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March 4, 2010
· Bee disappearance solved – Canadian Prof
· East gears up for new fight against blight
· Green onion food-safety guidelines released
·
Tough new spuds not afraid of disease bullies
· Tax break keeps many in California farming
Bee disappearance solved – Canadian Prof
(University of
Guelph) – Varroa mites are the main culprit behind mysterious die-offs of
honeybee colonies that have alarmed beekeepers, crop growers and the general
public over the past three years, according to a new study by a
The study, published last month in the journal Apidologie, found that the parasitic mites were responsible
for more than 85 per cent of honeybee colony mortality in
About one-third of
Guzman says his study offers solutions for beekeepers and crop growers, many reliant on honeybees for honey production and for pollination of many other food crops.
"Varroa mite is the main culprit of colony mortality in
He studied 408 commercial colonies in six southern
Besides varroa mite infestation, weak populations and low food reserves in the fall can cause colony mortality, says Guzman. "We're pretty sure we've solved a great deal of the mystery."
Based on his study, he recommends beekeepers strictly follow a mite treatment regimen, feed their bees enough sugar syrup and avoid splitting colonies too late in the season.
Tim Greer, president of the Ontario Beekeepers' Association,
says the
Greer says experts are also concerned about effects of
systemic pesticides on bees in other parts of the world, although those
products appear not to be a major problem in
In his
This research was funded by the Ontario Beekeepers' Association, the Ontario Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and the Inter-American Institute for Co-operation on Agriculture.
Contact:
Prof. Ernesto Guzman
School of Environmental Sciences
519-824-4120, Ext. 53609
eguzman@uoguelph.ca
East gears up for new fight against blight
(masslive.com)
–
Many farms lost virtually all their tomatoes and potatoes.
And while the fungus, called late blight, does not easily
survive winter, farm specialists at
"We do have a
higher risk this year because it occurred in so many areas last year,"
said Ruth V. Hazzard, a vegetable specialist for the
"One other thing we're doing at UMass is setting up a weather monitoring system to give growers good information about when problems might develop. And we're also asking gardeners and farmers alike to be very vigilant in watching for infected potato and tomato plants," she said.
One of the most feared plant diseases that can strike a tomato or potato field, late blight caused the Irish potato famine of the 1840s and 1850s in which more than a million people died, mainly of starvation. The fungus creates olive-green or brown lesions on the leaves of a vulnerable plant, eventually killing it. Once detected on a farm, the plant disease can completely defoliate a field within weeks unless control measures are taken. However, fungal spores from an infected plant can become airborne, quickly spreading the disease to other farms and fields.
Last spring, a tomato seedling wholesaler sent young plants infected with the fungus to big box stores and nurseries throughout the East.
"Suddenly every store was a source of the blight," Hazzard said. "Then everybody who bought the seedlings and took them home and planted them became a source. It was a terribly effective dissemination system for the fungus."
"We often have late blight in one place or another
around
Then, when the weather turned unusually cold and wet in May and June, the blight thrived, worsening the effect.
"It was really a perfect storm," she said.
Fortunately, the fungus can't survive by itself in the soil
through a
Hazzard said that any re-emergence of late blight this coming season "will depend on a number of factors. One will be the weather. The cool and wet period that lasted so long last year was extremely favorable for the blight. If we have really dry weather, you would be less likely to have an outbreak."
However, any outbreak would probably not be as widespread as that of last year, she said.
"If it does appear, it would not be like having sources of the fungus all over the Northeast. It would be at those particular sites with some spreading from there," Hazzard said.
Green onion food-safety guidelines released
(Western Growers) – To strengthen the safety of the green onion supply chain, Western Growers, in partnership with the Produce Marketing Association and United Fresh Produce Association as well as other industry associations, academics, regulatory agencies and the green onion industry, released a new voluntary food safety guidance document for the production and harvest of green onions — the “Commodity Specific Food Safety Guidelines for the Production, Harvest, Post-Harvest, and Value-Added Operations of Green Onions.”
“After several years of work, it is extremely satisfying to finally complete this project,” said Sonia Salas, Western Growers Science & Technology manager. “As growers and handlers begin to apply these practices, the value of these voluntary guidelines will increase. Additionally, we will treat this as a living, breathing document - updating it as new science presents itself.”
This document is based on work begun by the fresh produce industry in the summer of 2006, at the request of the U. S. Food and Drug Administration, and is meant to augment green onion food safety efforts already underway in Mexico and Canada.
“The Guidelines for the Production and Harvest of Green Onions represent a substantial body of work that will provide a much needed general framework which growers, packers, distributors, marketers, regulators, and consumers can use as the basis for evaluating the effectiveness of food safety controls used with the production of this fresh vegetable”, said Dr. Robert Buchanan, director, Center for Food Safety and Security Systems, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Maryland.
“This document presents the food safety best practices to be followed by green onion suppliers, and to be used as a purchasing requirement by customers. It establishes the level of performance, programs, and procedures that, when adopted, will significantly increase the level of food safety across the green onion supply chain”, added Dave Murphy, director of food safety and quality programs at Boskovich Farms, Inc. “Many of the most regarded experts in growing, processing, and selling of green onions have collaborated on this document. I encourage everyone in our industry to take advantage of the Guide in their operations.”
The “Commodity Specific Food Safety Guidelines for the Production, Harvest, Post-Harvest, and Value-Added Operations of Green Onions” is available for any interested party on the Western Growers website at www.wga.com/foodsafety under the “Best Practices” section. This project was funded through the California Department of Food and Agriculture under the USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant Program.
Western Growers is an 85-year-old agricultural trade
association whose members from
Tough new spuds not afraid of disease bullies
(USDA-ARS) – Americans
love potatoes, consuming about 130 pounds per person annually. But it's a
wonder the spuds even make it to the dinner table, given the many fungal
diseases that attack the tuber crop—powdery scab and black dot among them.
Now, five new potato breeding lines being
tested by Agricultural Research Service
(ARS) scientists and collaborators could open the door to new varieties of the
crop that resist powdery scab and black dot diseases, caused by the fungi Spongospora subterranea
and Colletotrichum coccodes,
respectively.
These fungi often occur together in the same
soil, attacking the potato plant's roots, tubers or stems. Outbreaks can cause
yield losses of up to 25 percent and prevent tubers from reaching the sizes
needed by the french fry and fast-food industry. Of
the two fungi, only black dot can be chemically controlled with fungicides;
however, multiple applications are needed, ratcheting up production costs to
prohibitive levels. A more sustainable alternative is genetic resistance,
according to geneticist Chuck Brown,
with the ARS Vegetable
and Forage Crops Production Research Laboratory in
In studies conducted there since 2004 with Washington State University professor Dennis Johnson,
assistant Tom F. Cummings and postdoctoral associate Nadav
Nitzan, Brown screened an existing collection of wild
and cultivated potatoes for sources of natural resistance to powdery scab and
black dot in a local grower's infested field.
The effort ultimately led to five advanced
potato breeding lines that had been developed from a wild species from
The potato breeding lines themselves aren't
intended for production. Instead, they'll be made available as seed for use in
breeding programs aimed at developing the first commercial varieties with dual
resistance to the fungal diseases, according to Brown, who discussed the
research at the 48th Annual Washington State Potato Conference in January.
The research findings have been published in
the journal Plant
Disease.
ARS is the principal intramural scientific
research agency of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA). This research supports the USDA priority
of promoting international food security.
Tax break keeps many in California
(Modesto
Bee) – For nearly half a century,
Today, that landmark law, known as the Williamson Act, is at risk.
Passed in 1965, the California Land Conservation Act expresses the state's commitment to protecting vital food-producing farm and grazing land, along with the additional advantages such land provides: wildlife habitat preservation and watershed protection. Land conserved by the act can also act as a buffer against leapfrog development.
Under the law, farmers and ranchers who agree to keep land in agriculture and open space are permitted to pay taxes at a lower rate than the full market or development value.
The state then partially reimburses local government for the lost tax revenue. The contribution by the state is nominal — just a small fraction of 1 percent of the overall state budget — but the return is significant.
The question is, will the state
this year see the soundness of this investment? In today's highly competitive
global economy, the law literally helps
You don't have to be a farmer or live in a rural area to
reap the benefits. All of us enjoy the field-to-table products that farms
provide. Open space also helps protect threatened and endangered species. In
the
The far-reaching impact of the Williamson Act on
More than two-thirds of this agricultural land — about 17
million acres — is protected and preserved by the Williamson Act. And this land
"under the act" contributes significantly to the state's coffers and
the nation's food supply, preserving
The fact is, the Williamson Act is
one of the most effective on-the-ground tools to ensure that
Last year, the state essentially suspended its financial
support of the Williamson Act.
Today's state budget crisis requires lawmakers to make some tough choices. Our counties face even more dire funding crises as a result of state funding cuts. Without Williamson Act "subvention" funding from the state, many counties will be forced to cut deeply into local public safety and health and human services programs.
Protecting
Bradshaw is a
End Transmission