1. Who is Saladacres LLC
2. Core Products
3. Fundamentals of Our Products
4. Greenhouse Design
5. Advantages in Design and Operation
6. Competition
7. Health Benefits
8. Markets and Demand
9. Marketing
10. Climate Change
11. Business Model
12. Energy
13. Profit Picture
14. Economic Impact
15. Accomplishments
16. Business Plans
17. Supporting Data
18. References
1. Who is Saladacres LLC
Saladacres (SA) has developed and proven a greenhouse design for the year round production and processing of fabulous salad vegetable and herb crops. We specialize in 'short' crops which are under 24"/60cm. Our crops are the best in the business for color, texture, taste, crunch, and body. Field crops can be grown as well.
We combine our greenhouse with a power plant that produces heat and electricity from renewable fuels. This energy independence helps to control our production costs, and keep our produce affordable. This is a new, unique, and profitable combination.
2. Core Products
BAGGED SALADS
Over 30 varieties including: spinach, Chinese vegetables, root crops (beets, turnips, etc.), edible flowers, greens, broccoli, lettuces, onions, radish, chard, and more
COMPLETE MEAL SALADS
Salads accompanied with bean, pea, chickpea (garbanzo), or lentil (like a half pea)) condiments, salad dressings, bread sticks, wraps, and forks; ready to eat as a full meal.
HERBS
Top 11 culinary herbs sold in bags or as living “mats” (8”x10” /20 cm x 25 cm)
EMA Juice (electrolyte, mineral, antioxidant):
A cold pressed, unpasteurized, pure vegetable juice from the roots and leaves of vegetables and grain grasses. It contains highly concentrated electrolytes, antioxidants, flavonoids, enzymes, and 52 minerals. Nanofied water provides for greater absorption.
OTHER POTENTIAL PROCESSED PRODUCTS
Baby Food Potted Type Plants
Essential Oils Medicinal herbs
Health Food Medicines Herb Teas
Processed Foods Pet Care
Salad Dressings Sugar Substitute
Cosmetics Lotions
Flower
LARGE ROOT CROPS
Large root crops would be grown in channels in field channels, or in modified greenhouses. Environmental controls are not as concise as in greenhouses.
These crops would require over 2 months to grow.
1. Starch crops and grains: taro, potatoes, and yams; and grains such as rice
2. Trees and bush crops: Blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries, apples, citrus (lemons, limes, oranges), palm, coffee, pineapples, olives, cocoa, tea, cotton, aloe, agave, medicinal herbals (ex. antimalarial)
3. Vine: grapes, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant
4. Melons and squash
5. Forage crops: alfalfa
3. Fundamentals of Our Products
We have designed and developed a new greenhouse / growing facility. We generate our own heat and electricity from renewable fuels. Our products have the following market advantages:
CLEAN
Produce and herbs are grown in soiless, clean, pure, conditions, in
environmentally controlled greenhouses. Irrigation water is filtered and
sterilized. Our produce is dark green, fresh, and good tasting.
HEALTHY
Fresh pure food, combined with regular exercise is required every day for good health
and a maximum lifespan (1). They slow aging and are vital for cardiovascular
health and strong immune systems.
A strong immune system prevents infection and cancers (2).
We guarantee in our products: a full range of essential* nutrients (indispensable for life; cannot be synthesized in the body); 52 trace elements, Omega 3 nutrients, antioxidants, flavonoids, vitamins, and enzymes. Studies have shown that nutrient dense foods such as ours, slow aging, prevent cancers (1), are vital for cardiovascular health and strong immune systems, and are required every day to attain maximum health and lifespan.
Weight control through appetite satisfaction
PURE
Produce is grown free of synthetic insecticides, herbicides, algaecides, fungicides. We use no manure fertilizers that can contain harmful bacteria (E. coli, Salmonella), hormones, and pesticides. Our main, and associated products are labeled 'pure' and sealed in bags for security - know your source.
PROFITABLE
Outstanding returns on investment
COMPETITIVE
Our products are better than field produce in price and quality because we grow about 12 -18 crops per year under controlled conditions, compared to 1 or 2 field crops per year grown in uncontrolled conditions.
Our salad vegetables are the best in the business when it comes to color, taste, crunch, and flavor.
We grow affordable produce
YEAR AROUND
Because crops are grown and processed year around, jobs are year round. Winter production is equal to or better than summer production. Our fresh market produce is always in season. Supply self reliance is possible with year round production.
MARKETS
Our market is everyone who wants a long, healthy, disease free lifestyle. Our pure salad vegetables are part of a lifestyle that will make this happen. Every living person is our market.
Locations of greenhouses will be next to city markets; climate and land are not concerns. Imports are replaced. Sales are as direct as possible for a rapid and secure cash flow. Transport costs are minimized.
ENERGY
Renewable biomass fuels are burned on site to heat water, which provides greenhouse heating, and powers a turbine that generates electricity for cooling, and batteries that will power motors and trucks, desalinating water, and running the greenhouse. We are free of the dependency on oil and natural gas and are “off the grid’.
We can operate equally well in cold and hot climates.
SUSTAINABLE
· Pollution and land degradation is zero. A facility can operate indefinitely with no harm to the environment because we do not rely on depletable resources such as topsoil, or non renewable energy from fossil fuels.
· Lower amounts of fresh water are used for irrigation: ex. we use1/10 of the water used in arid field agriculture.
· We can purify water to a drinkable irrigation base from sources such as: lakes, rivers, oceans, lagoons, 'grey' effluent, and ground.
(1) USDA
(2) World Cancer Research Fund 1997, 2007, American Institute for Cancer Research, American Cancer Journal: Cancer Causes and Control; American Institute for Cancer Research; see www.saladacres.net
4. Greenhouse Design
Our uniqueness is our greenhouse/energy package (6). The greenhouse unit, or range, is 1.5 acres (covered, 2 acres gross area) and consists of 20 greenhouses, 1 nursery, and 1 service building. Our specialty is growing vegetable and herb crops under 24"/60cm. The rate of crop growth is generally 1 crop per month. In the past 15 years we have built 5 R&D facilities which attracted positive media attention. At the same time we developed, tested, and proved over 20 new equipment designs and techniques in our growing operations that are new to the greenhouse industry. These methods enable the growing of a wide variety of plant types. Some R&D funding was provided by Canadian federal and provincial government programs. Our design is within the top 3% of designs on the continent – if not the top. The greenhouse technology and design package is a body of information that is protected in trust. It is provided to our partners under license for one dollar a year for the mutual benefit of SA, its partners, and shareholders. It is available to all who want to become partners in a working greenhouse installation, working under the Operating Agreement.
5. Advantages in Design and Operation
A SA facility is superior to average greenhouses because of the following features:
Building: The main unit of production is a 'range' or group of 22 connected buildings (25' x 115' each). Each range requires about 2 acres of flat land, including access roads. A range features a concrete floor, structural steel frame, and a crystal clear storm proof covering, (hail and UV resistant).
Build, Operate and Train: SA contract builds, and trains staff to operate the greenhouses. A comprehensive training program is provided for all operating personnel along with a full apprenticeship term. Because the facility is designed and contract built by SA, we keep construction costs within a realistic and predictable budget and avoid construction extras and overruns.
Carbon Dioxide Air Enrichment: By elevating the levels of carbon dioxide in the greenhouse air, we achieve faster growth and larger crops without diminishing the nutrient content.
Clean conditions and environmentally controlled buildings: No soil is used in the system - the growing area is clean. Computer controlled air and water quality insures that the crops are of consistent high quality.
Energy: We have designed a new hot water boiler we call the Biomass Boiler. It burns a wide range of renewable biomass fuels with no pollution. We call the Biomass Boiler the ‘Buzzard’ because it will ‘eat’ anything. The Buzzard releases SA from the dependence on fossil fuels for energy. Therefore our products are not subject to price increases in oil, gas and coal which are sure to rise.
The Buzzard heats hot water which is used mainly to: 1) heat greenhouses in cold weather by pumping hot water through pipes embedded in the floor (hydronic heating); 2) supply hot processing water; 3) power a turbine that will turn a generator to provide electricity for equipment and machines. Water purification equipment will be used to purify irrigation water from the ground, “grey”, or ocean water.
The Buzzard can burn a variety of cheap, renewable biomass fuels (sawdust, agricultural waste, wood chips, and sorted municipal garbage, shingles, tires, carpets, manures) at high temperatures with zero pollution. It can also burn raw landfill gas. These fuel options enable SA to use the available fuels in locations of opportunity, and therefore control costs. The burning of municipal waste to run all phases of a greenhouse will be an SA first – “food from waste fuels”.
Biomass combustion is considered C02 neutral and not a producer of greenhouse gas. We are able to trade carbon credits (7). Each range eliminates 1,252 tons of C02 from entering the atmosphere each year. These income sources can be substantial at $15/ton but are not factored in our Income Statements.
Hot water can also be produced in areas of high sunlight with the use of hot water solar panels, or from geothermal sources.
Herbicide and Pesticide Free
Hurricane Proof: Inexpensive structural additions can prevent wind damage up to force 4 hurricanes (135 mph).
Hydronic Radiant Heating (HRH): HRH heats the building and crops from hot water piping embedded in the floor. HRH is the most spectacular advance in greenhouse mechanical design in 100 years, because it is efficient, and permits the burning of a variety of fuels.
Propagation and Tissue Culture: Plants are propagated (multiplied) by seeds, cuttings, layering, grafts, divisions, and tissue culture. Most of our varieties are started from seeds, however the use of tissue culture will increase because the opportunities are profound.
Tissue culture is the established science and art of starting plants from tiny pieces of a living plant and growing it large enough to be transplanted for full growth. The start of the process is in test tubes where the starting plant tissue from a living plant (explant) can be as small as .1 mm. The explant can start the multiplication of 1 to a million or more clones, or exact replicas of the original plant. The clones are pure, and virus free. When a piece of a plant is placed in the tiniest of greenhouses, a test tube, it will appear to perform miracles. In the absence of microorganisms and in the presence of a balanced diet of chemicals, that bit of plant will produce tiny replicas of its single parent. It will produce the replicas in incredible numbers, so numerous that they must be divided repeatedly and frequently to survive.
Plants have the natural ability to reproduce themselves by asexual means, or vegetatively. There is no mixing of gene traits which occurs naturally in sexual reproduction within flowers. Vegetative reproduction is the basis for multiplication in vitro (in glass), or tissue culture, and is a natural phenomena. Vegetative reproduction, whether occurring naturally or through human intervention, is initiated in stems, roots, and leaves. The same multiplication and growth initiating factors which occur in tissue culture, occur in nature and in the greenhouse. No new phenomena have been invented.
The advantages of tissue culture are speed and reliability of reproduction. Tissue culture saves an enormous amount of the preparation and daily care required by cuttings and seedlings. Between transfers (dividing plant cultures in test tubes because they have multiplied) of between 2-6 weeks there is no need to tend the cultures other than casual watching.
However, field conditions must be right (temperature, water, sunlight, soil condition) for transplanting tissue cultured plants (plantlets) – in other words the right season. Scheduling production to match the season can be a problem. Also, the chances of transplant survival in the field can be an expensive gamble, especially as the weather gets more unpredictable.
We will have our own tissue culture lab to grow millions of plantlets for transplanting. Our magnificent advantage is our ability to further grow plantlets in our climate controlled range nurseries and ranges. We have no seasons. The “Buzzard” biomass boiler produces the heat and electricity to the tissue culture lab and ranges and keeps operating costs low. We can conceivably do forests, orchards, olive groves, fields of crops, and ranges full of nutriceuticals.
Cooling: In hot weather, the air in the ranges is cooled by evaporative cooling and fans. Electricity for cooling will be generated by electric generators, driven by turbines. Irrigation water is cooled by electrically powered chillers. Solar power can also provide power to cool the irrigation water.
Locations: We can locate in a wide variety of locations providing there is: a source of sufficient water, reasonably level ground, at least 1,800 hours of bright sunlight per year, and customers to buy our products. We do not require arable land, and can use water from a variety of sources. Opting to generate our own electricity and distilling our own water results in less reliance on available local utilities. This creates more independence and freedom in selecting greenhouse locations. When choosing a site, priority can be given to the available market rather than the availability of resources such as arable land, water, and electricity. This would apply to the Caribbean and South Pacific.
Pure irrigation water from many sources: The source water for irrigation water is treated to a pure, drinkable base before it’s used as irrigation water. Because we use relatively little irrigation water (1/10 of that used in arid field irrigation), we can afford to process water from different sources that have varying degrees of pollution. Source examples are: rivers, lakes, ocean, and used or "grey" sewer water. This increases the number of location options. For example, a city's used water could be distilled to purity with heat generated from the city's garbage. We are running out of fresh water. Populations have doubled, but fresh water demands have risen three times. Its notable that 500 gallons of fresh water are required to grow and process the food each person consumes each day. Projections in 2008, state that by 2030, 8.3 billion people will walk the Earth, and farmers will have to grow 30% more grain (National Geographic, Sept. 2008).
Security: What we do is our customers business; how we do it is our business.
Waist Height Crops: All crop seeding, transplanting and harvesting is done at waist hieght eliminating the need for stooping and crawling. This is highly valued by older staff who can be productive without wrecking their backs.
Year Round Operation: SA can can grow and process crops year round, in any weather. This results in a year round supply of products to customers and good steady jobs. Everyone, from the Range Manager down shares in profits that are a percentage of shares.
6. Competition
Today, most greenhouses growing food crops are involved in the growing 'long crops' because the technology is available, and the incomes are good. Long crops are tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and eggplant, and represent 95% of the production of greenhouse food industry crops. SA specializes in short crops which have little or no greenhouse grower competition - depending on the crop - because growers are few, and most of the short crops are field grown and imported.
There are 630 vegetable greenhouse acres in Canada, and 450 acres in the U.S. We could use 10 times that number.
Buyer beware of imported produce: there are no consistent or effective controls on the amounts of insecticides, herbicides, bacteria or parasites found on, and in, imported produce. Also, prices and availability of imports are variable throughout the year. In contrast, SA will sell pure salad and herb produce, year around, at consistent, competitive or lower prices to our customers.
We call our products "pure" to avoid conflict or confusion with "organic" produce grown by "organic" farms which use "certified manure" fertilizers. Our produce is pure because we provide our crops with pure nutrients and clean water. We do not use manures for fertilizer which are loaded with deadly bacteria such as e. coli and salmonella that can enter the tissues of produce plants through the roots (1). More than 11,000 people per year in Canada and the U.S. fall ill or die of e. coli poisoning (2), and 35% of food-borne illnesses in the U.S. are transmitted by produce (3).
When animals eat plants, they pull out the majority of useful mineral nutrients from the plants in its gut. What remains is mineral deficient manure. ‘Organic grown’ plants are grown in this manure that has already passed through an animal. The manure is mineral deficient to begin with, and plants become weaker and more mineral deficient the longer crops are grown in the same manure. The plants also become more useless as a good source of nutrition to people who eat them.
Produce production and processing for the whole continent is now centralized in California, Arizona, and Mexico. Because the fresh produce market is multi billion and growing, there are enormous market pressures on these areas to increase production. However, the ability of these areas to grow vegetables is declining because of the lack of clean irrigation water, urbanization of farmland, rising fuel costs, global warming and climate change, drought, rising labor costs, polluted irrigation water, salinization of farmland, and rising transport costs. But, the demand keeps growing.
Centralized production runs the risk of sudden failure from one or a combination of events. For example, the Salinas Valley in California is a big producer of lettuces, but it is now experiencing probleems with a falling water table, nitrification of ground irrigation water, salinization of topsoil from the salts in irrigation water, urbanization, and rising fuel and labor costs.50% of all farmland in the Central Valley of California is already useless from salinization from repeated irrigation. Pressure is also on the other 4 producing river valleys in California. In other words current centralized production as it exists is not sustainable.In a report by the California Dept. of Conservation, the Sacramento Valley lost 29,000 acres to urbanization in 2 years ending in 2002. Department of Conservation officials said they're worried that if something isn't done soon to stem the tide of farmland loss that the area will have to start relying on foreign-grown crops for a significant portion of the future food supply. An economic development officer in Bakersfield, in the San Joaquin Valley stated that unless growers changed their “practices” they would all be “toast” in 5 years.
When our greenhouse operations are installed in regions, we will eliminate all the problems of centralized production. We are sustainable in our region as long as we have customers.
7. Health Benefits
People are placing great personal importance on their health and longevity. They are finding out that the solution to good health is not in the hospital. Today’s reality is prevention of disease and self reliance. The constant message is exercise regularly and eat fresh pure vegetables 9 times a day (4). Pure fresh produce is essential for health - there is no substitute. Cancer is now seen as the result of a diet deficient in fresh plant foods. SA will grow those crops that are known to prevent cancers as a matter of routine. The medical journal, Cancer Causes and Control, states "vegetables and fruit contain the anticarcinogenic cocktail to which we are adapted. We abandon it at our peril".
Our products are the ultimate in nutrition and are a must for a healthy, long life. We guaranteea full range of essential nutrients because we add them to our irrigation water, and we know the concentrations at all times. This is almost impossible with field crops.The current food chain, starting with grains, typically has 5-6 minerals. The original minerals in the earth have been exhausted and only about 6 are required to grow “pulp” crops that are abundant in fiber and air. We try to get something for nothing by growingfood of little nutrient value on exhausted land. We need at least 24 minerals to maintain good health. We feed our crops with 52 minerals.
Therefore, we are nutritionally deficient and, as a result, we open ourselves to attack from parasitic microbes – bacteria, viruses, fungii, parasites – because our immune systems are depressed. The primary job of the immune system is to eliminate microbes and cancer cells and to do this job requires minerals on a daily basis for renewal. Without minerals, the immune system is compromised. We submit to slow poisoning through cumulative toxins, age fast, and invite degenerative diseases and cancers.
Without an intake of a complete range of minerals, we will become diseased and die. When you have cancer, or cardio vascular disease, its too late to realize that your diet has been deficient. It is natures law. You are what you eat. It’s a matter of choice of junk foods over ancestral foods. Junk food is sold in slick packaging pushed by ad agencies and is empty of minerals. Ancestral foods are the foods that keep us well; and we evolved with them over a period of 4 million years. They are full of minerals that are organically bound in plants.
Herbs
Sales of medicinal herbal remedies are growing by an estimated 15-18% per year and reached $10-12 billion dollars in 1998. Points: 1) we are going toward an integrated health care system, 2) 70% of medical schools in the U.S. are now teaching about herbal medicine, 3) natural medicine is cost effective and will lower medical costs.
The present annual size of the culinary herb and spice industry in the U.S. is estimated at $2 billion and from that we can assume $200 million in Canada. The U.S. produces only 35% of the herb products it uses. Canadian supplies are 99% imported and most of this is from the U.S. If the supply of fresh herbs triples in the U.S., the demand would still not be met. SA will sell culinary herbs in a ‘living mat’, to food services. Herb mats will stay alive in a room environment if watered.
8. Market and Demand
People are sick and tired, dying, and living shortened lives because of a toxic, altered, processed, highly advertised, industrial food chain that is based on 5 major ingredients.
The demand for pure produce is growing fast because people are now realizing that a diet based on fresh, pure, fruits and vegetables prevents and stop diseases, and promotes health. Every living person is our market, because everyone needs our products to live a healthy life. Without fresh food you die. We have conducted 4 formal market surveys, and every one indicated a solid, enthusiastic response to SA grown produce. Especially when the prices, availability, and quality are better than imported.
Demand for our products is exploding. The healthy lifestyle industry is growing at the rate of 28% per year. Normally this demand for pure produce would be met by traditional sources such as California and Arizona. But there are big trends preventing the supply from these regions. These trends are climate change, land elimination, urbanization, energy costs, and water shortages.
The North American market for organic produce alone is $8 billion per year and is increasing at the rate of 24% per year. That means in 3 years the demand for "organic" will double to $18 billion. It is almost impossible for earth farms to meet this demand because there is not enough unpolluted acreage available that can be classed as "organic", and naturally pure irrigation water is becoming rare. The identified market in Canada for produce is about $1 billion.
Herbs
Sales of medicinal herbal remedies are growing by an estimated 15-18% per year and reached $10-12 billion dollars in 1998. Points: 1) we are going toward an integrated health care system, 2) 70% of medical schools in the U.S. are now teaching about herbal medicine, 3) natural medicine is cost effective and will lower medical costs.
The present annual size of the culinary herb and spice industry in the U.S. is estimated at $2 billion and from that we can assume $200 million in Canada. The U.S. produces only 35% of the herb products it uses. Canadian supplies are 99% imported and most of this is from the U.S. If the supply of fresh herbs triples in the U.S., the demand would still not be met. SA will sell culinary herbs in a ‘living mat’, to food services. Herb mats will stay alive in a room environment if watered.
9. Marketing
We will sell as directly as possible to our customers by 3 methods: 1) direct sales with agents to food services, 2) contract sales to supermarkets, and 3) direct home delivery. Our salad mixes will be of all types: standard, fun, diet, colorful, herb flavored. Complete meal salads will have condiments such as cornmeal wraps, croutons, and dressings. Care and pride will be taken to create eye appeal in complete meal salads. We will replace imports and can develop exports. Great importance is placed on aggressive person to person sales and service, backed with advertising. We will supply our customers with specific products, a year round supply at stable prices, food safety, and traceable products.
With our marketing system, our products are paid for as soon as they are shipped; therefore our cash flow is secure and fast.
Vision and Goals – Regional Production
Our vision and goal is to locate a fresh to market greenhouse / processing operation in every market region we have access. A market region is defined as an area where there is sufficient sunlight, water and access to biomass fuel, and customers for our fresh to market products within a day’s transport time. An example would be an operation on the outskirts of a city.
Fresh to market means the delivery of produce via the fastest and most direct route from the grower / processor to the customer – options are truck, van rail, and container.This is best accomplished with producers within a market region, in contrast to centralized production.
At Saladacres we grow our crops with irrigation water containing 52 minerals in which the trace minerals are included in balanced, life supporting proportions. This says it all. Lifestyles involving exercise, combined with a consistent intake of all the mineral nutrients bound organically in plants will contribute immensely to a healthy, long, disease free life. The words chemical, nutrient, element, and fertilizer all refer to minerals.
Testing of the minerals in our products can be done at any one of a number of trace element laboratories recommended by the USDA.
10. Climate Change
Human activity is changing the climate. In pre-industrial times, the carbon dioxide (C02) level in the atmosphere was 280 ppm (part per million). In May, 2008, the level is 387 ppm and rising fast. The point of no return, or tipping point is closing and everything must be done to reduce fossil fuel consumption.
One Degree
Over the last century there has been a 1 degree C (1.5F) rise in temperature which is high by earth’s standards. Elevated C02 levels today are melting the Arctic seas. With a rise of 1 more degree the Greenland ice sheet will melt, and it is already starting.
Three Degrees
A 3 degree rise in temperature guarantees disaster. This will cause the Greenland sheet to melt completely, and the ocean levels will rise more than 25 m (80’). A 3 degree rise would burn away the Amazon forest, flood major cities and lowlands, and release more C02 from the melting of the methane hydrates now frozen on the floor of the Arctic ocean. There are more methane hydrates than all the known oil and gas, and methane is 8 times more potent as a greenhouse gas as C02. There was a 3 degree rise 3 million years ago, and sea levels were 25 m (80’) higher than today. If we follow the current rate of fossil fuel burning, then temperatures will rise 2-3 degrees by mid century, much sooner than predicted.
Tug of War
The earth is starting to bake 1 degree at a time. But the heating is offset, or masked by the cooling effect of particulate matter in the air (soot, carbon, nitrates, sulfates) from the burning of fossil fuels. Particulate pollution attracts water droplets, which form bright clouds that act as giant reflectors or mirrors. This layer can be 3 km (1.8 mi.) thick and is happening all over the world. Since 1960, the dimming of the sun has been from 10% to 20% depending on the location. There is a tug of war going on, between greenhouse gases, and particulate cooling from the dimming of the sun. Global dimming, or cooling has lulled people into a false sense of security and has been protecting us from an even greater threat – accelerated global warming. More than ½ of the warming effect has been masked by particulate cooling. But, the heating effect is forcing the climate to a warmer state with the constant addition of C02 (30 billion tons per year) of C02 to the air. To confirm this, vapor trail absence resulting from the 9/11/2001 ban on air travel resulted in an immediate rise in the temperature difference between day and night of 1 C (1.5F). That is, the nights were cooler and the days hotter, and the change was sudden. The man made clouds from aircraft were gone. 5,000 weather stations made the measurements. Three other separate projects verify global dimming from particulate: pan evaporation observations, NASA Aquasat satellite, Maldives project (google these).
More reflective clouds can alter global rainfall patterns. Normally, every summer, the heat of the sun warms the oceans north of the equator in the northern hemisphere.This draws the rainfall over the equator northward.But now, the clouds in the north are having a cooling effect on the ocean and the rain belt moves south rather than north.The heat that was required to draw tropical rains northward is not there.So the life giving rain belt stays away.This will have a enormous effect on the monsoons for Indiaand China, and the rains in Africa, California, and Mexico.
If particulate is reduced we could be creating the worst possible combination. With cooling pollutants going down from reducing the burning of fossil fuels, warming pollutants will become more powerful and will accelerate warming. We would face far faster warming.
Less Than a Decade Left
There is less than a decade left to stop the rise of 1 degree. Emissions must level off. Lowering the particulate in North America will not stop the particulate pollution in India (1 million people per year die of air pollution) and China. So we still face the same problem of particulate pollution. If particulate pollution is eliminated then warming will accelerate. There is no choice but to lower fossil fuel burning. As it is, agriculture in California and Mexico will fall dramatically or cease from a lack of water. This has already started. Production will have to shift to other regions. We have an operation that grows crops with 1/10 of the water used by arid agriculture, and is powered with heat and electricity from renewable fuels which are carbon neutral and with minimal particulate. This is the future of sustainable food growing.
11. Business Model
SA intends to own and operate its own ranges through a network of individual installations. However, in the early stages of development, the company intends to seek out partners or licensees for the production and sale of specific products (ex. pure baby food, medicinal herbs, flowers) and geographic expansion (ex. Britain).
SA wants partnerships with anyone who wants to set up a regional greenhouse project. The promoters of the projects will receive commissions, shares in the projects, and other benefits such as his or her choice of jobs.
12. Energy
Oil and natural gas prices will increase dramatically. Starting now, or in 2– 4 years, depending on the source quoted, a serious, permanent, world shortage of natural gas and oil will happen and this will drive up the cost of everything – especially food because the food chain is totally dependent on cheap oil. One billion barrels of oil now takes only 12 days to burn at current world consumption rates of 85 million barrels a day! The remaining 500 billion barrels of recoverable oil on the planet will be gone in 16 years.
Food production now relies almost exclusively on oil. 15 calories of fossil fuels are required to create 1 calorie of food. As oil supplies drop, they will be replaced by other fossil fuels and energy prices will rise even higher.
The bulk of the world’s population of 7 billion is now dependent on fossil fuels for food. Some say the sustainable level is 2 billion and Canada and the U.S. is 60 million, down from the current 330 million. The question is: who will survive among those who insist on fossil fuels as their energy source?
The cost of fresh produce will rise beyond belief. Other costs rising are water for irrigation and processing, food security, refrigeration, packaging, and transport from California, Mexico, and Central America. Droughts in California, Texas and Mexico are permanent. The whole fresh food chain is undergoing an upward price trend and along with it the costs of health care. However, SA will be able to grow and process affordable produce because of year round regional production, and a reliance on renewable fuels for heating.
We have designed a new hot water boiler. It is a portable skid mounted unit and burns a wide range of renewable biomass fuels with almost zero pollution. We call the boiler the ‘Buzzard’ because it will ‘eat’ anything. The initial capacity will be 500 to 1,000 kW and will be able to provide electricity to over 5 ranges. The Buzzard now releases SA from the dependence on fossil fuels for energy. Therefore our products are not subject to price increases in oil, gas and coal which are sure to rise.
Incomes and benefits from the use of renewable fuels to provide heat, electricity, and fresh food:
· Produce sales
· Carbon credits where applicable
· Pickup fees for some fuels
· Electricity sales off grid
· Heat sales to buildings off site
· Location of greenhouses in areas where there are no gas or electric lines
Direct benefits to community
· Pure, healthy, produce sold locally year round at affordable prices
· Jobs: construction, production, and sales year round
· Eliminant reliance on diesel electric generators in some community situations
· Better health and lower medical costs
· Low cost heating and electricity for businesses and homes
· Less carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere through reduced consumption of fossil fuels
· Reduction in landfill volumes
· Reduction in potential ground water pollutants
· An option for the survival of individuals and communities
13. Profit Picture
Staff incomes and returns on investment are good. Full ownership of some ranges is possible in less than 5 years. The average income per range is $2 million of about 35% is net profit. Each range is capable of producing annually: 838,000 heads of lettuce, 220 tons of spinach, 588,000 lbs. of tomatoes, 698,000 Liters of EMA nutrient juice, 19.2 million green onions. Generally one range can provide produce to 12,000 based on a low consumption rate of 20 lbs. per year.
Private Placement investments are welcome. With a 75 range operation in and around the proposed site, the share price is calculated at$99 (Fair Market Value = earnings x 30 / # of shares).
14. Economic Impact
One range provides about 10-12 jobs, not including construction and sales.
The following is a brief outline of the operation of an initial 10 ranges growing produce for bagged salads, with a capital cost of $21.4 million. Salads crops will result in lower, conservative, gross annual returns compared to faster crops such as spinach, and costlier crops such as herbs.
Number of ranges 10
Area 24-40 acres
Direct person employment 120
(not including construction or sales)
Gross annual sales $18-$20 million
Net Profit Income 35%
Direct production payroll $4 million
Economic multiplier (x5) $20 million
15. Accomplishments
- The ability to grow a wide range of salad crops and herbs in one facility, at the rate of 1 crop or less per month, year round
- Juice products from grain grasses with an astonishing array of health benefits for health and longevity. EMA Juice (SA name) is the most powerful nutrient known.
- Construction and operation of 5 prototypes, and work on 5 door knocking market surveys.
- Identification and investigation of 10 expansion sites in North America.
- Curriculum base for junior colleges and an association with 2 junior colleges (in Alberta and Texas).
- An accounting system for controlling construction costs.
- Detailed construction ready, designs and cost analysis for the construction of ranges.
- An association with 3 USDA offices in the U.S. with access to loan guarantee programs, grants, and programs in the U.S. Dept. of Energy.
- On line sales store software for direct delivery.
- The designs for heating hot water with biomass and / or solar energy for heating the greenhouse floors and generating electricity for powering equipment – and soon for generating hydrogen for use in fuel cells.
- Promotion and development of a hot water powered turbine for the on site generation of cheap electricity. Hot water is made from the burning of biomass (straw, woodchips, etc.) in a pollution free gasifier burner.
- We are “going green” and off the grid.
Other Reference Material Available
Website: www.saladacres.net
Power Point
DVD
16. Business Plan
A Business Plan is written for individual locations. It will include the operating details for each site.
17. Supporting Data: Available Electronically
A. First Ranges - Capital Cost Projections
B: Income Projections
C: Management
D: Markets and Marketing
E: Products and Packaging
F: Technology
G: Human Resources
H: Production Unit
I: Location
J: Energy
K. Diet Related Disease
L. Contaminants
M. Comparisons
N. 52 Mineral Feeding
0. Saladacres and Diet – 85 pages
Answers to Common Questions
18. References to Overview
(1) Rutgers University, New Jersey
(2) Higgins, National Post, Jan. 12, 02
(3) Atlanta Centers for Disease and Control
(4) ‘9 a Day Plan’ U.S. Dept. of Health; Canadian Food Guide: 8-9 servings of fruits and vegetables per day
(5) World Cancer Research Fund 1997, American Institute for Cancer Research, American CancerSociety; Journal: Cancer Causes and Control
(6) Provided to Saladacres partners through an exclusive license which protects and benefits partners
(7) Only available in some states