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October 19, 2011
· EPA backs off on farm dust regulations
· Pioneer sues Monsanto over seed patents
· Guilty plea for stealing ag trade secrets
· ‘Kudzu bug’ eating US farmers’ lunch
· Brandt rebrands an organic favorite
EPA backs off on farm dust regulations
WASHINGTON (AP) — The EPA is trying to put to rest what it calls a “myth” that it is going to crack down on farm dust.
In letters to two senators last week, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said the agency won’t expand its current air quality standards to include dust created by agriculture. The agency released the letters Monday.
Republicans and some farm-state Democrats have used the issue on the campaign trail, arguing that the EPA is set to penalize farmers for everyday activities. Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain said in a recent debate that the agency is “out of control” and was preparing to regulate dust.
The House GOP has pushed a host of measures aimed at weakening, delaying or scrapping environmental regulations in recent months, saying they view them as job killers. Similar efforts are not expected to be successful in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Obama administration officials have tried to deflect talk of a dust rule for months, to little avail. A statement released by the agency Monday said that “EPA hopes that this action finally puts an end to the myth that the agency is planning to expand regulations of farm dust.”
National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson said there has been considerable anxiety in farm country about the possibility of increased regulation on agriculture.
“We hope this action finally puts to rest the misinformation regarding dust regulation and eases the minds of farmers and ranchers across the country,” Johnson said.
Nebraska Sen. Mike Johanns and South Dakota Rep. Kristi Noem, both Republicans, have pushed legislation that would block the dust rule if it had been proposed.
Noem issued a statement Monday saying that the announcement does nothing to change the fact that the agency has the ability to regulate farm dust. But Johanns called the EPA statement a “victory,” saying he would abandon an amendment on the issue he planned to offer to a spending bill this week.
“EPA has finally provided what I’ve been asking for all along,” Johanns said. “Unequivocal assurance that it won’t attempt to regulate farm dust.”
Pioneer sues Monsanto over seed patents
(Bloomberg) – DuPont Co.’s Pioneer Hi-Bred unit expanded its grievances against Monsanto Co. (MON) with a lawsuit alleging infringement of two patents for producing corn seed that can withstand environmental stress.
Monsanto is defoliating corn plants between pollination and
harvest to produce more vigorous seeds, a method patented by Pioneer, DuPont
said today in a complaint filed in federal court in
The companies have been trading lawsuits since DuPont bought Pioneer in 1999. The most recent case was filed in 2009, when Monsanto accused Wilmington, Delaware-based DuPont of infringing patents for seeds that resist Roundup, the world’s best-selling herbicide. DuPont responded by accusing Monsanto of using its dominance in biotechnology seeds to stifle competition.
The patents, one issued in 1996 and the other in 2000, cover a way to defoliate plants before harvesting to improve the quality of maize seed. The goal is to produce better plants, even if the weather or soil isn’t optimal, according to the patents.
The “novel seed production technique” improves seed germination under environmental stress, said Dan Turner, a spokesman for DuPont, the world’s second-biggest seed producer behind Monsanto.
Kelli Powers, a Monsanto spokeswoman, had no immediate comment when reached by telephone.
Antitrust Counterclaim
A trial is scheduled for June in
The case is Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. v. Monsanto
Co., 11cv497, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa (
Guilty plea for stealing ag trade secrets
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Chinese-born scientist pleaded guilty on Tuesday to stealing valuable trade secrets about pesticides and food products from two major U.S. companies and sending the information to China and Germany.
Kexue Huang, 46, worked at a Dow
Chemical Co subsidiary from 2003 to 2008 in
He pleaded guilty in a federal court in
The plea is the latest in a series of cases involving the
theft of valuable trade secrets from
Such thefts -- an increasing issue for
Economic ties between the two countries have been tense lately, particularly over trade practices.
Huang admitted that, despite signing a confidentiality
agreement, he passed numerous secrets about Dow's products to others doing
research in
He also received grant money from the Chinese government to
further his own research at a government-backed university,
He admitted he was trying to develop and produce the
pesticides in
After leaving Dow to work for Cargill, Huang also admitted he stole details about a key enzyme used to make a new food product at that company, prosecutors said.
He sent that sensitive information to a student at the Chinese government-backed university, they said.
"Today's plea underscores the continuing threat posed
by the theft of business secrets for the benefit of
Huang was born in
Prosecutors estimated the total losses from Huang's conduct ranged between $7 million and $20 million, according to prosecutors.
The case is
‘Kudzu bug’ eating US farmers’ lunch
(AP)
Soybeans.
"When this insect is feeding on kudzu, it's
beneficial,"
Like kudzu, which was introduced to the South from
Megacopta cribraria,
as this member of the stinkbug family is known in scientific circles, was first
identified near
And it shows no signs of stopping.
Kudzu and soybeans are both legumes. The bug -- also known as the bean plataspid -- breeds and feeds in the kudzu patches until soybean planting time, then crosses over to continue the moveable feast, says Tracie Jenkins, a plant geneticist at the University of Georgia.
On a recent sunny day, Greene and doctoral student Nick Seiter visited the 10-acre test field at Clemson's Edisto Research & Education Center in Blackville, about 42 miles east of Augusta, Ga.
Starting in the middle of the field, Seiter walks down a row, sweeping a canvas net back and forth through the bean plants as he goes. Bugs cling to his pants and shirt, dotting his face like moles.
"I feel like I'm wearing a bee beard over here," he says. "It tickles."
At row's end, Seiter pushes his hand up through the net. Bugs cascade over the edge and pool on the sandy soil at his feet.
The writhing pile makes a fizzing sound like a freshly opened soda.
"Wow. It's a couple of inches thick," Greene says. "That's just shy of a standard sample that we use to evaluate soybean insects ... and we're looking at a couple of thousand bugs, easy."
The bugs secrete a caustic substance that smells like a cross between a commercial cleanser and an industrial lubricant. Greene says it's unclear whether this is a defensive device, a way of locating each other in a field, or serves some other purpose.
Whatever it's for, the secretions are potent enough to etch the bottoms of the plastic tubs he uses to ship samples to colleagues -- and to stain the skin on Seiter's blistered right palm a pale orange that can't be washed off.
"Self tanner," he quips.
These insects are what entomologists call "true bugs," meaning they have needle-like mouth parts that they use to suck on the plant. So rather than feeding on the pods or leaves, as corn ear worms and common stinkbugs do, kudzu bugs attack the stems and leaf petioles, literally draining the life out of the soybeans.
"It's reducing the ability of the plant to produce or to send photosynthate ... the food that the plant makes from the sun, to the fruit, to the seed," says Greene. "So we're going to have ... a reduced number of pods per plant, reduced number of seed per pod, and reduced seed size as well -- all the above," he says. "It's not showy in terms of the damage that it does to the plant ... but it's going to cause yield loss."
"If you add up all our insect damage put together of different pests on soybeans, it probably would total maybe in an average year maybe a 5 percent yield loss," says North Carolina State University pest specialist Jack Bacheler, who has been warily watching the bug's spread through his state. "And sometimes, with agricultural crops like soybeans, 20 bushels an acre at $10 to $13 could be the difference between profit and loss."
One thing that concerns Bacheler and others is the bug's hardiness.
Jenkins says they may be able to respond to temperature and
other environmental changes by turning a gene or genes on or off, making them
particularly adaptable. They've been found on the windows of
"And these are pretty resilient little suckers," she says. "They can get on your car, and you can be going 60, 70, 80 miles an hour down the road, and then you stop, and they're still there. And they're alive. So they can take a pretty good lot of abuse."
Studies of climate data in the bug's native land are not encouraging.
"I think it's going to be able to dwell anywhere in the
That seems to be where they're headed.
In 2010,
From there, it's just a hop, skip and a jump to states like
"They're moving north and west," Jenkins says. "And I think they'll keep going."
Especially without an effective way to control them, says Bacheler.
"Its opportunities to spread seem to be unlimited right now," he says.
Researchers are experimenting with a tiny Asian wasp that lays its eggs inside the kudzu bug eggs. So far, the wasp doesn't seem to have any effect on native insects, Greene says.
Jenkins is trying to pinpoint the country of origin by
studying the DNA of a bacterium, or endosymbiont, that lives in the bug's gut. She is comparing DNA from the
The samples she's analyzed from the various states have all so far been traced back to the same maternal line -- meaning this infestation could have begun with a single gravid or egg-bearing female that hitched a ride here on a plant or in someone's luggage.
Jenkins is hoping a weapon might emerge from her DNA analysis.
"If there's a gene that's allowing it to adapt really well, if it has the insect gene, then I might be able to pull that out and use it against it," she says.
For now, farmers are having to rely on chemicals. So far, the results have been mixed, at best.
Insecticides that work on other stinkbugs have shown promise. But a couple of days after an application, the fields are re-infested.
"We basically spray, we get kill on what we touch with the spray, and then we get decent activity for a couple of days," says Greene. "And then it's pretty much gone."
"The problem with this insect is its sheer numbers," says Bacheler. "It's not that this thing can't be controlled. But it's probably going to be costly to do so."
Greene says the bug is still too new for experts to have come up with the most effective spraying regimen. He hopes data from this season's tests will help solve the problem.
Farmers like Jack Richardson here in Blackville are counting on it.
He has been farming for about 30 years and has about 200
acres of soybeans under cultivation. He buys some of his chemicals from a
dealer in
"He says, `If you get too nervous, spray `em,'" says
Rumbling across the field in his sprayer,
"We don't need any new pests," he says. "We've got enough now."
Brandt rebrands an organic favorite
TriTek will debut in American Fruit Grower, American Vegetable Grower and Florida Grower this fall, in a series of print ads. The rebranding effort also includes new packaging, collateral and direct mail.
For years, Saf-T-Side has had a reputation of providing effective, long-lasting insect and disease control. It is also recommended by leading universities as an essential component of integrated pest management (IPM). “Our number one objective is to let customers and academic researchers know that the name has changed, but the product formulation will remain the same,” said Vatren Jurin, BRANDT’s Technical Services Manager.
TriTek is OMRI listed and approved for use in organic production. The highly refined, pre-emulsified paraffin oil is manufactured using proprietary BRANDT technologies. The result is a stable, creamy emulsion that evenly coats plants and stays on the leaves longer, with minimal run off.
“With the growth in demand for products that meet organic production standards and no signs of this trend slowing, TriTek is in an excellent position to meet the needs of our customers for years to come,” said Bill Engel, Vice President of BRANDT’s Specialty Formulations division. “We look forward to seeing growers around the world experience the benefits of TriTek.”
About BRANDT
BRANDT was founded in 1953 by Glen Brandt and his sister
Evelyn Brandt Thomas to help
BRANDT consists of three operating divisions: Specialty Formulations, Retail Agronomy and Dealer Support.
End Transmission