News
CTI Volunteer Sam Husem is Interviewed on MPR's All Things Considered
March 10, 2010, St. Paul, MN - Sam Usem, with St. Paul-based Compatible Technology International, provides rural Haitian villages with hand grinders. Listen to the interview on MPR.
CTI is a Semi-Finalist for the Buckminster Fuller Challenge
FEBRUARY 17, 2010 NEW YORK CITY — The Buckminster Fuller Institute is proud to announce that thirty outstanding entries to the Buckminster Fuller Challenge have been advanced to the final stage of review. CTI is on on the Semi-Finalists. (See list of Finalists or the Buckminster Fuller Press Release)
Compatible Technology International Partners with Students and Cargill Employees to Build Grinders
February 5, 2010 (Minnesota) Teens joined members of the Cargill Ebony Council and other Cargill Employees at the company’s headquarters to participate in a service project celebrating Black History Month. At the event, youth and Cargill employees will compete in combined teams to assemble 24 CTI ginders designed to allow families in developing countries in Africa to process crops to sell in their local markets. CTI staff and volunteers participated in the project. (See Cargill Press Release)
St. Paul Pioneer Press writes
"On threshers, local food, faith, reason and
more ..."
November 13, 2009 (St. Paul, Minn.) A workshop in St. Paul's Midway area is home to some serious retro tinkering. The shop in the office of Compatible Technology International is a museum of handcranked, bicyclepowered agricultural devices — threshers and grinders and a model of a crop storage building that needs no electric power. (Read More)
Compatible Technology International Earns Charities Review Council “Meets All Standards” Seal
October 29, 2009 ( St. Paul, Minn.) Compatible Technology International has once again been awarded the Charities Review Council “Meets All Standards” Seal indicating that it meets all sixteen of the council’s accountability standards. CTI earned the seal by voluntarily participating in the council’s “Accountability Wizard.” It addressed the organization’s performance in four critical areas: public disclosure, governance, financial activity and fundraising.
“By participating in the Accountability Wizard and receiving the “Meets All Standards” seal from the Charities Review Council, CTI demonstrates responsibility, integrity and transparency to their constituents,” said Rich Cowles, executive director, Charities Review Council.
Full Press Release (PDF)
Link to the Charities Review Council
McKnight Foundation Grant Awarded to Project to Enhance Child Nutrition and Livelihoods of Rural Families in Malawi and Tanzania
Sept. 17, 2009, St. Paul, MN
A McKnight Foundation grant was recently awarded to Compatible Technology International (CTI), Tanzania’s Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). The organizations are combining their expertise for a four-year $673,000 research and development grant project, which will focus on enhancing child nutrition and the livelihoods of rural households in Malawi and Tanzania.
Malnutrition is widespread in Malawi and Tanzania, particularly among children under five whose diet is deficient in protein, oils and micronutrients. The need is urgent to develop and harvest improved, nutritious foods using locally available crops such as groundnuts (commonly called peanuts). Increased groundnut production can significantly improve individual nutrition as well as economic security.
“We feel very privileged to be chosen for this McKnight Foundation grant,” said CTI’s executive director, Roger Salway. “This project is essential to addressing the issues and needs of families in Malawi and Tanzania and the McKnight Foundation grant makes it all possible.”
“This project is essentially about collaborating with these farm families about the crops growing naturally in their environments,” said CTI’s vice president of operations, Bert Rivers. “This collaboration is important, not only to provide additional nutrition to their families, but to also provide increased revenue for their households to improve their livelihood. We are also being educated by the farmers about the realities of their living conditions and farming systems.”
Full Press Release (PDF)
Link to McKnight Foundation
CTI's Executive Director is Featured Speaker at International Engineers Without Borders Conference
March 26-29, 2009, Milwaukee, WI
Last weekend Roger Salway attended the Annual International Engineers Without Borders Conference in Milwaukee. Roger was assisted by Reade Harpham and Jeff Held from the OneLab Initative in Columbus, Ohio. Over 1,500 engineers from around the world attended. Roger made three presentations about CTI to over 250 conference attendees over the course of three days and made many new connections and greatly increased CTI’s visibility in this community.
CTI Selected As One of 33 Buckminster Fuller Challenge Finalists and Finishes in Top 6
March 2, 2009, New York City, NY (updated June 1, 2009)
The Buckminster Fuller Institute is proud to announce that thirty-three outstanding entries to the Buckminster Fuller Challenge have been advanced to the final stage of review. CTI's Water Harvesting to Promote Economic Sustainability project has been selected as a finalist. Over 6000 entries were submitted and CTI was in the top 6 finalists.
The jury will select the winner of the Challenge, to be announced to the public in May 2009. The thirty-three proposals currently under consideration have undergone a rigorous review and vetting process including an interview with the individual or team behind the strategy. The titles and project leads of these entries are listed below. The distinguished jury will spend the next two months reviewing the entries and will meet for a group deliberation session on April 21st and 22nd to select a winner and runner up.
“We are tremendously excited about the finalists to this year’s Buckminster Fuller Challenge. They include an amazing array of comprehensive, integrated strategies to tackle the world’s major problems, submitted by highly accomplished individuals and/or teams. They come from all over the world and we are thrilled that so many have been submitted by student teams. Every one of them will inspire interest and hopefully, support for their work - I think the jury is in for a very tough deliberation process!” says Elizabeth Thompson, BFI’s Executive Director.
Global Harmony Chorus Performed Benefit Concert and Raised Over $16,000 for CTI
February 7 and 8, 2009, North Como Presbyterian Church,
Roseville, MN
The Global Harmony Benefit Concert was a great success and over $16,000 was raised to benefit CTI! 701 people attended, which was Global Harmony’s best attended series to date. We extend our deep appreciation to everyone who made this possible: the entire 120-voice chorus that volunteered 5 weeks of their time preparing for the series, director Jennifer Anderson, composer Ben Allaway, volunteers from North Como Presbyterian Church, CTI volunteers, and Tom Crann of Minnesota Public Radio who donated his time and voice to be emcee for all three concerts.
Global Harmony is an inter-faith, non-auditioned community chorus open to all who wish to sing to make a difference. The chorus presented it's first series of benefit concerts in 2003 in response to the horrific Tsunami that destroyed so much. The concerts were such a phenomenal success - not only in the tangible monies raised, but also in the intangible connections made with our neighbors - that North Como decided to make the concert weekend an annual event. CTI was selected as the beneficiary of the concert proceeds for their 5th Anniversary Concert Series.
For more information about the Global Harmony Chorus: Global Harmony, North Como Church
CTI Volunteer Highlighted in Volunteers for Prosperity 2008 Annual Report
January, 2009
CTI volunteer Hans Zoerb has been highlighted in Volunteers for Prosperity’ 2008 Annual Report! See a few pages from their report here (5 MB PDF). Volunteers for Prosperity is a volunteer-based initiative supporting major U.S. development initiatives overseas using the talents of highly skilled American professionals working through American organizations to improve health and generate prosperity in developing countries around the world.
Grinder to Ghana
Friday, January 9th, 2009, St. Paul, MN
Another grinder is headed to Ghana! Cyndi Iwan of Serving in Missions (SIM) has picked up an Omega VI grinder to take back to Ghana with her. In Ghana, she will give the grinder to an organization called Theovision, who is partnering with HCJB Global, an organization that establishes radio stations in sub-saharan Africa. These two organizations are partnering to provide spiritual encouragement and basic health education. The CTI grinder will be used to grind moringa as part of the nutrition portion of the project.
CTI Maintains Smartgiver Status
Monday, January 5th, 2009, St. Paul, MN
CTI’s Fiscal Year 2008 results have been up dated at the Charities Review Council website, click on link to see the updated report: http://smartgivers.org/SmartGiversReview/411400421.html.
Kurt Kinetic Reconfigures Breeze Trainer for CTI devices.
December 1, 2008, St. Paul, MN
CTI is working with Kurt Kinetic, a division of Kurt Manufacturing (headquartered in Minneapolis), to reconfigure their Breeze bicycle trainer to operate CTI post-harvest food processing devices. The Breeze Trainer can be used with any size or model of bicycle and its rugged frame can be folded when not in use. The Breeze can potentially drive a CTI grinder, a potato peeler and slicer, an irrigation water pump or electric power pack using pedal power.
This project is being co-developed by Kurt Design Engineers and CTI Technology Committee volunteers; this could be a low cost option to increase daily throughput from CTI grinders as an alternative to hand cranking.
USDA Tests CTI Devices
December 1, 2008, Tifton, GA
During the week of November 17, Technology Committee chair Erv Lentz went to Tifton, GA to work with United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientist Dr. Jeff Wilson and his staff on field testing CTI pearl millet threshing devices. Equipment designed by CTI volunteers Rolfe Leary, Dick Wenkel, George Ewing and Erv Lentz was used to thresh, separate, dehull and clean both pearl millet and sorghum. All three pieces of equipment were evaluated under the watchful eye of the USDA personnel. A report was written and is currently under review by our team. Not surprisingly, we found that we do not have all the answers to the pearl millet and sorghum processing challenges, but with the assistance of our partners at Battelle Memorial Institute (Columbus, OH), and General Mills Science and Technology Transfer Initiative (Golden Valley, MN), we are very close. The work done at these locations will lead to having field ready prototypes available for testing in Mali, West Africa early in 2009.
Small Scale Potato Processing in Bangledesh
November 15, 2008, Bangladesh
Steve and Nancy Laible (co-chairs of the Asia Committee) have arrived safely in Bangladesh. They plan to introduce small-scale potato processing to their project site in northwest Bangladesh and have discovered that the specific chemicals needed for the blanching step of potato processing are available in their area of the country.
CTI Designed Rustic Storage Units in Goldahanda, India
October 31, 2008, Gohaldanga, India
Volunteers Bibek and Purnima Ray, who are currently in India, are experimenting with different uses for CTI-designed rustic storage units. During the season when potatoes are not stored in these units (July through January), they will be studying the possibility of growing mushrooms inside. They report that limited initial studies have been very promising.
CTI and Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food
October 15, 2008, Haiti
Technology Committee Chair, Erv Lentz, has solved a major problem for Dr. Pat Wolff of Meds and Food for Kids in Haiti, who uses our Omega VI grinder to create Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF). RUTF is a fortified peanut product used to cure children of malnutrition. Dr. Wolff’s organization creates RUTF by grinding peanuts into paste with a CTI Omega VI grinder and then, in a separate Omega VI grinder, combines the paste with oil, powdered milk, sugar, and vitamins and minerals. This “medika mamba” (the translation is “peanut butter medicine”) becomes syrupy and tends to run out the shaft clearance hole in the rear of the hopper. Dr. Wolff approached CTI for a solution to this problem which was inhibiting her from securing funding and approval of this method from UNICEF to expand her operation.
After much research, Erv was able to find a stock die and food grade silicon-rubber material or sealant for adhering the seal to the hopper wall. It works so well it maintained a seal after being run constantly for over a week. That’s 2.5 million revolutions on the shaft! This rubber seal is low-cost and has been sent down to Haiti and adhered to Dr. Wolff’s Omega VI grinders. We have reports that the seals were easy to adhere to the grinders and have even remained intact through daily cleanings.
Dr. Wolff now anticipates UNICEF’s approval of using the CTI Omega VI grinder to create RUTF. This is another great example of how our volunteers are continually creating simple technical solutions with life-saving results! (To read a recent CNN.com article about Dr. Wolff, follow this link: As Children Starve, World Struggles for Solution.)
Breadfruit Processing with the University of St Thomas.
September 15, 2008, St. Paul, MN
CTI is cosponsoring a Senior Design project with University of St. Thomas senior Engineering students to design a processing system for breadfruit. This project will encompass all conversion steps from peeling breadfruit to grinding into flour. The design requirements of each step will be examined so that a world-wide process can be finalized. Two other cosponsors, the National Tropical Botanical Garden (Hawai'i) and the Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee (Madison, WI) will be supplying breadfruit varietals, botanic support and access to an in-country test site. The project will be completed by five students and technical evaluation will be executed by Dr. Camille George, CTI Board member and Associate Professor, and Dr. Don Weinkauf, Dean, School of Engineering.