Farming's answer to Facebook and Craigslist

With the launch of www.farmlink.org, Florida growers have gotten their own hybrid version of the social networking site Facebook and the trading site Craigslist.

But Farmlink goes beyond just networking, says Laura Morton, coordinator of the Florida West Coast Resource Conservation and Development in Ellenton.

"It's the idea of creating a farmer-to-farmer support system with a Craigslist," says Morton, who came up with the concept. "It's not a social site, because farmers don't have the time. It's more, 'I need to find a used plastic laying machine.'

"It's real concrete stuff combined with real network support."

The site also differs from Facebook in that Farmlink users can see who's in their community network. They simply enter their zip code and how wide a diameter they want to cast a net for responses.

With Facebook, you search for a specific person.

A few other states have sites similar to Farmlink, but Morton says they don't provide the depth of information that her site will.

In Virginia, for example, a state-run database matches farmers who are retiring and have farmland with would-be renters.

Farmlink registration is free, and it allows you to post items, including machinery for sale, help wanted, land wanted and land for lease. You can browse the postings without registering.

Another part of the site allows you to pose questions to see if other farmers have encountered the same challenge and might be able to provide help.

More than 200 people have already registered.

"Considering the interest so far, I think it's going to take off," Moton says. "It's kind of heartening to see the activity."

The site still is in the Beta test mode, which means there are a few bugs that need to be worked out, Morton says.

But she said the RC&D wanted to get it on the Internet to seek input from users about how it can be improved.

Currently, it is designed just for Florida farmers. But the goal is to roll it out nationwide within the next six to 12 months.

Researchers seek better understanding of greening genetics

Sun Tzu, an ancient Chinese general, is reported to have uttered the quote: "Know thy self, know thy enemy."

In the battle against citrus greening, researchers are trying to do just that by gaining a better understanding of their nemesis, the Canidatus Liberibacter asiaticus bacterium.

The greening bacterium is picked up from infected trees by the Asian citrus psyllid and spread to healthy trees.

One of the researchers' challenges is the inability to routinely culture the organism outside of the host.

Without this ability, they can't determine how exactly the greening bacterium infects the plant.

To get around these issues, scientists with Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences are using an advanced method for sequence analysis—known as metagenomics—to separate the greening bacterium DNA from a genetically mixed population of environmental samples.

They also are looking at a similar Canidadatus Liberibacter organism that causes zebra chip in potatoes.

Zebra chip affects how potato plants store sugars in the tuber. When the tubers are cut and fried for chips, the accumulated sugars carmelize, creating undesirable dark brown stripes.

"There are a number of groups who are basically competing to try to culture [the greening organism] and get the complete genomic sequence," David Schneider, an Agricultural Research Service scientist and adjunct associate plant pathology professor at Cornell, said in a news release. "Without that basic knowledge, it's hard to proceed."