 |
|||
 |
" I heard it |
||
March 29, 2010
· Moth forces wine country secret into the open
· Farmers get relief from new transport rules
· Biopesticides finding their niche in the UK
· NZ veggie growers question nation’s biosecurity
· Indicted tomato mogul reluctantly freed on bail
Moth forces wine country secret into the open
(AP
via Yahoo! News)
Suitcase smuggling is the winked-at act of sneaking in cane
cuttings to clone vines from
As
"There are people who continue to spin their tales of
smuggled plant material. People like a story with a glass of wine, and what
that tends to do is legitimize behavior that not only threatens the industry,
it's illegal," said Greg Clark, deputy agricultural commissioner for
A handful of
Their stories of success after stuffing cane buds down pants legs and in backpacks romanticized an outlaw behavior that, even if it's not directly responsible for a coming wave of vineyard spraying over most of Napa Valley, has reminded growers that one person's miscalculation can affect them all.
"The question is 'Who brought it in?" asks Jim Lincoln, who manages 400 acres of grapes in the quarantine area.
Theories are swirling around
"Even small percentage or a fraction of a percentage in
market share has the potential to benefit someone financially," said
Agricultural officials say that had the European grapevine moth (Lobesia botrana) innocently evaded inspectors on a container ship, the first trapping of the grape eater would have been near a port. Instead the pest that has proliferated across European vineyards appeared last September in the heart of the region where fine cabernet can fetch hundreds of dollars a bottle.
"My personal belief is that there are people who feel they are above the law and that they know better and therefore they'll bring in whatever they like," said USDA spokesman Larry Hawkins. "They flaunt it."
Steep fines and improved
Today a grower seeking shortcuts would have to pass border inspectors and circumvent quarantines at UC-Davis' Foundation Plant Services, funded to test imported plants for pests and diseases.
"There are those who think that some of the virus
problems suffered in
Entomologists say the life cycle of the moth, native to
"I'm not saying that people don't still try to get suitcase wood in, but in this instance I'm not sure the pest would be transported like that," said Monica Cooper, the Napa County viticulture farm adviser.
Investigators with the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service say they may never know for certain how the moth traveled to wine country.
Traps to pinpoint the infestation are set 25 per square mile across Napa Valley as they begin to swarm in warmer weather, and less intensively in California's other grape regions.
Investigators from the USDA's Smuggling Interdiction and Trade Compliance unit are checking everything from vineyards to shipping manifests to try to find the breech in order to plug it. The task isn't easy.
"When it comes to individuals smuggling, that's a whole lot more difficult than searching a cargo ship," Hawkins said. "Looking for the source among tens of thousands of vines is like looking for a needle in a haystack."
Farmers get relief from new transport rules
(Indiana Gazette.com) – It's a start.
Farmers grappling with new transportation regulations that are set to go into effect by the end of the month have been given a break, after the Department of Agriculture set the official growing season from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31.
That means farmers will not have to keep drivers' time logs or follow commercial truckers' hours of service requirements as long as they are within a hundred miles of home.
Previously, when the growing season was March through November, farmers driving trucks or pulling trailers with a combined weight of 17,000 pounds or more would have to follow those time requirements and keep those records during December, January and February.
``I would say that that will help,'' said Dennis McConnell, a dairy farmer near Blairsville and president of the Indiana County Farm Bureau. ``That would make exemptions year-round. They more or less skirted their own regulations - that's bureaucracy for you.''
Justin Fleming, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department
of Agriculture, said
``Simply put, it's the realities of modern production agriculture today. You're dealing with a variety of commodities and crops that don't just fall into a few months of production,'' Fleming said.
He also said the Department of Agriculture is committed to looking out for the farmers' concerns while meeting federal standards. The department also clarified that equipment such as tractors do not count as a vehicle, and that the new regulations do not implicate them.
``Those steps are in accordance with trying to balance the needs,'' Fleming said.
The regulation changes stem from an audit by the Federal
Motor Carrier Safety Administration in 2007 that raised a number of concerns,
including some of the exemptions
If the state does not come into compliance by the end of March, the administration will cut at least $3 million in federal grants. So the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has drafted a set of regulations that would bring the state into step with the administration, including rules that would require the driver of any farm vehicle or truck-trailer combination that weights more than 17,000 pounds to be 18 years old, speak English and have a valid medical certification. It would also require farmers to maintain post- and pre-trip inspection records.
The Pennsylvania Farm Bureau opposes the regulations, saying they are burdensome and will hurt the agricultural community. But spokesman Mark O'Neill said making the growing season last all year is a good step.
``Basically what that does is it takes care of one of the four parts that (the farm bureau) has problems with,'' he said. ``We are pleased with that action of extending the season. We think it is common sense.''
The farm bureau is continuing to work with state and federal lawmakers, lobbying for bills that would raise the weight threshold to 26,000 pounds instead of 17,000 pounds.
``It would be consistent with things on the federal level, and some of these pickup trucks with attachments might fall between that 17,000 and 26,000 (pounds). It's kind of nibbling away at the problem,'' he said.
The new regulations must be published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin before they go into affect, but O'Neill said he expects that to occur before the March 31 deadline.
Biopesticides finding their
niche in the UK
(HortWeek.com) – There is a global drive for good-quality food production using sustainable crop protection. Even with current measures, it is estimated that 30-40 per cent of crops are lost because of pests, diseases and weeds, making it clear that crop protection is an important consideration for assuring food security. Biopesticides can help meet this challenge.
They are effective alternatives to chemical pesticides and, in many cases, using them will not cause residues. They can be used as stand-alone products or as part of integrated pest, disease or weed management programmes. They can help fill some of the crop protection gaps left by withdrawn chemicals and they can be used with chemical pesticides as a resistance management tool.
Biopesticides also have a role in helping growers to meet the requirements of increasingly stringent national and European environmental policies, such as the EU's Sustainable Use Directive and the Water Framework Directive.
What are biopesticides?
There is no standard definition of biopesticides. The Chemicals Regulation Directorate's (CRD) Biopesticides Scheme includes products with active substances based on micro-organisms, botanicals (or natural biochemicals or plant extracts) and semiochemicals (including pheromones).
An additional category of "other" is judged on a case-by-case basis (see box). All products intended to be used for plant protection must be registered, unless exempted by the CRD.
Products based on insect parasitic nematodes may be referred
to as biopesticides but they are exempt from registration. However, they are
regulated under the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) and only species found
naturally occurring in the
Biopesticides are regulated under the same European legislation as chemical crop protection substances, which means the active ingredient is registered at EU level and products that contain it are registered in member states.
Production is by large-scale, complex processes that are usually precisely controlled, automated systems producing active ingredients of consistent high quality. For micro-organisms, it is mainly by industrial-scale fermentation.
There are often arguments that biopesticides are simply not as effective as chemicals. In part this may be true, but if a product is registered its effectiveness has been independently tested and the labels reflect the levels of control that can be expected.
Bear in mind that modern crop protection is about proactive population management, using integrated pest, disease and weed management to tip the balance in favour of the crop. Where there is potential for populations to get out of control, the aim is to manage the pest or disease to levels below the threshold where it affects yield and quality. Biopesticides work well in this type of approach where products are used before pests or diseases reach damaging levels. Repeat applications can be integrated with other control measures.
Biopesticide products in the
The Horticultural Development Company has recently funded two projects to look at biopesticide availability for soft fruit and field vegetables. The aim was to provide growers with information on biopesticides that could already be used and to consider how more products could be made available in time to address key gaps in their crop protection armoury.
In the
There is also specific Government support for developing
biopesticide capacity in the
In the
However, the European markets are also highly fragmented
compared with
The most obvious gap for all soft fruit and field vegetable
crops is that in the
The limited range of available biopesticides means that
currently there are few options for pest and disease control for
Considering the number of biopesticides that are already
available elsewhere in Europe - and the fact that US-based biopesticide
companies are starting to register more active substances for the EU - it is
reasonable to assume that there is potential for biopesticide availability to
increase further in the
How to improve availability
Strong Government support for biopesticide registration, such
as that in the
The UK Biopesticides Scheme is a step in the right direction. Under the new EU rules that come into force mid 2011, there is a clear commitment to provide guidance for biopesticide registration and an opportunity to streamline biopesticide registration and increase availability to growers.
As mainly smalland medium-sized businesses, biopesticide companies that are developing products for sustainable horticulture could benefit from increased Government business support. There are currently some tax incentives to support research, but help is also needed in other areas. For example, biopesticide companies often have limited expertise in registration.
In the
The aim was to identify effective products, assist registration (including costs of up to EUR100,000) and share knowledge. The fact that more products became available and growers learned more about using them is a mark of the programme's success. A similar approach could help growers here.
To overcome the current hurdle of fragmented markets, it could be worth establishing ways in which growers of crop groups with similar pest or disease problems could collaborate to identify what biopesticide products they need and to link with suppliers to make biopesticides and knowledge about them more widely available.
Chemical pesticides have been in frequent use and the focus of Government-supported implementation research and development for more than 50 years. As relatively new products, there is an urgent need for R&D to support wider use of biopesticides, such as guidance on their specific features, development of use programmes and improvement in knowledge on field delivery, including using existing equipment.
- Dr Roma Gywnn of Biorationale Biopesticide Strategists is speaking at this year's biopesticides conference being held on 21 April in Grantham by the Association of Applied Biologists in conjunction with the International Biocontrol Manufacturers Association. For further information, visit www.aab.org.uk
BIOPESTICIDE PRODUCTS
Based on micro-organisms
These contain bacteria, fungi, viruses, viroids
or other microscopic organisms such as protozoa as their active substance.
Based on botanicals, natural biochemicals or plant extracts
Botanical biopesticides contain active ingredients derived from various parts of plants and may also be termed plant extract or natural biochemical products.
They include products based on garlic or plant oils such as thyme or clove, for example, the registered products Barrier-H based on citronella oil and Vacciplant based on the plant extract laminarin.
Semiochemicals
"Semio" comes from the Greek word for signal, hence semiochemicals are the signalling chemicals emitted by plants, animals and other organisms that cause a response in individuals of the same or other species.
The most common examples are insect
mating pheromones and the scents that pests home-in on to find their preferred
host plants. For example, Exosex CM is a
pheromone-based biopesticide registered in the
If pheromones or other semiochemicals are used for controlling a pest, they must be registered - but not if they are being used for monitoring populations.
NZ veggie growers question nation’s biosecurity
(stuff.com.nz)
– Vegetable growers say the latest decision by biosecurity officials to give up
trying to eradicate a pest incursion raises questions about the viability of
the existing system of keeping unwanted pest and diseases out of
"
Vegetable growers were "bitterly disappointed" with MAF's decision today to not attempt eradication of the orange-spotted hadda beetle, he said.
The pest devastates crops such as eggplant, tomatoes and potatoes overseas but MAF officials today said the costs of eradication would outweigh the cost to the industry. It has not yet spread to those crops in NZ.
Horticulture New Zealand chief executive Peter Silcock said while the industry "reluctantly accepts" the cost-benefit analysis, it was a bad blow for the industry.
"We agree that their figures don't justify eradication, but the fact is this leaves us with another pest to manage."
The hadda beetle was likely to cost the industry $100 million over the next 20 years.
Growers had a strategy to double the industry's value to $10 billion by 2020: "We are not going to make it if we can't stop incursions or effectively manage our biosecurity."
Mr Silcock said his members were angry and frustrated and wanted to sit down with biosecurity officials to sort out the nation's ability to respond to incursions.
MAF said the beetle discovered in January is widespread
across central
MAF's biosecurity response manager, David Yard, said that eradication of hadda beetle was not possible, "given its widespread distribution and the unknown effectiveness of treatment".
"The potential cost to the taxpayer of eradicating the hadda beetle was estimated to be $200 million over four years, which far outweighs the estimated impacts," he said.
Asked whether MAF had been made risk-averse by previous pest
incursion clean-ups, such as painted apple moth in
The fact that MAF had aborted or declined eradication programmes in recent years - for dutch elm disease, potato spindle tuber viroid in tomatoes, blackbutt leafminer moth in eucalypts, the lettuce aphid, and liberibacter affecting potatoes and tomatoes - did not indicate a bias against eradication bids.
Red imported fire ant, fruit fly, asian gypsy moth and painted apple moth had all been successfully eradicated, and a similar announcement is expected soon for the southern saltmarsh mosquito.
In the case of the hadda beetle, MAF both sprayed plants and removed potential hosts in a bid to stop further spread while it assessed the incursion.
The beetle had probably arrived as a hitchhiker at
"Eradication of a pest or disease is not always feasible - eradication has to be technically and scientifically possible and it has to be affordable and desirable," Mr Yard said. Zero risk was not achievable.
Indicted tomato mogul reluctantly freed on bail
(sacbee.com) – A federal judge Thursday ordered the release of indicted tomato magnate Frederick Scott Salyer, saying the decision created "anxiety" for him but that Salyer deserved the chance to mount a defense in the complex prosecution he faces.
The 54-year-old multimillionaire was ordered released from
the
U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton ordered Salyer to remain at his home under GPS monitoring except for pre-approved trips.
Salyer's lawyer, Malcolm Segal, had argued that his client was suffering from diabetes in jail because he had not had access to his medication and could not exercise or maintain a healthy diet.
Last week, Karlton voiced concern about Salyer's ability to work with his defense team while held at the jail.
At a brief hearing Thursday, Karlton told Segal and Assistant U. S. Attorney Sean Flynn he needed no further argument from them.
"I know your positions," the judge said. "I respect them both, and I've got to do what I've got to do."
He noted the government has reminded him of rulings that the right to an adequate defense is not a factor for the court's consideration under the federal Bail Reform Act.
"I know the government doesn't agree with this, but of
course every court proceeding is governed ultimately by the Constitution of the
As to the government's contention that Salyer will jump bail, the judge observed, "Nothing in this life is certain."
Prosecutors had made arrangements for Salyer and his lawyers to have access to a room at the jail for defense preparation, but the judge said he was concerned about how long it would take to bring the case against the former SK Foods LP chief to trial if his lawyers, investigators, consultants and experts had to operate from the jail.
"If there really are a million documents out there, and somebody has got to look at them and figure out whether any of them matter, we're going to be here forever," Karlton said.
Under Karlton's order, Salyer must:
• Surrender his passport and pilot's license.
• Be monitored electronically in his home, attached to a GPS device, and pay for the monitoring.
• Open no financial account without permission.
• Gain approval for all financial transactions from the pretrial services officer who will be supervising him.
• Be in the third-party custody of a neighbor.
• Waive extradition from a foreign country, but also agree to be tried in absentia;
• Remain in his home except for travel to his attorneys' offices and FBI or other federal offices. He can attend medical appointments, but only with advance permission.
Within hours of the judge's decision, however, federal prosecutors asked him to stay his order while they sought approval from higher Justice Department authority in Washington, D. C., to appeal.
Prosecutors contend Salyer may flee the country if released, besides which they doubted he could immediately post the required bail.
Salyer faces racketeering, bribery, and obstruction of justice charges that could send him to prison for 20 years.
Read more:
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/03/26/2634563/salyer-wins-bail-in-racketeering.html#ixzz0jIz6zEai
End Transmission