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May 17, 2011
· Produce industry balks at USDA ‘pesticide’ list
· Farmers look to reap a healthy crop of tourists
· Software reveals critical crop growth stages
· Canadian veggie growers antsy over new pests
· Fields of melons burst in China farm fiasco
Produce industry balks at USDA ‘pesticide’ list
(denverpost.com)
The Environmental Protection Agency uses the data to monitor exposure to pesticides and enforce federal standards designed to protect infants, children and other vulnerable people.
But the 200-page annual report has become a target of an unusual lobbying campaign by the produce industry, which worries that the data are being misinterpreted by the public.
In a recent letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, 18 produce trade associations complained that the data have "been subject to misinterpretation by activists, which publicize their distorted findings through national media outlets in a way that is misleading for consumers and can be highly detrimental to the growers of these commodities."
Is it fear-mongering?
They are most concerned by "The Dirty Dozen," an annual list released by the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy organization that ranks the fruits and vegetables it says have the most pesticide residue. The group also lists "The Clean Fifteen," a ranking of produce with the least residue.
"Our list has been something that has really gotten under their skin," said Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, which began issuing the list a decade ago. "All we're saying is, if you want to minimize your exposure to pesticides, shop from this list. And if you look at the explosion in the organic sector, it's clear that people want to avoid pesticides if they can."
To the produce industry, "The Dirty Dozen" is fear-mongering.
"There are some organizations with agendas that do want to scare people away from fresh produce," said Kathy Means, a vice president at the Produce Marketing Association, a major industry group. "We don't want anyone eating unsafe foods, of course. But for those products that are grown legally and the science says (the pesticide) is safe, we don't want people turning away."
In fact, industry research found that one in four consumers is worried about the routine use of pesticides on fruits and vegetables, and 18 percent cite it as the main reason they don't buy more, Means said.
At the same time, sales of organic fruits and vegetables — which are grown without synthetic pesticides — are increasing rapidly and now make up 12 percent of all U.S. fruit and vegetable sales, according to the Organic Trade Association. Even during the economic downturn, organic fruit and vegetable sales reached nearly $10.6 billion in 2010, up nearly 12 percent from 2009, the association said.
Meanwhile, the annual report from the Pesticide Data Program is overdue by several months. The USDA intends to release it "shortly," according to Michael Jarvis, director of public affairs for the Agricultural Marketing Service.
Not so fast, health experts say
The produce industry has met privately with USDA officials to urge the agency to amend this year's report to include "some context" that would reassure consumers about the safety of fruits and vegetables grown with pesticides, Means said.
"We want the government to provide some interpretation, to help the public understand how to use the information so that it's not just a data dump that can be misinterpreted," Means said.
The efforts by the produce industry have alarmed several leading public health experts, who sent their own letter recently to Vilsack, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg.
"As scientists and public health advocates who have long urged consumers to reduce pesticide exposures when possible, we are concerned about any industry efforts to spin or censor the government's collection and release of pesticide residue data," they wrote in the letter, prepared by the Environmental Working Group.
One expert, Philip Landrigan, an
epidemiologist and pediatrician at
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Where it is and is not
Environmental Working Group's shopper's guide to pesticides:
Dirty Dozen: (Highest in pesticide)
1. Celery
2. Peaches
3. Strawberries
4. Apples
5. Blueberries
6. Nectarines
7. Bell peppers
8. Spinach
9. Cherries
10. Kale/collard greens
11. Potatoes
12. Grapes (imported)
Clean 15 (Lowest in pesticides)
1. Onions
2. Avocados
3. Sweet corn
4. Pineapples
5. Mangoes
6. Sweet peas
7. Asparagus
8. Kiwis
9. Cabbage
10. Eggplant
11. Cantaloupe
12. Watermelon
13. Grapefruit
14. Sweet potato
15. Honeydew
Farmers look to reap a healthy crop of tourists
(fresnobee.com) – Thousands of people come to the San Joaquin Valley every year to tour the national parks and Yosemite -- and Dinuba, Calif. farmer Mike Naylor hopes a few will stop at his place.
Naylor can't offer the majesty of ancient granite cliffs, but his setting has its own homespun charm: Visitors can stay at his 95-acre tree fruit farm.
"And they don't just stay at our farm -- they stay in our house," said Nori Naylor, Mike's wife. "It doesn't get more real than that."
The Naylors have joined a trend called agritourism. And its growing.
The federal government's 2007 Census of Agriculture found
that 685
The UC researchers also launched the first study of the
trend in
"There is no question that there is a lot of potential for growth, and we are seeing it happen," said Shermain Hardesty, director of UC's Small Farm Program.
In agritourism, growers have found a way to tap into a
broader consumer phenomenon. Increasingly, people want to know where their food
comes from, and that has become obvious in their buying choices. For example,
more people are buying organic products:
And, anecdotally, growers say they are seeing more people shopping at farmers markets and touring working farms.
Agritourism also has the potential to reach more local consumers.
People like
"I also want my 3-year-old to understand where we get our fruit from and how it is grown," Patel said.
Farmers realize the potential this new consumer base represents. The UC's agritourism study showed that nearly 30% of the farmers offering agritourism events supplemented their regular farm income by $50,000 or more in 2008.
"We know from all the consumer trends that people are
willing to pay for an authentic experience and for specialty foods," said
Ellie Rilla, community development adviser for UC
Cooperative Extension in
For
Olivas grows several types of berries, including blueberry, raspberry, blackberry and tayberry. Tayberry is a cross between a blackberry and raspberry.
Along with letting people pick their own fruit, he also
operates a fruit stand and sells at farmers markets. His Rancho Notso Grande draws hundreds of visitors from the Valley and
from the Bay Area and
"Right now, I am getting about 20 calls a day from people wanting to know if the berries are ready for picking," Olivas said.
"In this business you have to find access to markets and get to the people who are looking for premium, quality produce. And you have to provide them with an experience. You really have to have the whole mix to survive."
The Naylors also know the value of agritourism, despite some good-natured ribbing from their neighbors.
In February, they remodeled their ranch-style home and created a bed-and-breakfast type of venue. Since opening, they have welcomed about 20 guests, who paid between $129 to $179 a night.
The visitors have come from
"I know some of my neighbors thought I was nuts for doing something like this, but it works," said Mike Naylor. "Now they are saying that when they have buyers come into town, they are going to park them over here."
In southwest
"For us, the ultimate goal is to have the entire ranch open to the public," said Smith, a longtime family farmer who has been producing mixed vegetables for years and has sold produce to wholesalers.
He said he and his wife, Sandie, want to try something different.
"We saw the way the industry was going, and we wanted to be able to reach out to the consumers more directly," Smith said. "We really think people want a stronger connection to their food source, especially when it is local."
Software reveals critical crop growth stages
(USDA via physorg.com) – U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agronomist Greg McMaster has developed computer software that tells farmers when to spray pesticides.
McMaster works at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
Agricultural Systems Research Unit in
The software, called "PhenologyMMS
(Modular Modeling System)," predicts the timing of plant growth stages so
Working with Debbie Edmunds, a biological plant science technician at the research unit, McMaster developed this decision support tool after answering numerous calls from farmers and ranchers who wondered when their crop would be at the right stage to spray, as required by the pesticide label.
The pesticide label gives the scientific name of the growth stage, but no other hints. McMaster's program gives common names to go with the scientific names and tells growers how to identify the stage and when to expect each stage, based on weather reports and soil moisture.
All farmers have to do to find the right timing is answer questions such as "What is your planting date?" and "How wet was your soil at planting time?" To answer this question, farmers choose one of these moisture level descriptions: "optimum," "medium," "dry" or "planted in dust." The last step is identifying the nearest weather station to access weather data to run a simplified model of crop growth for each crop chosen. The driving force of the program is cumulative temperature.
The program then simulates crop growth stages for the entire growing season, giving farmers a good idea of when each stage should occur.
The program is unique because it covers many crops, whereas most such programs cover only one crop. This program includes corn, wheat, barley, sorghum, dry beans, sunflowers and several millet varieties, and is continually being expanded.
The program can be used independently or inserted into existing crop growth models.
More information: The program can be downloaded at: http://www.ars.usd … ftwareid=238
Canadian veggie growers antsy over new pests
(thewhig.com) – The Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association is sending up a red flag about two new invasive insects.
"B.C. farmers are absolutely beside themselves," association researcher Craig Hunter said, describing the impact of one pest, the spotted wing drosophila.
"It showed the first sign of infestation two years ago. Last summer B.C. lost at least 70 per cent of their sweet cherry crop," he said.
Hunter said the first evidence of the insect appeared in
The small flies lay eggs in soft fruit like cherries and berries, which hatch into worms.
"The whole thing gets mushy and it makes way for secondary rot, new fungi and bacteria to get in there," Hunter said. "It's a 100 per cent loss to the farmer.
"We're expecting some buildup of the population with a bit of damage will happen this summer, and by 2013 we'll be inundated."
Ken Paul, a farmer at Fruition Berry Farm in
"They don't get winters like we do in B.C. so pests don't die off like they do here," he said.
Paul said he'd been alerted to the fly's presence at a recent strawberry conference.
"I'll take special care and keep an eye out, but I don't anticipate it will be a problem," he said. "Researchers, it's their job to be vigilant and expect the worst."
Hunter said it's farmers who are sounding the alarm. B.C.'s cherry growers sent representation to a national council meeting this year, he said, to talk about the impacts of the drosophila.
"They were adamant that we needed to find something to control it," he said, but controlling new pests is a complicated and lengthy process.
"We're working on registering some insecticides in
He said the
"What they've seen in
If they multiply quickly, he said "it means the species can develop resistance to a pesticide very quickly."
Hunter said the drosophila probably came in to
The second pest, the brown marmorated
stink bug, hasn't yet been seen in
It has travelled all the way from
"We're putting out traps to monitor when it gets in."
The stink bug also infects soft fruit, as well as cucumbers, and melons and vegetables.
"It's a stinging insect that inserts its proboscis (nose) into a fruit to feed. It deforms the fruit and makes it fall off," he said.
Hunter said that looking for natural controls for either
pest means sending researchers to their home regions, southeast
Asia and
"It's only in the country of origin that you can look for natural predators," he said, "but you have to make sure they don't also become pests themselves, or bring in any viruses with them, then develop a release program.
"It's certainly not going to happen in the short term."
In
"They treat the crop, make sure the pesticide works,
collect samples and then do residue analysis," he said. "Then they
submit the whole thing to Health
The process can take between two and three years, he said, unless researchers have existing data from other jurisdictions on which to draw.
Paul said he uses an integrated pest management system at Fruition Berry Farm, meaning he tries to avoid spraying crops.
"I'll be monitoring carefully," he said. "A lot of pests actually just like particular weeds, so if we manage the weeds that helps quite a bit.
"They also come for overripe fruit and we clear that, too."
Paul said his father runs a farm in Napanee, and has been growing berries for more than 31 years.
"He has faced a lot of different adversities and always comes out the other end," Paul said, noting that so far both his and his father's berries "look fantastic."
"We get these alerts every year."
Hunter, whose office is in
"It'll get you in
Fields of melons burst in China
(The
Associated Press)
About 20 farmers around Danyang
city in
Prices over the past year prompted many farmers to jump into the watermelon market. All of those with exploding melons apparently were first-time users of the growth accelerator forchlorfenuron, though it has been widely available for some time, CCTV said.
Chinese regulations don't forbid the drug, and it is allowed
in the
Wang Liangju, a professor with
He told The Associated Press that the drug had been used too late into the season, and that recent heavy rain also raised the risk of the fruit cracking open. But he said the variety of melon also played a role.
"If it had been used on very young fruit, it wouldn't be a problem," Wang said. "Another reason is that the melon they were planting is a thin-rind variety and these kind are actually nicknamed the 'exploding melon' because they tend to split."
Farmer Liu Mingsuo ended up with eight acres (three hectares) of ruined fruit and told CCTV that seeing his crop splitting open was like a knife cutting his heart.
"On May 7, I came out and counted 80 (burst watermelons) but by the afternoon it was 100," Liu said. "Two days later I didn't bother to count anymore."
Intact watermelons were being sold at a wholesale market in nearby Shanghai, the report said, but even those ones showed telltale signs of forchlorfenuron use: fibrous, misshapen fruit with mostly white instead of black seeds.
In March last year, Chinese authorities found that
"yard-long" beans from the southern city of
The government also has voiced alarm over the widespread overuse of food additives like dyes and sweeteners that retailers hope will make food more attractive and boost sales.
Though Chinese media remain under strict government control, domestic coverage of food safety scandals has become more aggressive in recent months, an apparent sign that the government has realized it needs help policing the troubled food industry.
The CCTV report on watermelons quoted Feng
Shuangqing, a professor at the
The broadcaster described the watermelons as "land mines" and said they were exploding by the acre (hectare) in the Danyang area.
Many of farmers resorted to chopping up the fruit and feeding it to fish and pigs, the report said.
End Transmission