21/08/2013: Giant King Grass animal feed; calories in crops could feed 4 billion; employer fined after grain silo injury

Viaspace Inc. today announced results of independent and third-party testing that show its Giant King Grass is an excellent high protein animal feed. 

The average protein content of five samples was 14.3 percent with good energy content and digestibility. The results show that Giant King Grass is much better than wheat straw, corn straw, sorghum silage, Bermuda grass or Sudan grass. It is very similar in nutritional value to oat hay.
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New research published this month in Environmental Research Letters suggests that utilising cropland for human consumption rather than livestock feed and biofuel could feed an additional 4 billion people.
 
This shift in availability has the potential to produce the  equivalent yield increases achieved for maize, wheat and rice between 1965 and 2009.
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A worker has been awarded NZD$26,000 in emotional harm reparations by NZ Starch Ltd.

According to New Zealand news broadcaster TVNZ, the worker - who following the advice of his supervisor - failed to stop the blades of a sweep auger and consequently fell into the moving blades of the grain silo.

The company has also been fined NZD $35,000.
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New Zealand (Photo credit: mdid)