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July 2, 2010
· Want to grow bigger spuds? Go organic
· How Calif. growers survived the drought
· Monsanto 3Q sags on Roundup sales
·
Brazil farmers reap profits of conservation
· Salinas ag icon John Inman dead at 69
Want to grow bigger spuds? Go organic
(The
Seattle Times) – If you want to grow a bigger potato, organic farming may
be the way. The balanced mix of insects and fungi in organic fields does a
superior job of keeping pests in check, leading to larger plants, according to
researchers at
The findings may help potato growers cut back on spraying and make more effective use of natural predators to control pests, said entomologist David Crowder, who led the study published Thursday in the journal Nature.
"The goal is to learn as much as we can about how these natural enemies are doing their jobs and what impact they're having, so we can incorporate their effects into management practices," he said.
Less than 1 percent of the state's potatoes are organically grown, and even many organic farmers use some type of chemicals or natural toxins to control pests. But farmers are under pressure from such companies as McDonald's — the nation's top potato customer — to green up their practices.
"People who buy a lot of potatoes are asking the growers to reduce insecticide use as much as possible, to document pesticide use, and include biological control as a consideration," said WSU entomologist William Snyder, a study co-author.
Snyder recently received a $2 million USDA grant to help potato growers shift their practices.
"We have some pretty progressive farmers who already spray much less, compared to the industry average," Snyder said. "It's kind of 'organic lite.' "
The Washington State Potato Commission also funds some of Snyder's research and hopes to translate the science into practical advice its members can use, said Andrew Jensen, the group's research director.
For the Nature study, the WSU scientists wanted to find out whether a balanced mix of insects could be beneficial. They examined bug counts from conventional and organic fields around the world, growing a range of crops.
Since many pesticides wipe out the majority of insects, it wasn't surprising to discover that the conventional fields were often dominated by only a few hardy species. In contrast, the organic fields had a much more even mix.
But would that mix provide any real-world advantage? To test
that, Crowder set up 42 potato plots enclosed in fine mesh. He seeded each of
his mini fields with
The potato plots with the most balanced mix of insects and
fungi, typical of organic fields, performed the best:
The study didn't follow the potatoes to harvest, but plant size is closely correlated with potato size and yield, Crowder said.
Though it's not clear how the results would scale up, the study does suggest that farmers who reduce pesticide use might be able to rely on a mix of natural predators to take up the slack in controlling pests, he added.
The work also suggests a way to short-circuit the
"pesticide treadmill" that forces farmers to use more and different
chemicals as pests evolve resistance, said an accompanying article in Nature
from researchers at the
The results have broader ecological implications, Crowder said. Scientists have long focused on the number of species in an ecosystem as a measure of its health. The WSU experiments show that it's also important to have a balanced mix of species.
Research on organic farming has received short shrift in the
past, said Jennifer Miller, sustainable-agriculture coordinator at the
Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides in
"Often the natural pest control that's happening on organic farms is overlooked," she said. "It's really great to see research looking at the value of this effect and cheaper ways of pest management that come with reduced pesticide use."
How Calif.
(fresnobee.com) – For months, growers on the arid west side of California’s San Joaquin Valley fretted over water shortages, saying the drought and environmental restrictions would lead to economic ruin.
But when
So what happened?
Growers say that while a shortage of water had an effect, hard work and a little luck helped them avoid a worse outcome. And many had to sacrifice profits to keep revenues from dropping further.
Farmers turned to water-saving irrigation systems. Some planted more higher-value crops, and others invested heavily in securing additional water.
"We had to drill a new well, and we put in a new irrigation system, and it cost us $1 million," said Bret Ferguson, a Huron-area grower. "We had to do something. We were in survival mode."
Like many farmers on the west side,
On the whole, the value of processing tomatoes and fresh market tomatoes rose to $614 million, up 36% from the previous year.
Still, many growers don't want a repeat of 2009, which saw at least 250,000 acres of the 600,000 acres in the Westlands Water District go unfarmed.
Farmers point out that the county's 2009 crop report -- a tally of the region's agricultural value -- reflects the gross value of the region's agriculture bounty, not a farmer's net profit.
Once the added costs of production -- including new wells or irrigation systems -- are included, the profit margin for some growers was slim to none.
"We were fortunate to have some of the higher-value crops to absorb some of the losses, but it was still a very difficult year for many growers and workers," said longtime west-side grower Dan Errotabere.
For farmworkers, there was no silver lining.
Fewer acres farmed translated to less work, Errotabere said.
Errotabere was among those who
fallowed land because of a lack of water. Others purchased pricey water, mostly
from
But for some growers, the cost of buying water didn't make financial sense for the lower-value crops they were growing.
"There were some growers who were unable to farm any of their land," said Sarah Woolf, spokeswoman for the Westlands Water District.
Several crops grown on the drought-affected west side saw declines in acreage, including cantaloupes, asparagus, processed garlic and cotton.
Head lettuce -- another dominant west-side crop -- was farmed on 3,200 fewer acres last year, but the overall value rose because the region is a major supplier of lettuce during the fall and spring seasons.
A short supply nationally boosted demand and the crops' overall value.
That may not happen again, Woolf said.
The region's unreliable water supply may force some of the
state's major lettuce growers to find other regions of the country including
"If there isn't water available, there may not be as many lettuce contracts for growers," Woolf said.
Growers say that while 2009 had its upside, 2010 remains uncertain. Although growers received a 45% allocation of their federal water supply this spring, it came too late for many to plant more acres. Planting decisions are generally made in the fall or winter months.
And the once-promising processing tomato crop may not be as lucrative this year. Prices have softened, and farmers expect lower financial returns.
"What we have been able to do this year is unsustainable," said Steve Patricio, president of Westside Produce in Firebaugh. "It may get us by in the short term, but we can't keep farming this way."
Monsanto 3Q sags on Roundup sales
(AP
via Yahoo! News)
Monsanto said cheaper, generic versions of its Roundup herbicide continued to eat into its results.
As Roundup sales have flagged, Monsanto has accelerated its longterm strategy to shift its business from chemcials and herbicides to genetically altered seeds. But
the the declines in Roundup has been surprisingly
steep, the company has said, as generic competition from
The
Analysts had been looking for a profit of 79 cents per share, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.
Revenue fell to $2.96 billion from $3.16 billion a year ago. Analysts expected revenue of $3.17 billion.
Sales in Monsanto's agricultural productivity unit, which includes Roundup, fell 34 percent to $600 million in the quarter. Seeds and genomic sales, by contrast, rose 5 percent to $2.36 from the same period last year.
Corn seed sales remained flat at $1 billion dollars, while soybean sales rose 2 percent to $549 million.
Brazil
(Reuters
via Yahoo! News) SORRISO,
The state is
The crops have
helped fuel
Years of acrimony
have built up. When a visitor mentions environmentalists, the faces of Mato Grosso farmers often cloud
with hostility.
So, with "save
the world" emotional appeals not working, environmentalists are turning to
economic arguments, stressing how preserving the world's largest forest can
mean bigger profits for farmers.
"We have to
define what's in it for the farmer," said John Buchanan, senior director
for agricultural markets at the Conservation International group. "The
private sector is too important a stakeholder not to have on board."
His group has worked
with Brazilian farmers since 2001, helping them comply with confusing
environment laws, negotiate government bureaucracy and identify environmentally
important land, such as parcels housing rare species.
"We started
very small, very simple," Buchanan said, adding that about 132,000
hectares of preserves in several states have been or are being legalized.
"Some in the
environmental community have unrealistic expectations of what farmers can
do," he said. "We know we need to preserve important places. We also
need to be producing the food, fibre and fuel that we
need for a growing world."
The Amazon rain
forest in
But better policing
has helped reduce the destruction to around 7,000 square km nationally in 2009,
the lowest in more than two decades and less than one-quarter of the record
rate in 1995, according to the National Institute of Space Studies' satellite
data.
Environmentalists
are trying to bring the figures down even further, emphasizing the long-term
economic losses springing from deforestation.
"We see the
conventional economy as an instrument," says Maria Amelia Enriquez,
president of the Sociedade Brasileira
de Economia Ecologica,
which studies the economics of environmental policies. "Science can't just
live in its own world anymore."
NEW TIMES FOR
"SOY KING"
Perhaps no one
embodies this shift like "soy king" Blairo Maggi.
Maggi's family are among the world's biggest soy
producers, and, after a successful run at Mato Grosso's governorship in 2002, deforestation accelerated as
his influence over environmental policy became even bigger.
In 2003, Maggi told the New York Times that he didn't feel "the
slightest guilt" over deforestation. Two years later, Greenpeace gave him
their 'Golden Chainsaw' award to protest his role in the destruction.
But Maggi has recently adopted a much more moderate tone,
calling for a balance between agriculture and the environment. "We agree
farmers need to preserve forest, but they need the financial incentive to do
so," he told Forbes last year.
He backs the
carbon-financing mechanisms known as REDD , under
which rich countries can offset their carbon emissions by paying for avoided
deforestation in countries like
Those sorts of
programs can make a clearer case for the financial benefits of conservation.
Consumer pressure
for "greener" products also has an impact. Recent international
campaigns by Greenpeace on the destructive effects of soy and cattle have
forced farmers to become more environmentally aware or risk losing customers.
Environmentalists
say the more efficient land use that resulted in many cases helped farmers make
more profit and limited some environmentally-unfriendly practices.
"If you can
make good economic arguments, it's hard not to make progress," says Marcos
Amend, the executive director of Conservacao Estrategica, a Brazilian offshoot of the Conservation
Strategy Fund.
Amend's group runs a nine-day class teaching
conservationists how to couch their arguments in financial terms. About 350
people have cycled through the Brazilian version of the course, which includes
microeconomics and valuing natural resources, among other topics.
"Conservation
is basically putting order to economic activities," Amend said. "But
if you don't understand the economics behind it all, it's a tough sell."
Farmers can be
convinced, but the arguments need to be well-grounded with demonstrable
results.
In Sorriso, for example, farmers have embraced a farming
technique called zero tillage, in which they leave organic matter such as
leaves, stalks, roots and stems, from previous harvests on the soil to provide
a natural fertilizer and barrier against erosion for the next crop.
The fields in and
around town are covered with old stalks and leaves of crops, such as corn,
planted between seasons of soy, the plant most ubiquitous in this city of about
55,000 people.
Zero tillage can
increase profits through labour and energy savings,
conserve soil, increase tolerance to drought, and reduce greenhouse gas
emissions, the World Bank says.
"For us, the
farmers, as well as the environment, zero tillage has been the best
thing," said Sorriso farmer Argino
Bedin.
Brazilian farmers
point out that they're feeding the nation -- and boosting the economy.
Ultimately, numbers
drive the bottom line, said Egidio Raul Vuaden, a farmer in nearby Lucas do Rio Verde. "If
there's demand in the market, man will go in search of money."
Salinas ag icon John Inman dead at 69
(Eds
Note: I will personally miss John. He was a true friend and my mentor when it
came to agriculture and equipment. Jim Moore)
(TheCalifornian.com) – John Inman's admirers call him an "encyclopedia of all things agriculture."
The 69-year-old
"I just remember John as an incredible resource in regards to agriculture, to science and research, equipment, seed production, everything," said James Bogart, president of Grower-Shipper Association. "If I had any questions on anything, he had the answer."
Inman died unexpectedly Monday after a stroke Saturday, his family said.
Inman had worked as an agricultural consultant, farm advisor
and registered professional agricultural engineer. He was a founding board
member of the Monterey County Agricultural Education, started and led the
Salinas Valley Chamber of Commerce's Ag Business Day Tours for 29 years, and
was a member of Ag Against Hunger and
He received the Salinas Valley Chamber of Commerce's annual Ag Leadership Award in 2001.
"John was just bigger than life itself when it came to agriculture," said Eric Lauritzen, Monterey County Agricultural Commissioner. "It's a huge loss."
Struve and Laporte Chapel is handling funeral arrangements. Inman is set to be cremated and a celebration of life ceremony is in the works, likely to be held in August.
Jody Inman said her husband knew many people around the
Despite all of her husband's accomplishments in the agricultural industry, the 68-year-old said, John Inman was something greater: "John was an all-around good man."
The couple met in 1962 at a college mixer. John Inman
studied Agriculture Engineering at
"We basically met by accident," she said. Two years later, the couple married. They have one daughter, Janet.
In 1965, the couple moved to
"He loved
His expertise in agriculture allowed him to write for publications such as the American Vegetable Grower Magazine and Coastal Grower.
In 2007, he received the Spirit of Agriculture award from the Monterey County Agricultural Education program. This past fall, he received his third Salinas Chamber of Commerce member of the month honor.
Janet Inman said her father loved what he did, which allowed him to pursue another passion — travelling by recreational vehicle.
"He and mom easily put more than 100,000 miles on various RVs over the last 40 years," she said. "He was curious about everything ... He often said he was one of the lucky ones who really loved their work.
"I am the lucky one to be his daughter," she said.
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