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April 14, 2011
· Mexican produce: A drug war victim
· Monster planter an Idaho eye catcher
· Initiative to promote nutrient stewardship
· Working to keep salad favorites safe to eat
· Women finding a place down on the farm
Mexican produce: A drug war victim
(The
Christian Science Monitor) – Tania Tamayo's family of farmers coughs up 800
pesos ($66) to local drug traffickers for every truckload of limes they ship
from the violent state of Michoacán, which supplies most of
The well-organized criminals give Ms. Tamayo's family a
ticket as proof of payment to show to other gang members along the route to
"All packing companies pay the money," says
Tamayo, surrounded by towers of lime sacks fresh off the truck in a
At a time when war and bad weather are among many factors
driving up food prices worldwide, production costs of some homegrown items in
Mexico are being influenced by another element – the drug war. The lime, a
staple of
"We feel like someone else controls our lives, but you have to learn to live like this," says Tamayo.
Lime prices have since come down, but now the price of avocados, grown in the same region, has risen. A poor harvest and increased exports are widely blamed, but one distributor told the Monitor that drug traffickers have started to target Michoacán's avocado farmers, pushing up expenses.
Be it extorting farmers, attacking produce trucks, or causing more time-consuming border inspections, criminal gangs are affecting almost every link in the produce supply chain. From farmers to shippers to resellers to shoppers, the violence is affecting the food industry.
"There are security costs that companies have had to
absorb," acknowledges Beatriz Léycegui, deputy
minister at
Cargo theft rose 50 percent between 2009 and 2010, says Refugio Muñoz Lopez, director general of the National Cargo Shipping Chamber. This caused theft insurance to increase about 30 percent for trucking companies. The government now offers escorts for trucks and warehouses storing sensitive products.
Security problems have affected the flow of produce into the
"It just slows everything down, and the product is
critical. We need to get it out because it's fresh produce," says Rick
Valdez of produce broker C&R Fresh in
The Arizona Department of Agriculture is working overtime to
ensure a smooth transition, and has succeeded in many cases, according to the
Fresh Produce Association of the
Mexican officials agree: "We are sufficiently
productive to keep being competitive in the
For companies, however, these expenses take a toll.
Raúl Torres Flores, a tomato
distributor in
"You work to make a peso, only to have it taken from you," he says.
While it is not clear how much these alleged activities have affected prices in a volatile industry driven by supply and demand, Mexico's drug war, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 34,500 people in four years, is now taking a toll on farmers and produce sellers.
"All I know is that I've never seen limes this
expensive," says Fernando Segovia, who has been selling fruits and
vegetables at a neighborhood market in
Monster planter an Idaho
(IdahoStatesman.com) – It’s 33 feet wide, bright blue and bedecked with coils of flat black hose.
Thrice the width of a standard piece of similar equipment, Frisby Farms’ new planter rumbles across the rolling fields of western Canyon County, depositing onion seed in 48 rows and applying black “drip tape” to bring water to those plants.
The gargantuan planter made its debut late last week, and
representatives from Eurodrip
Arguably the largest planter in the world, the blue behemoth was custom-made for Frisby Farms by Monosem, which basically connected three planters together, farmer Russell Frisby said. Then Nyssa Machine and Welding customized it further, adding a roller and hose spools so that Frisby can plant seed and install irrigation drip line in one fell swoop.
Frisby estimates the cost at about $150,000 for the planter and $250,000 for a tractor — a John Deere 8345 RT — massive enough to pull it. But he expects to quickly recoup the investment.
“I almost think it will pay for itself in a year,” he said. “On Sunday, we planted 55 acres in one day. Our biggest day last year was 15 acres. And we’re getting 33 percent more plants per acre.”
Frisby reckons the planter averages 5 or 6 acres per hour — saving time and fuel, and manpower and boosting yield.
The Eurodrip irrigation hose is designed to be used for one season, then recycled, said Jonathan Demcak of Homedale-based Droplet Irrigation. Tiny embedded “emitters” control the flow to match the crop and soil needs — 1.6 gallons per hour for the Frisby Farms onion field. The hose is pulled from the ground before harvest.
Demcak and Eurodrip USA Northwest representative Jeff Vogt said the irrigation method has become fairly widely used in the past few years, but Frisby’s planter is the largest applicator yet.
And as the big blue planter cruises the Sand Hollow field at about 3 mph, it’s drawing a fair bit of attention.
“There’s a lot of growers that are looking at this,” Demcak said. “People keep stopping to look.”
Initiative to promote nutrient stewardship
Nutrient stewardship is a top priority for the entire fertilizer industry,” said TFI President Ford B. West. “The new website, www.nutrientstewardship.com, streamlines our industry’s efforts to promote awareness and adoption of science-based fertilizer best management practices, while also creating a brand for the 4Rs that will allow the agriculture community to speak with one voice regarding its commitment to environmental stewardship and sustainability.”
The 4R nutrient stewardship concept and website are a cooperative effort of The Fertilizer Institute (TFI), the International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI), the Canadian Fertilizer Institute (CFI) and the International Fertilizer Industry Association. The new site is designed to serve as an online clearinghouse for information on 4R-related tools and resources and will serve as the cornerstone for a multi-faceted nutrient stewardship initiative.
In addition to introducing site visitors to the 4R concept, the website offers information regarding a wide range of agronomic topics related to nutrient management, and provides a how-to guide for implementing the 4Rs on the farm.
“We’re in a time in agriculture where the risk of making the
wrong decision when it comes to nutrient management is greater than ever
before,” said Steve Phillips, IPNI Director, Southeast,
You can learn more about 4R nutrient stewardship by visiting www.nutrientstewardship.com
Working to keep salad favorites safe to eat
(USDA-ARS) – In the 20 years or so since packaged salad mixes first began showing up in supermarkets nationwide, we’ve made them a produce-section favorite. It’s no wonder. These bagged mixes—washed, cut, and ready to enjoy—offer convenience, selection, and quality, and perhaps best of all, they free us from the chore of washing and chopping, slicing, or shredding salad veggies.
But outbreaks of foodborne illness have, from time to time, been associated with bagged salad greens. The outbreaks have led the fresh-cut produce industry to voluntarily adopt stringent quality-control standards. The standards help ensure the safety of dozens of different kinds of salad staples, from iceberg and romaine lettuces to spinach, radicchio, and many more.
Helping growers and processors keep these fresh-cut veggies
safe to eat is a priority of Agricultural Research Service food safety
researchers, including scientists in the Produce Safety and Microbiology
Research Unit. The team is part of the agency’s
Innovative studies led by ARS microbiologist Maria T. Brandl are providing new information about the impressive array of genes that Escherichia coli O157:H7 calls into action when attempting to colonize leaves of fresh-cut lettuce. In such situations, the pathogenic microbe is essentially trying to stay alive while surrounded by natural chemicals leaking from broken lettuce cells.
Cells Get Sliced, Too
Mechanical cutting of lettuce leaves into large pieces or shredding of leaves into narrow strips, like those in taco filling, breaks lettuce cells. Lettuce cells can also be injured if leaves are bruised—during harvest or while at the processing plant, for instance.
For E. coli, the good news is that broken lettuce cells exude carbohydrates, which the microbe can use as a source of energy. But the bad news, from the microbe’s point of view, is that injured leaf cells can also leak compounds that are problematic for the pathogen.
Oxidants are a good case in point. Wounded lettuce cells may give off a burst of hydrogen peroxide, for example, an oxidant that can, as its name suggests, cause oxidative stress for E. coli.
The pathogen’s response to oxidative stress is one example of a coping strategy that’s of keen interest to Brandl and her colleagues. “Chlorine, the most widely used sanitizer in produce processing, is an oxidant,” says Brandl. “Our findings suggest that E. coli cells that have already encountered oxidative stress imposed by plant-cell oxidants, and have activated genes to overcome that stress, may be better adapted to withstand chlorine sanitizers during washing and processing than E. coli cells that have not been exposed to previous oxidative stress.”
This observation and others come from experiments in which Brandl and coinvestigators exposed E. coli O157:H7 for either 15 minutes or 30 minutes to a juice made from crushed, liquefied leaves of fresh romaine lettuce to mimic the chemical compounds that are leaked from plant cells when lettuce is injured. An approach known as “microarray-based whole genome transcriptional profiling” enabled the researchers to determine which E. coli genes were activated.
“The technology gives us a snapshot or quick overview of all of the genes that were in play at those points in time,” says Brandl. “It’s an excellent technology for spying on the pathogen and learning about what happens to the pathogen at the molecular and chemical level.”
Study Is First To Provide Extensive Details
The microarray-based study was the “first to provide extensive information about the biology of E. coli O157:H7 in fresh-cut lettuce,” according to Brandl. “We showed that E. coli adapts well, using its genetic arsenal to protect itself against a multitude of assaults, including oxidative stress, osmotic stress, damage to its DNA, antimicrobial compounds exuded by the plant leaves, and other threats to its ability to survive and multiply. We showed that E. coli can adapt quickly. We also showed that E. coli exposed to the contents of broken lettuce cells activated genes that are associated with other key traits.”
Those traits included virulence, motility (the microbe’s ability to propel itself with its flagella), and its ability to attach to surfaces using appendages known as “fimbriae.”
“From what we’re observing with the microarray analyses,” Brandl says, “we hope to help develop new technologies that can overcome E. coli defenses. The microarray technology gives us an inside look at the numerous stresses that E. coli faces at the cut surface of a lettuce leaf. Each stress is a natural obstacle that E. coli has to overcome. We might be able to use these obstacles in a ‘hurdle’ approach to decontamination. Instead of relying on just one procedure or strategy, hurdle technology combines several strategies, each enhancing the other to weaken and kill the pathogen.”
Brandl and Albany colleagues Jennifer L. Kyle, Craig T. Parker, and Danielle Goudeau published their findings in Applied and Environmental Microbiology in 2010.—By Marcia Wood, Agricultural Research Service Information Staff.
This research supports the USDA priority of ensuring food safety and is part of Food Safety, an ARS national program (#108) described at www.nps.ars.usda.gov.
Maria T. Brandl is in the USDA-ARS Produce Safety and Microbiology Research Unit, Western Regional Research Center, 800 Buchanan St., Albany, CA 94710; (510) 559-5885.
"Leafy Greens: Keeping Salad Favorites Safe To Eat" was published in the April 2011 issue of Agricultural Research magazine.
Women finding a place down on the farm
(mercurynews.com)
Now she spends her time with a completely different kind of
historical artifact -- the heirloom fruit trees of
Wolfe, a 32-year-old art history major, may not be the kind
of farmer you would expect to greet you during the summer pick-your-own-produce
season. However, she and scores of other women are changing the face of
agriculture in
Though they were seldom considered farmers, women have played an important role on farms, whether keeping the books, watching the children or milking the cows.
Now a host of factors, including changing palates, an aging population, a development boom and a resurgent back-to-the-land movement, are encouraging women to enter the ranks of owners and operators. Though Contra Costa farms have steadily declined for years, the number of female managers has more than doubled since 1978. Women now account for one in three principal farm operators here, according to data from the 2007 Census of Agriculture. That's nearly triple the national rate.
Meredith Nunn was among the first wave of women who left the
kitchen for the fields. The daughter of an entrenched farming family, she
struck out on her own at 19, spending her inheritance on 20 acres of
"My father was so disappointed," she said. "He thought that was a guy thing -- not for his little girl."
Her brother, who joined the family business, now sells tomatoes by the ton to corporations such as Heinz. Nunn, however, is happy to sell her fruit by the pound at her popular Farmer's Daughter produce stand.
"I like the idea of building something," she said. "I like to do the person-to-person sales, to know my customers."
The average size of Contra Costa farms, almost all of which
are in
While women are making inroads in all types of farming, men still dominate large-scale production of commodity crops such as soybeans and corn. Some newcomers have found that they can make a living in smaller, more specialized markets, such as selling heirloom tomatoes or organic rosemary to affluent, eco-conscious consumers. The number of acres farmed by women in Contra Costa doubled from 2002 to 2007, with small-scale operations accounting for most of the growth.
"You're talking about a place where over time the agriculture has shifted to deal with an urbanizing county, so you get more boutique operations," said Daniel Sumner, director of the UC Davis Agricultural Issues Center.
Niche farms require few pieces of heavy equipment and less capital to start up, and they have received a boost from the popularity of farmers markets, locavore restaurants and farm memberships -- where customers pay in advance to receive weekly produce baskets -- in recent years.
"Women do well at farmers market because we're more chatty that way," said Shelly McMahon, who raises
chickens and grows herbs on a 23-acre spread in
For example, she said, it's important to be able to tell
customers at the
Women say they are drawn to farming for several reasons. Many like the freedom and flexibility that come with running a farm. Others see sustainable farming as a way to do something positive for the environment and healthful for themselves.
McMahon trained as a critical care nurse but gradually transitioned to farming because it allowed her to spend more time with her four young sons and wasn't so taxing on her emotions.
"If something dies here," she said, "we just bury it."
Like many female operators, McMahon learned her trade by observing other farmers and asking questions. And like many women who entered the tradition-bound, male-dominated industry in the 1980s, she had to work to be taken seriously.
"When I came out here, it was all men," she said. "I'd ask a question, and they'd look at me weird -- they weren't expecting me to be the one doing it."
The Department of Agriculture is negotiating a settlement to a class-action suit brought on behalf of thousands of women who say that local offices for years denied them loans and other assistance that routinely went to men.
For Nunn, it was always an uphill battle to be "one of the guys."
"You had to be louder and cuss worse than they did," she said. "You had to work twice as hard."
But things appear to have changed.
Women who have broken ground here in the past decade say they have encountered little resistance from their male colleagues -- maybe just some amusement as they have learned the ropes.
Deborah Holeman, for example,
moved to Knightsen from
As the number of female farmers has ballooned, the number of male operators in Contra Costa has fallen by half since the early 1980s. Many middle-aged men whose land has been passed down for generations here speak wistfully of watching their sons follow the money or their interests into construction or office jobs.
Rich Pato, a third-generation grape grower in Oakley, doubts that his teenage son will inherit the farm as he did.
"He's a real good student, he's a good athlete; he's gonna have a lot of options," Pato said, acknowledging that he himself probably would not have chosen a life in agriculture had other opportunities been available to him.
"I grew up in a different world," Pato said. "Do I like farming now? Absolutely. Did I know I was gonna like it in high school? Probably not."
Pato wants his son to do what makes him happy, but he still feels a pang about the likelihood that his ancient vines will one day give way to houses.
With the average operator here now pushing 60, those involved in the preservation of Contra Costa's agricultural heritage see the new crop of female farmers as a hopeful sign.
"I think it's a good thing to have more people involved with the management of farms," said Vincent Guise, the county's agricultural commissioner. "It's not desirable to put homes on that land."
Wolfe, who has run her
"Part of the reason why I came home is I had a desk job and I like being outside and working with my hands," she said. "Also, when you grow up on a family farm, you know it and you want to see it continue."
End Transmission