As part of the BPG team, Brabant Research, Inc. chooses a specific crop each year for a concentrated research project.
Dedicated program and project acres are established in as extensive an
area as budgeting will allow. These areas have ranged from international
in scope for certain crops, (tomato for example), to isolated high
production U.S. regions, (MI, VA & NY apple). Fertility programs are
established as a comparison to traditional grower programs and
nutritional/quality/yield data differences are evaluated for the benefit
of the consumers, growers and/or broker/marketing groups. Brabant
oversees the grower projects as well as establishing their own, usually,
aggressive- progressive plot for comparison. Data from both treatment
arenas is collected, specific to the parameters set, by Brabant, to
evaluate a number of areas, (but always including human nutrition.) This
information, confidential to Brabant but occasionally cooperatively
available to predetermined levels, is banked to be developed either into
continuing projects or as pool source data for discoveries.
Brabant
Research, Inc. is a Kalamazoo, Michigan corporation. It has been in
existence since 1987 and was incorporated in September of 1994. The main
areas of focus by the company are:
1) Biological and Botanical research,
performed in field and greenhouse projects in areas both leased for
Brabant and with growers throughout North, Central and South America. In
addition, we work with seed breeding genetic groups in the U.S., Europe
as well as Asia. The projects in growers' fields are normally with
fertility-based programs or such as is consistent with their current
operation. We do a large amount of "rescue" work in crops
facing loss from "unknown" impact, often called in to salvage
the crop after all other avenues of treatment are exhausted. After
initial success in the rescue we help develop fertility, cultural
programs to prevent losses in the future. There is no charge for the
work we do with growers, either for research, rescue or within the other
projects. The focus of our field research is normally either fertility
or inoculative, symbiotic organisms and how this relates to higher
nutritional values in consumer foods. The growers are usually only
interested in the higher yields, lower disease pressure and better
quality and handling characteristics, which we always achieve.
2 Often we develop, from field projects,
combinations of various components that we utilize in the grower
programs or, if necessary, we design, develop or discover new ones. We
have not, in the past, made these products, discoveries, commercially
available. They are utilized primarily in our research or grower
programs only. We are not a sales or distribution company although we do
supply products or components to our projects as is necessary.
3) We make product and usage recommendations
to the growers we work with. We have worked with growers in
just about every crop species on hundreds of thousands of crop acres to
be able to access more data for our research work. As a result, many
companies sell a large amount of products through our programs. We
receive no commissions, grants or remuneration of any type from these
companies opting instead to be able to recommend the components that
perform the best for the growers without any reservation.
4) As a result of our grower and research
work, (research budgets in excess of $2.5 million),
we are working on a plant and soil organism cellular level as well as
genetic variability and bio-chemistry related to plant phenomena. We
co-operate with many private manufacturing industries' research
divisions, national and international.
5) Our work is ever focused on nutrition. Any issue that is anti-nutrition, anti-health is a major issue to us. We are forever monitoring what goes into your foods: every fertilizer, every herbicide, every pesticide and actually doing the chemistry-math to see what the cellular level impact from those chemicals are. In our growing programs, in our fertilizers, in our pest controls? Never a toxic or negative impacting compound. Ever.
Every year, these
projects carryover and become part of on-going programs. We cover most
of the major agricultural and horticultural crops, field and greenhouse,
as well as turf and ornamental, livestock, poultry and
natural/artificial fisheries. We are basic in soil/aqua organisms but do
not produce them commercially.