The Belgian Center for Fruit Growing (Pcfruit), together with the Universities of Hasselt and Maastricht, is starting a study on the usefulness of fruits in the production of building materials or textiles. This is reported by the Dutch Fruit Growers Organization (NFO).
Fibers from plants such as hemp are already being used as insulating material in construction. Pcfruit wants to explore whether substances found in fruit varieties could also find new uses. For fruit growers, this can be useful when, for example, there is an additional destination for fruits that are currently being processed industrially.
This includes ferulic acid. “This acid is found in several types of fruit. For example, it can be used in the textile industry to make clothing biodegradable,” Pcfruit Managing Director Dani Bylemans told VRT radio.
In addition to Pcfruit’s collaboration with the Universities of Hasselt and Maastricht, the pilot center is collaborating with the textile innovation center Centexbel in Ghent and Compas Agro in Venlo. The province of Limburg, Flanders and the European Union are jointly allocating 4 million euros for the study. This period is three years.
Bio-based building on the rise webinar – an opportunity for farmers?
Biologically based construction is in vogue. The government wants to promote bio-based construction. This opens up opportunities for farmers involved in farming. But what exactly is a biologically based design? What do politicians want to achieve with bio-based building? What can cultivation, research and supply chains do about it? Is it possible to profit from growing fiber crops? BO Akkerbouw, Duurzaam Praktijknetwerk Akkerbouw (DPA) and Nieuwe Oogst are organizing a webinar for arable farmers about the opportunities this new development offers. This will be an extensive program with speakers from Biobased Innovations Garden, Ballast Nedam, Van De Bilt zaden and vlas, Building Balance, Rabobank, Triodos and LTO. January 24 from 19.30 to 21.00. You can register here: Biobased construction on the rise, an opportunity for farmers?
Langflestir félagsmenn FNV sem starfa við gróðurhúsarækt eru ekki sammála lokatillögu atvinnurekenda.
Að sögn stéttarfélagsins er töluvert bil á milli lokatilboðs vinnuveitenda og launakröfur FNV. Fulltrúar atvinnurekenda leggja til 3 prósenta hækkun launa frá 1. janúar 2023 og um 2 prósent frá 1. júlí 2023. Framkvæmdastjórinn Linda Slugter hjá FNV Agrarisch Groen fullyrðir að með þessari tillögu muni starfsmönnum vissulega fækka um 5 prósent .
Slagter kallar þá ákvörðun félagsmanna FNV að fallast ekki á þetta feitletrað. Hún telur einnig að of oft reyni á tryggð starfsmanna við vinnuveitendur sína. „Við erum vonsvikin með þetta og biðjum vinnuveitendur að koma með betra tilboð.
Almennar verðbætur
FNV vill að hækkun framfærslukostnaðar komi fram í launum. Jafnframt leggur stéttarfélagið til að almennar verðbætur verði settar inn í kjarasamninginn. Slugter segir FNV skilja að gróðurhúsagarðyrkjumenn eigi líka erfitt, en hún sjái líka að sífellt fleiri starfsmenn vita ekki lengur hvernig þeir eigi að standa undir þessu fjárhagslega.
„Þetta leiðir til óánægju á vinnustaðnum og lokatillaga vinnuveitenda um kjarasamninga bætir ekki stöðuna,“ sagði framkvæmdastjóri sambandsins. Að sögn FNV stunda að meðaltali um 35,000 starfsmenn gróðurhúsaræktun. Á háannatíma er þessi tala mun hærri.