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September 7, 2007
· Innovative science tracks bee die-off suspect
·
Amateur breeder reveals secrets to monster veggies
· Mini melon mania captures growers and consumers
·
Precision ag benefits seen in corn production
· Commentary: Olympic veggies and Olympic pigs
Innovative science tracks bee die-off suspect
(chicagotribune.com) – After a year of anxiety over the
mysterious devastation of commercial bee colonies around the country,
researchers may have produced a break in the case: a bee virus that appears
strongly linked with afflicted hives.
The cutting-edge technique the team used to isolate the virus may find
applications with human diseases as well. Instead of trying to culture bacteria
or isolate viruses -- often a lengthy process -- the researchers ground up the
bees and rapidly sifted through all of the genetic material in search of a
suspicious microorganism.
If scientists can prove the viral infection is helping cause massive bee
die-offs, it could clear the way for beekeepers to breed colonies that are
genetically resistant to the disease. Fruit and vegetable growers are desperate
to defeat the disorder, which threatens bees that pollinate apples, carrots,
blueberries, almonds and other foods.
The new study, published online Thursday by the journal Science, found that nearly
all affected colonies contained a recently identified virus called Israel Acute
Paralysis Virus, or IAPV. By contrast, only one of 21 unaffected samples tested
positive for the virus.
The innovative method the scientists used may be applicable to the search for
novel germs that might underlie chronic human diseases such as obesity. That
could be a lasting legacy of the hunt for the bee culprit, said study co-author
Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, director of
"I really do think these new technologies will revolutionize our approach
to epidemiology," Lipkin said. He said that if similar techniques had been
applied to the SARS outbreak in 2003, they could have yielded a viral suspect
"in as short as a week."
For all the interest in IAPV, the authors said they suspect the bee condition
arises from many factors, such as poor nutrition, parasitic mites, the stress
of moving bees cross-country and pesticide exposure.
How the new virus interacts with other causes to ravage bees may be the next
big mystery to tackle, said report co-author Edward C. Holmes, a professor of
virology and evolutionary genetics at
"It raises more questions than we really resolved," Holmes said.
Since investigators first identified Colony Collapse Disorder last fall, the
condition has spawned a cottage industry of theories about its genesis. One
investigator claimed the cause was cell phone radiation; others blamed global
warning or genetic engineering of plants. Some doubted that the disorder was
real at all.
The group behind the Science study excluded some explanations -- for example,
there is no evidence that cell phone radiation affects bees, said co-author
Diana Cox-Foster, an entomology researcher at
Most researchers agree Colony Collapse Disorder is real. The illness hit nearly
a quarter of
"We've been scratching our heads about this for a year now," said
Jerry Hayes, chief of the apiary section for the Florida Department of
Agriculture.
To see if an infection was causing the problem, scientists sequenced genetic
material from ground-up bees and from royal jelly, a secretion bees use to feed
larvae. They compared bees from affected hives across the country to healthy
bees from
Just a few years ago it would have been a hopeless chore to distinguish the bee
genes in such samples from the mass of infectious agents present in every
living thing. But other scientists had just completed work on the bee genome
when the team started work, making it easy to exclude the bee's genes from the
raw results by consulting genetic databases.
What remained was a genetic slurry of bacteria, fungi, parasites and viruses.
Most of the microbes were part of the bees' normal complement, including
bacteria that help the insects digest food. But the database comparison also
revealed a match with IAPV, which Israeli researchers discovered in 2004.
The evidence suggests a strong correlation between the virus and Colony
Collapse Disorder, but it doesn't mean the microbe directly causes the disease.
To see if it does, the group plans to try infecting healthy bees with the virus
and seeing if they show signs of the disorder.
Some experts believe the virus may have come to the
Another major area of study is the effect of constantly moving bees around the
So far it appears the disorder shows up almost exclusively in such migratory
colonies, which may be weakened by inadequate feeding and frequent highway
transport.
"That seems to be one of the key issues because that's what stresses the
bees," said David Anthony, president of the Michigan Beekeepers
Association.
Amateur breeder reveals secrets to monster veggies
(washingtonpost.com) – Bright yellow tomato
blossoms burst forth in the lush, vine-laden
They do, however, offer some lessons in
growing a freakish four-pound tomato. Meisner, a retired cardiologist, searches
for a bloom that is fuller than the others, picks it and then plucks all of the
petal-like anthers from the flower to reveal not one pistil -- the organ whose
base swells to become the actual tomato -- but two fused together.
A regular tomato has just one. Beefsteak
varieties sometimes have two. When you see three, four or more fused pistils,
you know you have hit pay dirt in the world of giant tomatoes. Such a flower
may produce a tomato for every pistil, all of them morphing into one big, ugly
lobed fruit that in weight and appearance resembles a small pumpkin.
The pumpkin, as it turns out, is an apt model
for the giant tomato. Over the past 20 years, growing enormous gourds has
become a cult in North America among Type A backyard
gardeners.
Meisner is also a giant-pumpkin gardener and
last year raised a gourd weighing 1,060 pounds, a personal best. He is among a
cadre of giant-pumpkin growers who believe that the same methodical approach to
raising gargantuan gourds can be applied to the tomato, with killer results.
He has just written a book laying out the
techniques: "Giant Tomatoes" ($19.95, Annedawn Publishing, http://www.giantpumpkin.com).
It was edited and published by Don Langevin, another big-pumpkin guru who
believes the action is shifting to tomatoes.
"There are 25 million people growing
tomatoes in this country," Meisner said, leading me around his garden,
sun-bathed but cooled by an elevation of 1,300 feet. "Everybody wants to
grow a big tomato."
Indeed, the world of giant-tomato growing
already has a few legends. In 1986, Gordon Graham, a gardener from Edmond, Okla., was cleaning up a tomato
vine that had spilled into his melon patch and found a lone fruit that changed
his life. At 7 pounds 12 ounces, it became -- and remains -- the world's
heaviest recorded tomato. The company that makes Miracle-Gro fertilizer created an epoxy
replica of it and paid Graham to tour the country to talk about his
giant-tomato efforts. Graham, now dead, may have happened upon the fruit but
was heavily into giant-tomato cultivation.
Meisner now possesses the replica of the
world's biggest tomato, which was 26 1/2 inches in circumference and could have
made more than 20 tomato sandwiches. Meisner believes this jumbo fruit was
formed from as many as five fused pistils. Tomatoes, by the way, are berries,
botanically, but are classified as vegetables.
In the New Jersey seaside town of Long Branch, Minnie Zaccaria has been
raising big tomatoes for more than 40 years. Her biggest have exceeded six
pounds. But her lasting contribution to mega-tomatoes is a hybrid she made by
crossing two heirloom beefsteak varieties, one red, one pink. She declined to
name them, noting that she has sold the rights to the hybrid to Totally
Tomatoes, a seed company in Randolph, Wis. ( http://www.totallytomato.com).
The company will send out next year's catalogue in late November, when Big Zac
seeds will sell for $2.75 per packet of 10, a spokeswoman said.
In his garden, Meisner relies on a number of
beefsteak varieties, among them Brutus Magnum, Giant Belgium, Slankard's, Todd County Amish and
Tennessee Britches, of which one massive fruit measured eight inches across.
Graham's monster was a variety called Delicious. Meisner is clear about which
variety will define the future of this sport. "Big Zac is number
one," he said.
Giant tomatoes have definite cultural
requirements: deep soil, a site in full sunlight, adequate supports and a
spring start for the seeds to give these long-ripening fruits plenty of time to
mature. A giant tomato needs about 70 days from pollination to harvest.
Meisner uses an automatic drip irrigation
system to provide each vine with a gallon of water per day under a thick layer
of straw mulch. By keeping the leaves dry, he cuts down on fungal diseases.
He suggests a high-phosphorus feed at the
start of the season to promote root growth. After the fruits have begun to
grow, he uses a fertilizer formulated for tomatoes (avoid high-nitrogen types,
he advises) and a biweekly foliar feed using a fish-and-seaweed emulsion.
Zaccaria applies a foliar feed every week.
Pruning is important. Suckers are removed to
allow only two vining stems per plant, and only two fruits are allowed to
develop. They must be supported with surveyor's tape or twine to prevent them
from bending and kinking their stems.
Meisner asserts that Gordon Graham's world
record will be beaten, particularly as more gardeners join the chase. The more
vines, the greater the chances of a new champ. But the winner will need good
cultivation techniques, the right seed of big tomatoes producing fused
blossoms, "and luck," Meisner said.
Already, growers are nipping at Graham's
heels. One of the major trophy tomato contests in North America is held every
Labor Day weekend at a housewares store in Toronto. Last year's Great Tomato Hunt was
won by Gianfranco Sarin, with a tomato weighing 7 pounds 7 ounces.
A dry, difficult growing year reduced the
weights this year. First place went to a tomato weighing 4 pounds 12 ounces
grown by Giuseppe Spatari of
The obvious, and so far unasked, question is:
How do these tomatoes taste?
Meisner said their extra water content makes
them less flavorful than smaller tomatoes. However, he gave me a three-pounder that
was everything you'd want in a homegrown tomato: flavorful, firm and
sufficiently acidic to be interesting. It sits on the kitchen counter like a
The second question is: Why?
"I think people who grow tomatoes don't
set out to grow a giant tomato," Zaccaria said, "but if they do,
they're so happy. It eggs them on."
Mini melon mania captures growers and consumers
(montereyherald.com) – To the untrained eye, the mini
watermelon is, well, just a small watermelon. But to Richard Molinar, there are
nuances to note. Does it weigh 4-7 pounds? Is the skin color striped or solid?
The rind thick or thin? The flesh a deep red, orange-red or brilliant yellow?
Does it have an appealing crunch or a mushy texture? Is it super sweet, or is
there a hint of tartness? Is it seedless?
And can farmers make money growing them? All of these questions come to
Molinar's mind as he strolls the watermelon field at the
Industry insiders are eager to taste his work — and find the new, hot varieties
that will snare shoppers. Their wait soon will be over. A public tasting at the
center in Parlier took place Sept. 6, followed by lectures that should have
farmers on the edge of their seats: "Viruses and How They Are
Spread," "Weed Management: Organic/Conventional," "Insect
Predators and Parasites" and "All About Bacillus thuringiensis."
Molinar's not growing 23 varieties of small watermelons simply because he likes
them: There's money to be made. In 2006, mini watermelons captured 8.5 percent
of the
It's the fastest-growing segment of the market, he added. Jefferson Lowe of
Corona Seeds in
At that time, "everyone was starting to look at this and say, 'Maybe we
should get into this,'" Lowe said. "By 2004, they were really being
looked at more as a fashion fruit," he added. Now, "they're pretty
much here to stay."
So why the attraction to the minis? Folks who can't finish the huge ones
welcome the smaller size, Molinar said. Plus, the minis (also called personal watermelons)
leave more room in the refrigerator.
Beyond those characteristics, farmers have many colors, flavors and textures to
consider. At UC Kearney, Molinar points out the familiar striped watermelons,
as well as ones with solid-colored, dark-green skins. He thumps them and
listens. Overripe melons sound "too deep and hollow," he said. Unripe
ones have a "tinny, high sound." And the ones that are just right are
somewhere in between.
Indeed, a watermelon's success depends as much on advertising as on desirable
traits. And no matter the size, orange and yellow ones need a better boost.
"Unfortunately, the numbers on the orange and yellow watermelons, at best,
it's 2 percent of the market. And I think it's a crying shame," Lowe said.
"We're no farther ahead now with yellows and oranges than we were 20 years
ago."
Farmers such as Parry Klassen may solve this problem. This year, Klassen sold a
test crop of a yellow-orange mini from his stand in
With the harvest season over, Klassen's making plans for double or triple
plantings of these minis, making them 5 percent of his crop. He's not sure if
he'll grow much more than this, though. He has a problem that affects the
general mini market: The little ones cost as much to produce as the big ones.
"Labor (for a mini) is just as difficult as with a regular
watermelon," Klassen said. "Growing, the picking cost, everything is
the same." This year, he sold the minis for $4 apiece, the same price as
some of his larger watermelons. Predictably, some customers balked.
It's these costs — along with development of new varieties, marketing and
consumer demand — that influence the market share of minis. Farmers simply
can't drop prices too low as supply increases. "There's going to be price
resistance," Klassen said. "I don't know if we can make a profit
selling them for $2-$3 each."
Precision ag benefits seen in corn production
(Science Daily) – As
of late, many uncertainties have been sprouting up in corn production.
Researchers and producers have been wondering if precision agricultural
technologies can improve crop yield and quality or reduce their variability.
Farmers have been asking a number of questions from, which hybrid should I
plant for best yield and quality, to does applying nitrogen fertilizer at a uniform
rate produce a better crop outcome, and if not, what nitrogen fertilization
strategy does produce a better crop in yield and quality?
Scientists at
Precision agriculture is defined as the usage
of available technology to develop custom management of soil and crops to fit
specific conditions of a small area that is within a larger unit, such as a
field. This practice has revolutionized modern farming by allowing farmers to
choose the best management strategy at a specific time and place in their
fields.
It has the potential to increase agricultural
resource use efficiency, reduce environmental contamination, and maintain or
increase crop yield. Corn farmers use this application by varying the rate of
fertilizer depending on differences in potential crop yield, soil type and
landscape features across the field. As grain markets shift to a greater
emphasis on ethanol, more attention is being directed to optimizing grain
quality, where traditionally the emphasis was on quantity.
The significant variability of abundance in a
given area and abundance over a period of time in crop yield and grain quality
has not influenced use efficiency or profit of products made from the crops,
but made it difficult for farmers to get premium prices for their products.
The study was conducted on two commercial
corn fields in eastern
The results indicated that one hybrid was
found to have higher yield, quality and distribution to suppliers than the
other hybrid under either a uniform or varied nitrogen application. Results
also showed that varying nitrogen applied to localized within-field conditions
and hybrid differences could either increase corn yield with similar or higher
nitrogen rates or maintain yield with less nitrogen application, without any
significant improvement of grain quality.
The results from this study are published in
the September-October 2007 issue of the Soil Science Society of America
Journal. The study was funded by Cargill Crop Nutrition (now Mosaic
Company), Cargill Dry Corn Ingredients and Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.
Commentary: Olympic veggies and Olympic pigs
(UPI Asia) – As time ticks away in Beijing's one-year
countdown to the 2008 Olympic Games, toxic food scandals keep popping up to
embarrass China. Yet there are two bits of positive news for those heading to
The first is that during the Games Beijing will supply
vegetables from a special Olympic Games Vegetable Base. Vegetables grown in
these plots will be fertilized with yellow beans and sprayed with a liquid
fertilizer made of milk powder, sugar and vinegar. Apart from that, each
vegetable will have an identity certificate.
The second is that pigs to be served at the Games will
be raised in a special, secret, fully-enclosed shelter. The food for those
lucky pigs will be certified organic by the European Union and contain no
preservatives. The pigs will be immunized with natural Chinese herbs. Moreover,
in order to keep them healthy, the pigs will be taken outdoors for two hours of
exercise each day.
These two reports are not imaginary. From this we can
see that the Chinese Communist Party is taking the Olympic Games seriously and
is ready to go to any lengths to make them a success.
Considering its seriously polluted air and contaminated
food,
After all, improving the people's education, medical
care and living standards are more important than holding athletic events. But
in order to polish up
To hold the Olympic Games, the CCP must reach the
standards requested by the Olympic Committee. Take food for example. Food is as
important as air for human life, but in today's
The international athletes and staff coming to
The first reason is that
Chinese media recently reported that Jacques Rogge,
president of the International Olympic Committee, said during an inspection
tour in
If these two practices could be maintained it would be
a real blessing for the Chinese people. But how could the average Chinese, who
cannot even afford milk and sugar, afford vegetables grown in that luxurious
way? How could ordinary Chinese, who cannot even afford toxic pork, enjoy the
meat of healthy pigs that exercise every day? Olympic vegetables and Olympic
pigs are part of the Beijing Olympic Games, so they are certainly part of the
"heritage" too.
Rogge is a citizen living in Europe where the wealth is
more evenly distributed; he does not know what is happening in
(Chen Weijian is
chief editor of the Chinese newspaper "Xin Bao" in
End Transmission