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June 25, 2010
· Organic pesticides not always ‘greener’
· Climate change complicates plant diseases
· Sakata Seed Corp. upping its stake in India
· Endangered listing sought for bumblebees
· Farmer chefs promote ‘rooftop to tabletop’
Organic pesticides not always ‘greener’
(EurekaAlert.org) – Consumers shouldn't assume that, because a product is organic, it's also environmentally friendly.
A new
Environmental sciences professor Rebecca Hallett and PhD candidate Christine Bahlai compared the effectiveness and environmental impact of organic pesticides to those of conventional and novel reduced-risk synthetic products on soybean crops.
"The consumer demand for organic products is increasing partly because of a concern for the environment," said Hallett. "But it's too simplistic to say that because it's organic it's better for the environment. Organic growers are permitted to use pesticides that are of natural origin and in some cases these organic pesticides can have higher environmental impacts than synthetic pesticides often because they have to be used in large doses."
The study, which is published today in the journal PloS One, involved testing six pesticides and comparing
their environmental impact and effectiveness in killing soybean aphids – the
main pest of soybean crops across
The two scientists examined four synthetic pesticides: two conventional products commonly used by soybean farmers and two new, reduced-risk pesticides. They also examined a mineral oil-based organic pesticide that smothers aphids and another product containing a fungus that infects and kills insects.
The researchers used the environmental impact quotient, a database indicating impact of active ingredients based on such factors as leaching rate into soil, runoff, toxicity from skin exposure, consumer risk, toxicity to birds and fish, and duration of the chemical in the soil and on the plant.
They also conducted field tests on how well each pesticide targeted aphids while leaving their predators -- ladybugs and flower bugs -- unharmed.
"We found the mineral oil organic pesticide had the most impact on the environment because it works by smothering the aphids and therefore requires large amounts to be applied to the plants," said Hallett.
Compared to the synthetic pesticides, the mineral oil-based and fungal products were less effective, as they also killed ladybugs and flower bugs, which are important regulators of aphid population and growth.
These predator insects reduce environmental impact because they naturally protect the crop, reducing the amount of pesticides that are needed, she added.
"Ultimately, the organic products were much less effective than the novel and conventional pesticides at killing the aphids and they have a potentially higher environmental impact," she said. "In terms of making pest management decisions and trying to do what is best for the environment, it's important to look at every compound and make a selection based on the environmental impact quotient rather than if it's simply natural or synthetic. It's a simplification that just doesn't work when it comes to minimizing environmental impact."
Climate change complicates plant diseases
(University of Illinois via physorg.com) – Human-driven changes in the earth's atmospheric composition are likely to alter plant diseases of the future. Researchers predict carbon dioxide will reach levels double those of the preindustrial era by the year 2050, complicating agriculture's need to produce enough food for a rapidly growing population.
Darin Eastburn, U of I associate
professor of crop sciences, evaluated the effects of elevated carbon dioxide
and ozone on three economically important soybean diseases under natural field
conditions at the soybean-free air-concentrating enrichment (SoyFACE) facility in
The diseases downy mildew, Septoria brown spot, and sudden death syndrome were observed from 2005 to 2007 using visual surveys and digital image analysis. While changes in atmospheric composition altered disease expression, the responses of the three pathosystems varied considerably, Eastburn said.
Elevated carbon dioxide levels are more likely to have a direct effect on plant diseases through changes to the plant hosts rather than the plant pathogens.
"Plants growing in a high carbon dioxide environment tend to grow faster and larger, and they have denser canopies," Eastburn said. "These dense plant canopies favor the development of some diseases because the low light levels and reduced air circulation allow higher relative humidity levels to develop, and this promotes the growth and sporulation of many plant pathogens."
At the same time, plants grown in high carbon dioxide environments also close their stomata, pores in the leaves that allow the plant to take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen, more often. Because plant pathogens often enter the plant through the stomata, the more frequent closing of the stomata may help prevent some pathogens from getting into the plant.
In elevated ozone, plant growth is inhibited and results in shorter plants with less dense canopies. This can slow the growth and reproduction of certain pathogens. However, ozone also damages plant tissues that can help pathogens infect the plant more easily.
"Elevated levels of carbon dioxide and ozone can make a plant more susceptible to some diseases, but less susceptible to others," Eastburn said. "This is exactly what we've observed in our climate change experiments."
U of I's SoyFACE was the first facility to expose plants to elevated ozone under completely open-air conditions within an agricultural field.
"The SoyFACE facility allowed us to evaluate the influence of natural variability of meteorological factors such as drought and temperature in conjunction with imposed atmospheric composition (elevated carbon dioxide and ozone) on naturally occurring soybean diseases across several growing seasons," Eastburn said.
He believes rising temperatures and changes in rainfall patterns will also affect development of plant disease epidemics.
"In some cases, changes of only a few degrees have allowed plant diseases to become established earlier in the season, resulting in more severe disease epidemics," Eastburn said. "The ranges of some diseases are expanding as rising temperatures are allowing pathogens to overwinter in regions that were previously too cold for them."
For example, warmer winters may allow kudzu to expand its
range northward. Because kudzu is an alternate host for the soybean rust
pathogen, one result of rising temperatures may be that soybean rust arrives in
"Information derived from climate change studies will help us prepare for the changes ahead by knowing which diseases are most likely to become more problematic," he said. "Now is the time for plant pathologists, plant breeders, agronomists and horticulturalists to adapt disease management strategies to the changing environment."
Eastburn's soybean research,
"Elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide and ozone alter soybean diseases at SoyFACE," was recently published in Global Change
Biology. Researchers also included Melissa DeGennaro
and Evan DeLucia of the U of I, Orla
Dermody of Pioneer Hi-Bred Switzerland, and Andrew McElrone of the
Sakata Seed Corp. upping its stake in India
(Bloomberg)
-- Sakata Seed Corp., a Japanese seed wholesaler, is betting that rising demand
for its disease- resistant hybrid ‘F1’ seeds will help the company triple its
market share in
The company accounts for about 1 to 3 percent of the ‘F1’
and ‘open pollinated’ vegetable seed market in the world’s second-fastest
growing major economy, and plans to increase it to 10 percent by 2018, Chief
Executive Officer Hiroshi Sakata. That would place the company in the top five
vegetable seed wholesalers in
“About a quarter of the seeds used in
His company,
Sakata Seed, based in
Disease Resistant
About 90 percent of the seeds the company produces are of the F1 variety. Disease-resistant hybrid seeds are more expensive but provide at least two to three times higher economic returns from their yield and quality than open pollinated cultivars, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization.
“I don’t think Sakata’s F1 seed marketing in India will be
up on its feet running as fast as they expect,” said Masanobu Mizuta, an
analyst at Toward the Infinite World Inc., who has a “neutral plus” rating on
the stock. “It’s still planting seeds for growth in the region, and it will
take some time for farmers to truly see the benefits of expensive F1 seeds. But
the fact that they have already set their eyes on
Sakata Seed, founded in 1913 and listed on the Tokyo Stock
Exchange since 1987, established a subsidiary office near
The company is scheduled to report full-year earnings on July 15. Its shares have tumbled 11 percent this year through yesterday compared with a 3 percent decline for the Topix index. The stock is valued at 142 times reported profit, while companies in the Topix index trade at an average 32 times.
Endangered listing sought for bumblebees
(AP
via OregonLive.com) – A conservation group filed a petition to add a
bumblebee from Southern Oregon and
The Society for Invertebrate Conservation and
Scott Hoffman Black, executive director of the of the Xerces Society in Portland, said the petition is part of an effort to reverse the decline of bumblebees and other native bees around the world due to habitat loss, pesticides and diseases spilling out of commercial greenhouses.
The group is preparing petitions to protect other bumblebee
species as well. The
Farmers often hire honeybee keepers to pollinate crops, but hives have been decimated by a mysterious honeybee killer known as colony collapse disorder.
So some farmers are turning to bumblebees to pollinate, especially for hothouse crops such as tomatoes, peppers and strawberries, and field crops such as blueberries, cranberries, raspberries, squash and watermelon. Bumblebees pollinate about 15 percent of all crops grown in the nation, worth $3 billion.
"The decline in
While many native pollinators have seen declines related to
loss of habitat and pesticides,
Researchers at the
Earlier this year, the Xerces Society and other conservation groups and scientists called on federal agricultural authorities to start regulating shipments of commercially domesticated bumblebees to protect wild bumblebees from diseases threatening their survival.
A 2007 National Academy of Sciences report blamed the decline of pollinators around the world on a combination of habitat loss, pesticides, pollution and diseases spilling out of greenhouses using commercial bumblebees.
Farmer chefs promote ‘rooftop to tabletop’
(The
Baltimore Sun) – High atop Regi's American Bistro
in
Looking for a more affordable, dependable source for the tasty heirloom varieties that can fetch $4 to $5 a pound at area farmers' markets, Regi's owner Alan Morstein this spring created a rooftop tomato farmette that he proudly shows off to diners. Regi's chefs Mike Broglio and Ben Troast have grown used to them, traipsing through the prep area to reach the roof.
"We joke that it's the 7:30 tour," Broglio said.
"We don't have a chef's table," Troast added. "We're going to have a tomato table up there."
First there was farm-to-table dining. Now, "rooftop-to-tabletop," as Morstein calls it.
The same local-foods movement that has revived interest in home gardening is leading more chefs and restaurateurs to grow some of their own ingredients. They've been dealing directly with local farmers in recent years. Now, no longer content to just buy from the farmer, some chefs want to be the farmer.
That urge has given rise to a few restaurant farms, like the
5-acre spread in
Whether in fields or in plastic baby pools on restaurant rooftops, more area restaurateurs and chefs are producing their own heirloom tomatoes, onions, berries, greens, corn — even honey.
They have launched these ventures with the goals of saving money and reaping fresher, more unusual and higher-quality produce. They're also seeking locavore bragging rights. In an era when the provenance of nearly every ingredient is promoted on menus, when house-made charcuterie, house-cured bacon and the like have become de rigueur, why not house-grown produce?
The soup du jour at Jack's Bistro in
"There's something about when you have 'rooftop onions' [on the menu], and people say, 'Rooftop onions, what does that mean?' " said Christie Smertycha, manager at Jack's. "There's just something wonderful about saying, 'Oh, we grow them on the rooftop of our building.' … There's a real sense of pride."
Morstein is so proud of his tomato plants, which are now taller than the 6-foot restaurateur, that he jokes about buying celebratory cigars when he harvests the first fruit. This, despite the fact that after purchasing seedlings, bags and bags of organic soil, plastic containers, organic squirrel repellant, Astroturf (so the black rooftop wouldn't bake his plants) and tinsel strips (draped on phone lines to deter birds), Morstein has concluded that the tomato venture is not saving him any money. He spends up to an hour a day tending his plants.
"I get up in the morning, and my wife says, 'There goes farmer Al,' " he said. "It's just another thing I want to do."
Most busy restaurateurs and chefs are not looking for anything extra to do, but they are finding time nonetheless for their commercial kitchen gardens.
Jamie Forsythe spent one morning last week fixing a tractor
on a 5-acre farm in
"Being out there in the daytime and pulling a beet from the ground, knowing that you're going to cook it that night, you feel kind of energized," Forsythe said. "I come back so ready to cook, really just charged up to do it."
James Barrett, chef at the Westin Annapolis, recently installed two beehives he inherited from his father on the roof of the hotel and plans to use the honey in the restaurant. It started as a way to honor his father, a beekeeping hobbyist who died in November. But now the farming bug has bitten him.
"We're talking to two different people about a rooftop garden — or we have a huge courtyard," he said. "If we could put a two-season garden in there, that would be outstanding for what I would have readily available for us to use here. Talk about using fresh, using local — it doesn't get any fresher than that.
"It's just more control I have over the product I want. It's not me going to someone else. It's 'Here's what I want, here's what I'm going to grow.' My wife's looking at me: 'Really? Come on. You're already gone all day.' "
Those long kitchen hours are precisely what led Ted Stelzenmuller, chef-owner of Jack's Bistro, to put in his rooftop garden about a year ago. The kitchen stays open until 1 a.m., and Stelzenmuller could never get up in time to get to morning farmers' markets. So he got a contractor to punch through a skylight in the restaurant's second-floor bathroom and install a ladder, giving him access to the roof. There, in children's pools and other plastic containers, he's growing microgreens, herbs, strawberries and those "rooftop onions."
The restaurant-based gardens also offer respite from the kitchen.
"This is a little Zen for me — get out of the kitchen and water or go and walk through and check on everything," said Sarah Thall, chef of Hamilton Tavern, which has tomatoes, eggplant, sweet bell peppers, hot peppers, cucumbers, celery and corn on its rooftop in a garden installed this spring with help from the Hamilton Crop Circle, a neighborhood composting and gardening operation.
"It's really nice on a stressful day to say, 'Ahhh, got to go to the roof and water the herbs,' and then
maybe stay up there too long," said Joe Edwardsen,
owner of Joe Squared Pizza & Bar on
"We drop over $3,000 in an average week in produce, so growing the herbs, I think, probably saves $200 to $300 a week, especially with all the pesto we make," Edwardsen said.
It helps that he picked up his big growing tubs and hydroponic equipment for free. "The police threw it out when they were busting the pot-growing operation next door," Edwardsen said.
But it's not just about saving money. The herbs he grows are more flavorful because he doesn't have to wash them as thoroughly as produce from a commercial farm.
"Growing on the roof, you don't have the pest problem," he said. "You don't have to use pesticides. We can keep most things off our plants. You get things from these farms, and you have to have it soaked three times in bins of water before you serve it because you don't know what they've put on it."
With the rooftop herbs, Edwardsen said, "We can give it a quick rinse, and that's about it. So we don't have to soak all those oils off it. ... You want all that flavor."
Restaurant gardening is nothing new to Fernand
Tersiguel, who has had a small farm since before he
opened Tersiguel's in Ellicott City in 1990 or its
predecessor, the now-closed Chez Fernand, in 1975. He
farms about half an acre near Diamond Ridge Golf Course in
"We're going to have enough potatoes from now until October," Tersiguel said.
But the farm can't grow everything for the restaurant. Tersiguel's son Michel, now chef-owner of Tersiguel's, still has to go to the wholesale market in Jessup two or three times a week.
The harvest is even more modest for most rooftop gardens, though Morstein of Regi's hopes to get 25 to 30 pounds of tomatoes out of every plant. At Joe Squared, Edwardsen put two blueberry bushes on the rooftop last year. The yield has been small but satisfying.
"One Sunday out of the entire year, I have enough blueberries for maybe 15 orders of pancakes," he said. "And they're delicious."
Some rooftop gardening chefs find themselves fantasizing about getting farms the way they used to dream about opening another restaurant.
"I would love to get a plot of land like the Karzais," Edwardsen said. "I think you have to have three restaurants before you can do that."
Gertrude's restaurant at the Baltimore Museum of Art added a small garden last year and expanded it this year to include 12 varieties of tomatoes, three types of eggplant, herbs, 10 kinds of peppers, heirloom beets and two types of Swiss chard.
But the harvest is hardly enough to supply the busy restaurant with all of its produce.
"There's a tomato in every sandwich," said Jon Carroll, an assistant manager who created the garden as a hobby. So the garden produce gets highlighted in daily specials, like an heirloom-tomato Bloody Mary.
"I would love to get more land," said John Shields, Gertrude's chef-owner. "If we could find a larger plot of land and do a mini-farmette, that's my dream. Do you think the BMA would let me have goats in the sculpture garden?"
End Transmission