"Davisco pushed us, quite honestly," allows Jack Jordan, president of Sudmo. "Somebody had to sit down and redesign a valve to handle particulate, and that''s a big challenge. But the ability to handle particulate up to 1.5 inches opens up complete new markets for us." Fruit for yogurt, soups and pet foods are among the processing segments evaluating the technology.Another innovation that must pass sanitary muster before it can find wide application in food processing is the constant flow (CF) valve from GATE LLC. The valve was developed by John Newton, a Florida inventor and founder of Grand Banks Yachts, at the request of E.I. DuPont de Nemours to improve the accuracy of chemical spraying in agriculture. Accurate depositing is easy to achieve if pressure is constant, but that is not always the case. The CF valve offers a simplified design and preset calibration to precisely dispense liquids or gases.

Environmentalists have been quick to point fingers at chip mills for devastating forestry practices. But the industry insists it''s "out of the loop" concerning timber cuts, since operators purchase their supply from private landholders. Industry officials are so infuriated, many refused to comment. The line connecting chip mills to clearcuts and destructive forestry isn''t a straight one, but it is visible. Dean Carson of the South Carolina Forestry Commission argues that chips can be transported more efficiently, using less energy, than large pieces of timber, and mills can utilize the whole tree. But processing the whole tree is exactly what has brought the mills under fire: because lumber is chipped into one-inch pieces, any size scrap of timber will do. With new markets opening up for treetops, undersized trees, and forked or crooked specimens, landowners have added incentive to clearcut a site for quick profits, instead of harvesting selected trees to be cut into boards. And timber previously left behind to continue maturing, or that provided wildlife habitat or eroded to replenish soils, now finds itself in the steely mouths of the chippers. A 1998 U.S. Forest Service report says clearcutting accounts for 13 percent of logged land in the South. And because the chips are needed for everything from rayon and plastics to particleboard and paper, chip markets continue growing. Timber giant Willamette Industries says chip mills allow landowners to merchandise otherwise unusable trees, discouraging forestry practices like "high-grading" (cutting only the healthiest trees). "Clearcutting is often the best tool to assure a rich, diverse forest," claims Willamette''s web site. "Many songbirds and other types of wildlife require open areas for nesting and food gathering."

According to Lori Vaclavik, executive director of HFH of Metro Denver, green building also sets an important standard for all builders to follow. With widespread adoption of these practices, we can all create habitat that provides people with comfort and savings while safeguarding the life-support systems of the planet.Habitat''s Hand UpRelying principally on volunteers, among the most prominent of them former President Jimmy Carter, Habitat has built more than 130,000 homes for families since it was founded in 1976. Habitat homes appear in 82 countries, with more than 50,000 in the United States.

©2003 www.utility-truck.net All rights reserved.