit storage


> Hi all,
>
> I find that my best keeping apples start to soften excessively by March.
> (They aren't very good for eating now.) Although I try to open the
> refrigerators that they're stored in daily, or more often, to prevent
> ethylene build-up this doesn't seem sufficient.  Any ideas on removal of
> ethylene from the fridge?  I was thinking maybe a couple pounds of 
> activated
> carbon/charcoal baked every few weeks to drive off collected gas.  Worth a
> try or no?  Is there anything that works?
>
> Steve Herje Lone Rock, WI
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Lucky Pittman" <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>
> To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Sent: Monday, February 19, 2007 8:41 AM
> Subject: [NAFEX] barn cats(long)
>
>
> > There's been a discussion on barn cats on the small ruminant
> > practitioners e-list that dovetails to some degree with the one
> > that's been going on here on the NAFEX list.  Received this response
> > over the weekend - thought it might be of interest to some of you
> NAFEXers.
> > Lucky
> >
> > >Again, I will apologize that this is a long post, as behavior and
> > >domestication are special interests of mine.
> > >
> > >I would like to comment on the outdoor cats issue as well.  I
> > >recognize that cats are predators and do at times take birds and at
> > >times those birds are from struggling populations.  However, in my
> > >experience, few people have the knowledge or desire to make an
> > >indoor environment as enriched as a cat needs for optimum mental
> > >health.  It is much like the zoos of yester-year, when wild cat
> > >species were kept on boring, sterile cages.  Sure they lived longer
> > >than their wild counterparts, but what kind of lives did they lead?
> > >However now zoos undergo considerable design to provide more
> > >enriched environments (decades back, prior to vet school, I worked a
> > >summer with Hal Markowitz at the Portland zoo, who was an pioneer in
> > >cognitive enrichment in the zoo setting). But the average cat owner
> > >hasn't a clue how to evaluate and design an indoor environment for the
> > >behavioral needs of a cat.
> > >
> > >I think we also need to examine the issue of the prey that cats are
> > >hunting and why humans domesticated cats in the first place.  In the
> > >late 1990s, I lived for two years in Japan and got an English
> > >language newspaper.  There I was reading about the serious crop
> > >failure that was occurring in Vietnam, which was so severe that it
> > >was feared it would cause widespread famine. The situation all came
> > >back, it turns out, to cats.  What happened was the
> > >economy improved over the border in China, causing a proliferation
> > >of specialty "Little Tiger Restaurants" in the border cities
> > >surrounding Vietnam and in Saigon.  As the name implies, these
> > >restaurants served up cooked domestic cat, which was considered a
> > >delicacy.  This caused an economic draw for getting cats to supply
> > >the restaurants, and a number of people started poaching the cats
> > >from farm villages in Vietnam.  As the cats
> > >disappeared, the rat population exploded, moving out into the farms
> > >fields and consuming all the staple crops.  I don't remember the
> > >exact numbers, but it was billions of tons of human food being
> > >lost.  I remember reading one story about a man who used a car
> > >battery to electrify his rice paddy every night to kill thousands of
> > >rats--woe to anyone else who accidentally stumbled off the path.  At
> > >the time I left Japan and was no longer getting newspapers that ran
> > >the story, the government had closed down all the Little Tiger
> > >restaurants and were actively campaigning to the farmers to protect
> > >their cats as a way of protecting their fields and food supply.
> > >
> > >The reason why humans, in this case the ancient Egyptians,
> > >domesticated cats to begin with was because of their  hunting
> > >prowess and their ability to protect our food supply from rodents
> > >and pest species of small birds.  The domestication of the dog occurred
> while
> > >humans were still primarily hunter-gatherers.  Domestication of cats
> > >followed the domestication of grains and plant agriculture and
> > >storage and cats proved their value as small, effective predators
> > >that could live on the edges of human civilization. Cats then
> > >followed humanity everywhere we went, were of value to us because of
> > >their hunting prowess.  They accompanied humans on sailing ships,
> > >keeping our stores of food safe from rodents. Wherever there is
> > >human agriculture, there cats have proved their value.  I think that
> > >the current anti-cat movement fails to recognize the historical
> > >perspective and fails to recognize that the value we humans  derive
> > >from cats' hunting skills continues today.  We in our comfortable
> > >domesticity haven't experienced the horseman of the Apocalypse that
> > >was Pestilence.  But what if those millions of wildlife (mainly
> > >rodents) killed now by outdoor and feral cats were instead allowed
> > >to live and, as rodent populations are able to do, explosively
> > >reproduce?  We are still creating and maintaining the habitats in
> > >which rodents will flourish.  After all, if the feral cats didn't
> > >have those rodents to hunt, there would not be a feral cat
> > >population to begin with...the few people feeding these populations
> > >are not maintaining them--the rodent population living in the
> > >habitats we people have created is what is maintaining the feral cat
> > >population.
> > >
> > >Cats have gone, hand in paw, along with human agriculture for
> > >thousands of years, which is why many farmers tolerate, even
> > >encourage, semi-feral populations of barn cats.
> > >
> > >I choose to have several outdoor cats in my barn because I prefer
> > >that to trapping and poisoning rodents.  A decade ago we had a woman
> > >killed by Hantavirus in my community, so I know that this is in my
> > >resident deer mouse population. Trapping rodents puts me at
> > >increased risk and poisoning them puts raptors at risk.  Leaving
> > >them to reproduce and run amok in my barn and pastures is not a good
> > >sustainable agricultural practice. There are snakes in my pastures,
> > >but being cold blooded, they aren't much help in the winter and
> > >don't consume prey species as much as a warm blooded species with
> > >higher energy demands.  I have, on occasions had skunks also living
> > >in the barn, also eating the rodent population.  But I prefer the
> > >cats to the skunks because the skunks kill my laying hens and the
> > >cats do not.  My cats do kill the occasional bird--but in keeping
> > >with the adage that common things happen commonly, the birds killed
> > >are generally species that are in overabundance like starlings.  I
> > >*don't* put out a bird feeder, which I think may be a
> > >detriment to wild bird populations by creating static, abnormally
> > >concentrated wild bird feeding locations that brings birds into
> > >close proximity and puts them at a higher risk of  social stress,
> > >disease transmission and predatory risk (from more than just
> > >cats).   (I wonder how many of the people who damn the cats also
> > >create these abnormal feeding stations without questioning whether
> > >they are potentially creating risk for the bird populations)?
> > >
> > >Most of the prey that are killed by cats are not any more "wild"
> > >than the cats themselves.  They are species of animals who have
> > >either invaded into new territories because of their ability to
> > >exploit the niches we create (like the Norway rat), were
> > >deliberately introduced (like the starling, which is no more native
> > >than the cats) or are  native populations that are living at higher
> > >densities because of the habitat we have created (like the deer mouse).
> > >
> > >Rare populations are also impacted by the hunting skills of the
> > >cats, but not to the degree that these potentially damaging pest
> > >species are impacted. I think we need to find another way to protect
> > >the rare species from all the things that are challenging them (like
> > >habitat destruction, competition from pest species, loss of nesting
> > >habitat, pollution and pesticides) and leave the cats doing what the
> > >cats have been doing the last 5 centuries....using their spectacular
> > >hunting prowess to protect our food supply.  And for those of us who
> > >also make our living from agriculture, we need to recognize that the
> > >health of the outdoor cat population is related to the health and
> > >sustainability of agriculture and extend our hand at keeping them
> > >healthy and able to do their jobs (an example would be on-farm
> > >vaccination and worming when we are there seeing to the
> > >ruminants).  Part of our jobs when we go on a farm, could be to see
> > >what the farmer needs to keep his outdoor cat population stable and
> > >healthy.  As the Toxo case pointed out, a rapidly turning over
> > >population with a lot of kittens and influx of new cats is not as
> > >beneficial as a stable population.  We could teach farmers how to
> > >better care for their barn cats. That is a niche we could explore.
> > >
> > >I think that those of us in agriculture need to appreciate what cats
> > >do for agriculture and add our perspective to the outdoor cat debate.
> > >
> > >I also don't think you can always buy the argument that outdoor cats
> > >necessarily live short, miserable lives.  They do certainly have
> > >more challenges to their safety, like coyotes and cars.  But I have
> > >a 20 year old retired barn cat who started living in my house a
> > >while back, after having been born and raised and spending over a
> > >decade as my primary barn cat.  She is mearowing to be fed, so I'd
> > >better stop writing now.......
> > >
> > >Again I apologize for the length of this post.  It is a topic about
> > >which I have given a lot of thought and I don't see this perspective
> > >addressed much in the debates about this.
> > >
> > >Janice
> > >
> > >Janice Willard, DVM, MS
> > >Moscow, ID
> > >
> > >
> > >>Peri;
> > >>Well said; you make some good points, and I'm sure we all value
> wildlife.
> > >>I have no doubt that in certain situations, especially where habitat
> loss
> > >>has already threatened certain populations, cats may have an impact. It
> > >>behooves us all to try to minimze our ecologic footprint and manage our
> > >>own habitat responsibly. We do see plenty of what our cats kill and
> bring
> > >>home (or barf up), and birds are a very small part. The cats do a lot 
> > >>to
> > >>keep mice, squirrels and chipmunks out of the houses as well as the
> barns.
> > >>I stand corrected on the issue of older cats potentially shedding toxo,
> as
> > >>well, but still a resident adult population is likely to be healthier
> than
> > >>a transient one.
> >
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