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March 11, 2011
· Ag industry launches new image campaign
· Real world insight on produce safety issues
· Hothouse tomato firm to test LED lighting
· USDA, Russian scientists develop crop map
· Indian elephants love beer, but hate chile
Ag industry launches new image campaign
(npr.org) – Farmers and the groups that represent them are wincing from a steady stream of bad publicity. So big agriculture companies — and some smaller operators — are trying to get together in defense to present a united farm front.
Fighting Back
It used to be that most Americans had some connection to the farm. Now, only 1 in 1,000 of us grows 85 percent of the food. For decades, the best farmers could do was to hang on and adapt as their political and economic clout withered. Federal subsidies, primarily from the farm bill passed by Congress every five years, kept them afloat.
These days, farmers are making very good money on everything
from corn to cows. But as Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack warned farm
broadcasters meeting in
"You're going to have folks from cities making decisions about the farm bill," Vilsack said. "You'd better talk to them."
But city folks are hearing a lot about agriculture these days, and not a lot of it is good.
Many farmers worry that most people get all their information about agriculture from foodie advocacy — such as from movies like Food Inc., a documentary depicting inhumane treatment of animals and general disregard for human health in agribusiness. Best-selling books from authors Barbara Kingsolver, Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser have also made this kind of food reporting "highly visible," says Margo Baldwin, president of Chelsea Green Publishing.
Big ag is fighting back with paid advertising. A spot funded by the seed and chemical giant Monsanto says:
"Few other industries have shown such efficiency and
respect for the environment. So when you ask, 'Who's caring for the land?' look
to the people who live on it and make a living from it —
Mark Halton is in charge of global corporate marketing at Monsanto.
"We're telling the story of the American farmer, and we're using iconic images. These aren't actors. These are farmers," Halton says.
No Image Problem Here
It's not just Monsanto. Several other companies are mounting remarkably similar campaigns. Foundations have been established to help farm families perk up their advocacy on Facebook and Twitter.
And two dozen of the biggest ag trade groups have joined the fray, putting aside bitter disputes to form an unprecedented coalition. It's called the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance.
"We want the general public to feel totally safe in their decision-making process, and totally comfortable about the food they buy," says Hugh Whaley, who runs the group. Whaley says they'll do it by showcasing real farmers and ranchers. Cattleman Fred Stokes finds that a little odd.
"Hey, the farmer and rancher don't have an image problem," Stokes says.
Stokes says it's big agribusiness that has the image problem. Seeing trade groups aligned with it, united ostensibly to help family farmers, "is a little like seeing a gathering of mafia dons, smoking their long green cigars, putting out the cover story that they are gathering to build a convent," he says.
As Stokes sees it, the good image farmers enjoy is being exploited by soulless ag conglomerates. But Mike Matson with the Kansas Farm Bureau says this rancor has to stop.
"We have seen that this trend line toward sustaining the political will to do the same thing is not as strong as it's always been, and at some point, we'll reach that tipping point, which is why it's so important for farmers and ranchers to get involved," Matson says.
And they are getting involved as never before. Many believe it's the best hope they have to keep the agricultural system they've learned to live with from becoming even more hostile to the family farm.
Real world insight on produce safety issues
(Wire Services) – A new report released by Produce Marketing Association (PMA) in conjunction with Western Growers Association (Western Growers) provides valuable insight into produce-specific food safety research findings presented at the Center for Produce Safety’s first-ever Research Symposium in June 2010. The report lays out key findings from – and real-world applications of – CPS’s first 11 research projects in practical and comprehensible terms.
“This document provides unique one of a kind value by outlining not only the technical findings but also translating the findings into real-world application,” says PMA’s President & CEO Bryan Silbermann. “The findings of these research projects are instrumental to our work in the food safety arena and it is important for industry members to understand what came out of the research and symposium.”
PMA and Western Growers collaborated on documenting findings delivered at the symposium to help industry members grasp the implications of the research. “The symposium significantly added to our industry’s science-based research knowledge, and this report helps deliver those findings to industry members and other interested parties who couldn’t be there in person,” said Tom Nassif, president and CEO of Western Growers.
The projects range from looking at movement of E. coli O157:H7 in field-inoculated lettuce to examine its survivability in real field production environments. Other research also looked at enhancing the effectiveness of and evaluating pathogen testing systems. The role of different pathogen vectors and their food safety risk was examined in projects looking at fly reservoirs and leafy greens, sheep grazing in vegetable stubble fields, and how to minimize pathogen transfer during lettuce harvesting.
“Each of the 11 projects has numerous crucial points that warrant detailed study, thus our collaboration on this report,” says Hank Giclas, senior vice president of strategic planning, science and technology for Western Growers. “Some of the notable general findings include evidence that pathogens do not survive well in the production environment, pathogens do not seem to move through the soil and that improper composting can result in pathogen survival. It is now incumbent upon us all to translate these learnings into practical guidelines for the industry.”
“The value of the findings presented at the CPS symposium lies in their ability to help us identify and manage the risks we deal with every day,” says PMA Chief Science & Technology Officer Dr. Bob Whitaker. “The What Does It Mean for You sections in the report were designed specifically to help industry members implement food safety changes based on the research findings. For example, the research indicates that LGMA buffers appear to work and that simple modifications to lettuce coring knives may significantly reduce the risk of pathogen contamination.”
PMA founded CPS in 2007 along with the
The 11 projects featured in the symposium resulted from the initial CPS request for proposals (RFP) in mid-2008 and a second RFP issued jointly by CPS and the California Leafy Greens Research Board in late 2008. To date, CPS has funded 41 research projects across a broad spectrum of food safety research areas and commodities totaling $6.8 million. For more information about CPS, visit http://cps.ucdavis.edu.
The report is now available to PMA members at www.pma.com, or to Western Growers’ members at www.wga.com. The report was prepared to provide guidance and a meaningful summary of the 11 research reports discussed during the CPS symposium, and does not constitute legal advice nor does it supersede any regulations.
CPS will host its second annual Produce Research Symposium
June 24 in
Hothouse tomato firm to test LED lighting
(Alberta
Farmer Express) – A major
Les Serres du St-Laurent, which grows Savoura-brand tomatoes under artificial light year-round at a number of greenhouses in the province, will install the LED lighting in its facilities in the hopes of "keeping costs at an acceptable level and through more efficient use of energy," CEO Marie Gosselin said in a federal government release last week.
GE's Canadian commercial LED lighting wing, GE Lighting Solutions Canada Co., will get nearly $1.3 million from the federal Developing Innovative Agri-Products (DIAP) initiative toward the research project, the government said.
GE said last week it had selected Mark Lefsrud of McGill's department of bioresource engineering to conduct research on plant-specific photosynthetic active radiation (PAR) curves, the specific light wavelength that plants need for optimum growth.
That research, the company said in a separate release, "plays a key role in the advancement of this significant new lighting option for the horticultural industry."
The LED lighting to be tested is more energy-efficient than the high-intensity discharge light sources typically used in such applications, so growers will be able to reduce energy consumption and operating costs, the government said.
"Past studies have also shown that plants react better to certain wavelengths, and this new LED system is expected to increase crop quality and yield," Quebec MP Jean-Pierre Blackburn, the federal minister of state for agriculture, said in the government's release.
Portneuf-based Serres du St-Laurent, having the technical growing expertise with tomatoes under artificial light, is to provide "leadership, expertise and technical support for planning the experiments," GE said.
The application of LED technology being tested in these
trials is expected to "significantly enhance commercial greenhouse
operations, not just in
From McGill's perspective, "this is the kind of university-industry partnership we at McGill are trying to encourage," Rose Goldstein, the university's vice-principal for research and international relations, said in GE's release.
"It's positive for a major Quebec-based company on a
number of fronts, including job creation, it's of benefit to the environment in
terms of reduced energy use and it will boost
The federal DIAP initiative requires all activities in funded projects to be completed by the end of March 2013. The initiative, launched in May 2009, has already allocated its entire budget to various research and development projects.
USDA, Russian scientists develop crop map
(USDA-ARS)
– AgroAtlas is a new interactive website that shows
the geographic distributions of 100 crops; 640 species of crop diseases, pests,
and weeds; and 560 wild crop relatives growing in
According to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) plant
geneticist Stephanie Greene, the impetus behind developing AgroAtlas
was to promote world food security, particularly in Newly Independent
States-countries of the former
Greene leads the AgroAtlas project
with Alexandr N. Afonin, a
senior scientist with
In September 2010, the two researchers joined their
colleagues to host the first of a series of 10-day workshops in
Demonstrations of AgroAtlas
include showing where in Crimea, a major wine-producing region,
Indian elephants love beer, but hate chile
(independent.co.uk) – When the big mammals are crushing crops and violating villages, there’s only one humane way to get rid of them. Sue Corfield looks at the chilli’s role as a security pepper
For villagers in
But it’s one to which environmentalists may have a found a humane, not to mention spicy, solution in the power of the chilli pepper.
But thanks to conservationists from Chester Zoo the villagers are keeping the elephants at bay with the help of home-made “super-hot chilli bombs” and a “chilli fence”.
Elephants have a much keener sense of smell than humans and when dried crushed chillies are mixed with used engine oil and soaked onto pieces of cloth which are then tied onto the fences surrounding the crop fields, the elephants see red and turn away from the noxious fumes.
The same elephants are also attracted to the villages by the smell of home-brewed rice beer.
To deter them from rampaging through the houses in search of a tasty tipple, the villagers are using “chilli balls” – dried, crushed chillies mixed with elephant dung and water and then left to dry.
When the elephants approach the village the balls are lit and emit an acrid smoke which is detested by the elephants and drives them back to the forest.
Chester Zoo set up the Assam Haathi Project in 2004 with the aim of reducing conflict between elephants and people.
The project, funded by Defra’s Darwin Initiative has introduced the use of chilli peppers as one of several means of deterrent.
So successful is the project – currently covering six villages and 800 households – that it has just been extended and will now roll out to a further eight villages that are currently enduring human-elephant spats in the region.
Although some crop depredation still occurs in the project area, there have been no elephant or human |fatalities in the villages involved in the programme since its conception and there has been a significant reduction of almost 90 per cent in crop raiding by the indigenous elephants in some areas.
Conservation project leader, Alexandra Zimmerman, who works out in the field, explains: “It’s not just a matter of controlling elephant movements – it is also about stimulating the desire of the villagers to find a workable and economic solution to the problem.”
The low-tech nature of the mitigation methods enables communities to implement the methods themselves with a minimum of training.
“In the Sonitpur District study
site a reduction of 87 per cent in crop loss due to elephants has been observed
over the last five years. For some villages within this area this has had a
significant impact – the
“We are hopeful |that the extension of the programme will result in more villagers buying into the concept of elephants living alongside human populations in harmony.
“The elephants’ continued survival depends on it.”
End Transmission