Dl4—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 27,1982
Farming at Disney World
How can a farm writer turn a
trip to Disney World into an
agricultural adventure’
That thought ran through my
mind as I headed south in the old
truck camper. Oh sure, there were
plenty of farms to see from the
window of the truck, but no time to
talk with any farmers couldn’t
even raise any on the CB radio.
And there were all of those
millions of orange trees that we
saw from an observation tower in
the heart of Florida’s citrus
country. But my wife and I were
headed for a short vacation m and
around the tourist spots of nor
thern and central Florida and
agriculture didn’t seem to be a
part of it.
That was befoie we arrived in
Orlando, host community to
Disney World, and some other
“make believe” places. We
quickly learned that the area is
abuzz about something called the
EPCOT Center, newest addition to
the Disney World complex and the
most imaginative and educational
thing the Disney genius has ever
created
The $BOO million complex, which
opens October 1 of this year,
provides an opportunity to ex
perience some of the next century
right now. Through it World
Showcase and Future World,
EPCOT deals with energy, com
munications transportation, and
even agriculture
There it was, my farm con
Two Great
Alfalfas
f M Yields, winter-hardiness
JXI and Bacterial Wilt tolerance
are excellent
High tolerance to anthracnose.
J[ Very fast recovery after harvest
Ask your p ~1
Pioneer salesman V U
about the alfalfa , /§BU
vane^tsnghtfor
dfe PIONEER
S v ) BRAND ALFALFA SEED
PIONEER HI-BRED INTERNATIONAL. INC ,
EASTERN DIVISION, TIPTON, INDIANA 46072
The Limitation of Warranty and remedy appearing on the
label is part of the terms of sale.
Pioneer is a brand name; numbers identify varieties.
trademark of Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.,
Des Moines, lowa, U.S.A.
Farm
Talk
Jerry Webb
nection a multi-million-dollar
Land Pavilion covering six acres
and including everything from
man’s first efforts in farming to
the most futuristic kind ol
agriculture the Disney
creativeness can conceive.
It’s a lot more than drawings and
animation The Land Pavilion will
be alive with plant materials from
around the world growing in the
most unusual ways. Research for
this farm of the future has been
going on for several years in an
agricultural college in Arizona.
Agricultural scientists with the
same kinds of training and ex
perience as ag scientists anywhere
have been channeling tneir
thinking toward future food
production in a special En
vironmental Research Laboratory
at the University of Arizona.
They’ve already perfected this
futuristic farming to the point
where they know these far-out
things will work and that visitors
will have some unusual growing
plants to see when they visit
As you can imagine, setting up a
Disney exhibit with futuristic
tarmmg is a lot more complicated
than some kind ot a make-believe
moon trio. Those systems have to
work and the plants have to thr.ve
in that space-age environment
something they may not be ready
to do. It’s easy enough to animate a
carrot >n the ujv, i.adition of the
Micke\ >voild of Disney, but
to make plants grow out of a wall
or in space is something else.
But the plants are growing in
the labs in Arizona and in the
gieenhouses at Disney World
Here at e some examples
•Plants glowing in a space
dium while the roots, responding
to the centrifugal force of the
revolving drum as though it were
gravity, extend outward into a
mist of plant nutrients.
* Multi-level cropping systems
with several crops growing on the
same plots, t
* A superstar gourd with seeds
that are 35 percent oil and protein,
and roots that are 50 percent
starch.
* A winged bean with spmach
like leaves, beans that are 37
percent protein and roots with 10
times the protein of potatoes.
* A tropical food crop that can be
baked, boiled, fried, or ground into
flour.
* Tropical plants and temperate
climate plants thriving in the same
environment, and interplanting ol
crops like soybeans, eggplant, and
luffa gourds to produce food, oil
and fiber from the same space.
The list of miracle plants and
unusual farm techniques goes on
and on. And it’s not just a collec
tion of the odd and unusual. The
EPCOT planners see the Land
Pavilion as a practical experiment
in futuristic farming as a way of
producing more food for more
people.
They intend to entertain and they
plan to educate, and along the way
they hope to learn some things that
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will help oui future food supply. EPCOT in the Fall. Where else do
That’s a pretty heavy challenge, people go m great uumueia w
No doubt an oiganization that " learn anything about agriculture
turned a mouse into a multi-billion- past, present, or future 7
dollai industry will be highly The Land Pavilion can be a
successful at future farming, also. tremendous showcase for
It occurs to me that in the years American agriculture
ahead, more people will learn something farmers themselves
more about the land and the should see. Something they can be
agriculture it supports through proud of because they are a part of
Disney World than probably any the story.
other single souce perhaps even One final thought wouldn’t the
any combination of sources. After EPCOT Center be a great place for
all, 100 million people visited that a farmer’s tour next winter? It
complex during its first 10 years of could provide the reason for a well
operation. No doubt the traffic flow deserved vacation and something
will increase with the opening of interesting and enjoyable to do.
Del. Soybean Board
funds research
DOVER, DEL. The Delaware
Soybean Board announced that it
will ,be providing funds tor
seventeen market development
and research projects this year. *
The Board chairman, Joe
Hughes explained that the Board
will continue to place its emphasis
upon market development and
applied research projects that will
benefit that will benefit local
producers. A total of $54,540 was
granted for projects in the second
year of the soybean farmers’ self
help programs.
The Board selected this year’s
projects fr-' - " twenty-seven
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proposals that had been submitted.
Hughessaid the Board has ex
panded its market development
efforts by providing $8,400 for two
local projects and $15,000 towards
the American Soybean
Association’s international
programs. The research projects
range frorp evaluating cropping
rotations to developing controls for
giant ragweeds. Recipients of
grants are the American Soybean
Association, the Delaware
Cooperative Extension Service and
Delaware Agricultural Ex
periment Station.
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