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May 8, 2009
· Bayer plans U.S. biotech innovations center
· Research quest to limit chemical pesticides
· Tomato project seeks improved drought resistance
· Oregon to increase spud shipments to Russia
· Beekeeping ranks high as a faddish hobby
Bayer plans U.S.
(Wire Services) – Bayer CropScience will strengthen its
commitment to its rapidly growing Seeds and Traits business by establishing a
Plant Biotechnology Research center in
Research at Bayer CropScience’s
first US-based
The
"Bayer CropScience plans to invest some EUR 750 million
in the research and development of new solutions for its Seeds & Traits
business from 2008 to 2012," explains Dr. Joachim Schneider, Head of BioScience at CropScience. In April, the company has
already announced its intention to consolidate its European biotech research
activities in
Last year, 62.5 million hectares of genetically modified
crops were grown in the
Department of Agriculture statistics 86 percent of the land
used for growing cotton on the
"Bayer CropScience has strong roots in
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care, nutrition and high-tech materials. Bayer CropScience AG, a subsidiary of Bayer AG with annual sales of about EUR 6.4 billion (2008), is one of the world’s leading innovative crop science companies in the areas of crop protection, non-agricultural pest control, seeds and plant biotechnology.
The company offers an outstanding range of products and extensive service backup for modern, sustainable agriculture and for non-agricultural applications. Bayer CropScience has a global workforce of more than 18,000 and is represented in more than 120 countries.
Research quest to limit chemical pesticides
(billingsgazette.com)
"They've been known to eat roadkill
if they're hungry enough," said Linda Senior, research technician at the
U.S. Department of Agriculture's, Northern Plains Agricultural Research
Laboratory in
An amber-colored, 2-inch-long cricket squirmed between Senior's thumb and forefinger. The insect was female, easily identifiable by the long, hook-shaped egg-laying ovipositor at the end of its abdomen. Its teeth, slightly smaller than the fine zipper coils of a cocktail dress, frantically gnawed at Senior's joints until finding purchase in her thumb. The visible divot created by the cricket's bite began bleeding.
The USDA laboratory is a gulag of sorts for the multilegged and tap-rooted adversaries of Western agriculture. It's where noxious plants like salt cedar thrive in greenhouse conditions while scientists devise methods - preferably natural - to kill it. Somewhere in an inescapable vault on this campus, there are parasitic wasps depositing their larvae into the abdomens of unsuspecting wheat stem sawflies. Later, the offspring will hatch from the sawfly's guts, bursting through the host's epidermis like the children of some alien invader in a science fiction movie.
It's all part of the USDA's plan to combat plant and insect pests with natural enemies while using smarter farming practices to reduce infestation risks. Pesticides also come into play, but the overall goal is to take an integrated approach. Combined, the above methods are known as integrated pest management.
Lessons from laboratories like the USDA's in
"See that slit? That's the cereal leaf beetle," Fehringer said, studying a 2-inch-long hole in the flag leaf of a tender barley plant.
This time of year, the quarter-inch-long cereal beetles are chewing elongated slits in the upper leaf surface. Soon the beetles will deposit larvae in the creases of the leaves. Those larvae then feed on the surface between the leaf veins. Eventually, the plant's ability to photosynthesize will be compromised and the grain quality and crop yield are damaged.
Fehringer's goal is to hit the beetles with pesticide before they reproduce. Plants treated early recover from the experience better than plants treated late. It's only one of the things Fehringer does to manage crops while keeping chemical applications and costs down. Earlier, the barley rows were seeded closer together than usual to shade out weeds. Later, if grasshoppers become a problem, Fehringer will treat the field with granules of poison treated bran, a snack grasshoppers rarely turn down.
Using bran to deliver the poison means using less chemical than when spraying an entire field. Not spraying means not accidentally killing helpful insects such as bees.
Practices like this are often first tested in laboratories.
In
In the lab, researcher Stefon Jaronski exposes the insects to fungi and then watches for signs of infection. Insects that succumb to high levels of fungus die coated in a powdery green film of fungi.
Here, a bug's life isn't so bad, at least until that staff discovers and delivers a biological death blow.
"We're the biggest consumer of organic lettuce in
The facility's 1,000 or so Schistocerca americanas, American grasshoppers, chew through a case of organic lettuce each week, Jaronski said.
Mormon crickets, raised in environmentally controlled rooms,
are protected even from their cannibalistic selves so researchers can observe
their behavior and devise ways to stop the insects from chewing through farm
and rangeland in Western states including
On the opposite end of the research facility, plant scientists
are looking for the right insect to kill salt cedar, a thirsty noxious plant
that lowers water tables and depletes surface water reservoirs. Gaskin said
watering holes used by cattle have been known to disappear because of salt
cedar, but they return once the plant is removed. The plant is a European
species brought to the Unites States as a decorative shade tree. Researchers
are attacking the plant with moths from
Several of the potential plant and insect solutions to pest problems tested at the laboratory come from foreign countries because several of the noxious species do, too, Gaskin said. The foreign species are kept in a lab with special dark-light foyers and air suction at the exits to keep the insects from escaping.
New species of invasive insects and plants constantly cross the country unchecked as decorative plants, or insects hitchhiking on crates or pallets, assuring that research at the Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory is endless.
"There's a large influx of things coming over the border all of the time," Gaskin said, "accidental introduction of things we don't even know about yet."
Tomato project seeks improved drought resistance
(
More than providing fresh produce for astronauts on extended missions to Mars, the research has important implications for developing crops resistant to drought and other stresses while improving the nutritional value of food.
Dr. Mariya Khodakovskaya, assistant professor of applied science, and Dr. Stephen Grace, associate professor of biology, at UALR – the University of Arkansas at Little Rock – and researchers at Arkansas State University and University of Central Arkansas are preparing to patent their new and effective ways to increase production of antioxidants in plants and make them more tolerant to stresses such as drought and disease.
“We are working now on tomatoes, but we are identifying mechanisms and genes that are responsible for other traits and can be used for other crops more important in countries that have droughts,” Khodakovskaya said. “It has implications for earth agriculture as well as space agriculture, which is why the project has been funded for three years by Arkansas Space Grant Consortium.”
The scientists believe future investments will promote
collaborative partnerships between UALR and private and public institutions
throughout
A year when she was affiliated with
“It was the first transgenic tomato tested in space conditions,” she said.
Her transgenic tomato plants show dramatic increases in
drought tolerance, vegetative biomass and fruit lycopene concentration. Studies
in
Grace, who earned his Ph.D. at
He and Khodakovskaya’s cross-linked research projects are supported by grants from the P3 Research Center of Arkansas NSF EPSCoR Program – the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research – and the Arkansas Space Grant Consortium.
Dr. Khodakovskaya will identify key genes and gene networks involved in stress tolerance and activation of antioxidant production in tomato plants. Her team will also create new reproducible biological source of antioxidants by establishment of highly productive tomato “hairy roots” cultures.
Dr. Grace works on the biochemistry of flavonoids, another important group of plant phytochemicals that act as health promoting antioxidants. Flavonoids have shown promise in protection against coronary heart disease, neuron damage, certain cancers, and other age-related diseases.
“For this reason, there is great interest in developing crops with optimized levels and composition of these high value natural products,” Grace said. “Our group studies the light regulation of flavonoid synthesis in tomato in order to develop strategies to increase flavonoid levels for improved nutritional content.”
Other scientists working on the project are Dr. Nawab Ali, research associate professor in UALR’s Graduate Institute of Technology; Dr. Fabricio Medina-Bolivar of
“As soon as we develop a new tomato with drought tolerance and more antioxidants, we will test how it grows in space conditions,” Khodakovskaya said.
Oregon
to increase spud shipments to Russia
(oregonlive.com) – They gave the world Sputnik, we give them spuds.
An agreement signed this spring will make it easier for
potato growers in
The Oregon Potato Commission estimates the value of
All potato-producing states stand to gain from the
agreed-upon protocol developed and signed in March by
"They saw how we do the inspection, which involves a daily on-site, load-by-load evaluation of the potatoes," said Jim Cramer, administrator of ODA's Commodity Inspection Division.
"We talked about the training each of our inspectors must go through to certify products for export. We showed them the inspection manuals our inspectors use to identify pests and diseases. The tools and training provided to our state inspectors gave the Russians confidence that they will receive a quality potato," Cramer said in a news release.
The site visits included a tour of Amstad
Produce in Sherwood, a major potato shipper, as well as a look at ODA's regulatory laboratory at the
To ship potatoes to
The production value of
According to a U.S. Potato Board report, Russians consumed 308 pounds of potatoes per capita in 2007, making it the world's third-largest potato consumer. That's almost three times the amount consumed by Americans.
Beekeeping ranks high as a faddish hobby
By Josh Jarman
The 59-year-old runs a small beekeeping-supply company out
of his crowded kitchen in rural
That's because the ranks of first-time beekeepers in the state have swelled in the past two years as Ohioans take up the hobby in response to the widely publicized decline in the nation's honeybee population and a growing fascination with a "back to nature" lifestyle.
"If it wasn't for the news, we wouldn't know there was a recession," Simpson said. "Our little family business has outgrown our family."
Simpson, who owns Simpson's Bee Supply with his wife, Bev, and oldest son, Anthony, said this spring has been the busiest in his 21 years in the business.
Ron Hoopes, president of the Ohio State Beekeepers Association, said more than 300 first-time beekeepers attended the association's beginner's classes last spring, and he expects more than 500 this year.
Hoopes said he thinks a large part
of the renewed interest stems from reports of colony-collapse disorder, which
struck honeybee colonies across the country in 2007. Billions of bees,
including almost three-quarters of all bees kept in
The demise alarmed the nation's agriculture industry because honeybees pollinate $14.6 billion worth of fruits and vegetables each year.
"People started realizing how important they are and saying, 'Hey, maybe I can do something,' " Hoopes said.
All this new activity comes as the state is cutting back on resources for beekeepers, however. The state Department of Agriculture cut its honeybee budget last year and now operates with one hive inspector, who has been moved into the plant division.
Jim Tew, a beekeeping specialist
with Ohio State University Extension, said that despite the bumper crop of new
beekeepers,
That's why the influx of new blood is so important, Tew said. "Some of the most insightful discoveries were made by small but observant beekeepers," he said.
Beekeeping isn't just for country folk. Barry Conrad, owner
of Conrad Hive and Honey in Canal Winchester, teaches beginning-beekeeping
classes for the Central Ohio Beekeepers Association. He said many of the
group's newest members live in
Last year, the
A beginning bee kit, including safety gear and a package of bees with a queen, costs about $300.
Conrad said 130 people signed up for the beginners classes this year, which forced the association to split the group into two classes for the first time in the 25 years he has been involved. Conrad said most newcomers cite a concern for bees and a desire for a more natural lifestyle as key motivations.
That's true for Brian Cooper, who, with his wife, Clarissa, was at Conrad's farm on April 18 for hands-on bee training; it was to be their last before they installed a hive behind their home in downtown Circleville.
Cooper said the bees will pollinate the large vegetable garden in his backyard and produce a modest amount of honey for the family's use.
With good weather, an average
"They do so much that we don't even see," Cooper said of bees. "We thought it would be something simple we could do to give back."
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