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Sustainable Forest Innovations Revitalize Hard Hit Communities
By Charlie Spies, CEO CEI Capital Management LLC From Maine to Georgia to Arizona to Oregon, new forest-based enterprises are coming on line with financial support from New Markets Tax Credits every day. These tax credits provide incentives for private investors to fund projects that create or preserve jobs and diversify economies in distressed communities. The result is re-invention and job creation within the supply chain of an age-old industry: growing new forests, sustainably harvesting and moving the timber, and then processing it in 21 st century ways by breaking down the trees into fiber and even into molecules with a variety of potential uses. For instance, this month in rural Berlin, NH the first delivery of sustainably harvested wood to the Burgess Biomass Plant marked a milestone in the evolution of the region’s forest-based economy. On track to come online by the end of the year, it is a prime example of next generation forest utilization as an economic engine. The plant is built on the site of a defunct paper mill, where it will produce 75 megawatts of power, sustain 40 jobs in management and plant operations, plus spur hundreds more jobs in the woods associated with harvesting and transporting biomass. The project received $64 million in New Markets Tax Credits, which attracted private investors to participate. Congress first established New Markets Tax Credits in 2000 to stimulate investment and economic growth in low-income and underserved rural and urban communities that are often overlooked by conventional capital markets. Investors receive 39 percent federal tax credit over seven years as incentive to finance businesses and economic development projects in these distressed communities. The New Markets Tax Credits program has been the impetus for projects on the cutting edge in the forest product industry over the last decade. The program has allowed for millions of acres of timberlands to be managed as sustainable forests available for both industrial and recreational use, as well as creating jobs through continued innovation in the use of forest products from high speed lumber manufacturing, to composite material manufacturing, to cellulosic fuel. These targeted private capital investments are helping to reinvent local economies and protect their future viability using environmentally sustainable practices. New Markets Tax Credits helped Westervelt Company to fund a new wood pellet manufacturing plant in rural Alabama, where nearly half the population lives in poverty and unemployment is greater than ten percent. The plant will produce 280,000 metric tons of wood pellets for use as an alternative fuel source around the world. This project has so far created 45 permanent jobs while assuring demand for locally produced timber and the people that harvest and transport that wood. Alternatively, the Appalachian Mountain Club’s (AMC) Maine Woods Initiative uniquely combines recreation, natural resource protection, sustainable forestry, and community partnerships. By encouraging nature-based tourism, the project is creating jobs: logging crews are busy at work supplying local paper mills while three traditional sporting camps are staffed to welcome visitors, and professionals are employed to manage nearly 70,000 acres of timberland, not to mention the ripple effect in the local economy. The AMC’s purchase of this working forest for conservation and continued public use for both forestry and recreation was supported through New Markets Tax Credits valued at approximately $16.5 million. Further, with cutting edge research and development at the molecular level, ZeaChem Applied Technology in Oregon is using its “know how” to produce fuel and other valuable chemicals from low value wood. The work was made possible with New Markets Tax Credits, employing chemical engineers and researchers while developing green energy. If you believe your project is a candidate for New Markets Tax Credits, your best first step is to speak with a professional who understands the program and can help you understand how you need to structure the financing, corporate ownership and other considerations necessary to qualify. There are a variety of banks that are experienced in this sort of community development, as well as the qualified Community Development Entities (CDE’s) like CEI Capital Management, who administer the program. Charlie Spies is CEO of CEI Capital Management which creates and preserves jobs and improves quality of life in rural, low income communities by providing access to project capital through New Markets Tax Credits. Over 10 years CEI Capital Management has placed more than $658.8 million in 74 different projects across the U.S. In addition to fiscal soundness, CEI Capital Management evaluates each project according to its benefit to the local community, economic gain and positive impact on the environment. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of CEI, the Maine-based nonprofit community development financial institution which was among the founders of this important federal economic development program. For more information, visit http://www.ceimaine.org/CCML Continue reading
How Farmland Became Canada’s Hottest Real Estate Market
JEFF RUBIN The Globe and Mail Published Wednesday, Sep. 18 2013 Buy land, advised Mark Twain, because, as the punch line goes, they ain’t making any more of it. Fast forward to 2013 and that advice, as a look at prices for farmland shows, seems as prescient as ever. As any farmer will readily tell you, the agriculture business has had a tough run. Agriculture was once an economic mainstay. Turn back the clock to 1950 and the sector employed nearly a fifth of Canada’s work force. Today, agriculture accounts for less than 2 per cent of the country’s employed workers, while its share of gross domestic product is also a shadow of what it once was. Farm prices have languished for decades, as Canada’s population has shifted from rural to urban. By the 1990s, North America was losing two acres of productive farmland to development every minute. How the world has changed for Canada’s farmers in 2013. The hottest sector of the country’s real estate market is, you guessed it, farmland. The price of farmland in Canada has outpaced both residential and commercial real estate, gaining an average of 12 per cent over the last five years. In some hotspots, such as southwestern Ontario, the price-per-acre has been going up by as much as 50 per cent a year. Even pension plans and hedge funds have become players in the pursuit of prime agricultural land, interest that is only sending prices that much higher. If global food prices are any indication, such investments could be a solid bet. Over the last decade, global food prices have more than doubled, according to the United Nations FAO Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in prices for international food commodities. The food riots stemming from that price inflation were part of the spark that set off the Arab Spring. So far this year prices have been falling, but they still remain within shouting distance of the record highs reached in 2011. The strength in global food prices is no accident. The growth in global food demand is unrelenting. Part of the reason is due to population growth. The world is at 7-billion people and counting. But that’s not the only thing straining food supply. World grain demand has also soared, as households in fast-growing Asian countries trade in rice bowls for cheeseburgers. It takes seven pounds of grain to raise a pound of beef. That’s a whole lot more than it takes to make a loaf of bread. The newfound economic clout in emerging economies such as China and India, which between them have roughly 2.5 billion people, has allowed more people to diversify their diets. In turn, global meat consumption has bounded ahead at double the rate of population growth over the last two decades. All that demand for protein bodes well for the world’s breadbaskets. That is if Mother Nature doesn’t get in the way first. A severe drought a few years ago forced Russia, the world’s third largest producer of wheat, barley and rye, to suspend grain exports for nearly a year. Before that a drought in China caused a spike in grain prices that affected everything from the price of pasta in Italy to the cost of tortillas in Mexico. Closer to home the US Midwest has been grinding through one of the worst droughts in more than half a century. Climate change scientists warn that droughts and other agricultural shocks will be even more common in the future. Against a backdrop of climbing temperatures, Canada sits in an interesting spot. With a wealth of arable land and 7 per cent of the world’s fresh water, Canada’s agricultural potential is considerable. It’s also possible the amount of land under cultivation in Canada could actually increase as global temperatures continue to rise and the wheat belt climbs farther north. Could it be that in the coming years we’ll also see farmers actually start reclaiming acres from far-flung suburbs? The idea is much more plausible now than it was only a few years ago. It was depressed farm prices that allowed prime agricultural land to be paved over in the first place. As food becomes more precious and more expensive, it will only add to the market forces that will push some of those farms to come back. Jeff Rubin is a former chief economist of CIBC World Markets and the author of the award-winning Why Your World Is About To Get A Whole Lot Smaller as well as The End of Growth. Continue reading
Fendi l’Acquarossa (2013): Oud 2.0 or the New Strange, Invisible Aesthetic Compass {Perfume Review & Musings}
Smelling L’Acquarossa for the first time in principle, I realize I smelled it on a passer-by, just the other day. I had noticed a bold, fruity perfume which I identified after a while as Deci-Delà by Nina Ricci (1994). This was an unconventional choice, I thought, as the scent must be by now worn by the faithful only. On the other hand, with its raspberry-oud note, it is on-trend. It turns out the new L’Acquarossa by Fendi is reminiscent of that earlier perfume. The composition co-signed by François Demachy working together with Delphine Lebeau and Benoist Lapouza. It is advertized as a woody floral… The dominant impression at first is that the perfume is “sophisticated” — make it even “very sophisticated”. As the scent evolves, this intangible sensation deepens. It smells sleek, polished, supple, and feline. Chiara Mastroiannithe spokesperson for the fragrance – the daughter of Belle de Jour Catherine Deneuve and La Dolce Vita Marcello Mastroianni – looks a bit wooden in the picture signed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino – except for her face which is pensive – but the fragrance itself suggests the movements of a supple, elegant body evolving in an environment of ease and privilege. A woman, who is more of a professional than a hostess, traverses a luxurious living room, with a sense of purpose. The perfumers devoted much of their efforts to carving out this note of sophistication. It is a social impression rather than a sensory perception as when you smell a flower, yet real. Fendi is part of the LVMH conglomerate which includes the brand of Guerlain. It is not surprising therefore to discover that in the midst of this new juice there is a recognizable rose accord, the one found in Idylle by Guerlain . Past the exuberant opening, it smells of a dusky rose with touches of tobacco (Idylle) made creamier by the addition of magnolia. A note of prune recalls an earlier Fendi like Theorema (1998) making sure Fendi aficionados will tread in familiar terrain. The main olfactory pitch for the fragrance rests on the red and golden Lantana flowers. Some research yields the facts that he plant belongs to the Verbena family; both their flowers and leaves release aromas; Lantanas are known to gardeners as deer-repellants and as butterfly-attractants. There is an essential oil of Lantana Camara. Its smell can be compared to that of Davana as it contains the molecule Davanone. This facet smells fruity and pruney and is evocative of dark black, thick and sweet Georgian wines. It also contains some Camphor. This is why its odor profile can be described as being in-between raspberry and mint. The Lantana confers a subtle herbaceous facet to l’Acquarossa which is more subliminal than with galbanum although you can approximate it to it. Without making use of oud, this composition manages to play on the range of oud thanks to the inclusion of Lantana. The introduction of this new oud note which was so new a few years ago is hitting a further stage of psychological maturation. You are now thrumming the secondary nuances of this new taste for oud, or agarwood. Raspberry becomes thicker and more intense. Pruney is good. Woods are in. Oud has become a significant cultural marker of our olfactory orientations rather than just a note of fashion. You look up to oud and think “what variation could be thought of?” It is like an early 21st century twist in reverse on the fresheness rage of the 1990s. This is why the early Deci-Delà by Nina Ricci with its discreet oud-y impression has crept back in the range of sensations evoked by the sillage of l’Acquarossa as you smelled it the other day in a state of innocence. Oud has become an aesthetic and moral compass for our noses. We are refining our ways away from it, yet make no mistake, it is acting as an olfactory North Pole in a strange, invisible manner. Notes: Calabrian bergamot, Mandarin from Sicily, prune accord, Lantana, rose essence, orange blossom, magnolia, red cedar wood, musk, Patchouli from Indonesia. Read more at http://www.mimifrouf…BpISiwclS0S5.99 Continue reading
