" I heard it through the AgLine"

December 22, 2011

 

 

·       Scientist gets 7 years for stealing trade secrets  

·       Natural enemy unleashed on citrus psyllid

·       Invasive weed threatens Calif. waterways

·       The back story: The Christmas tree

 

 

Scientist gets 7 years for stealing trade secrets  

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Wednesday sentenced a Chinese-born scientist to 87 months in prison for stealing millions of dollars worth of trade secrets from two major American agribusiness companies and sending the data to China and Germany.

 

Kexue Huang, 46, worked at a Dow Chemical Co subsidiary from 2003 to 2008 in Indiana where he led a team of scientists developing organic insecticides and then later for another agribusiness giant, privately held Cargill Inc.

 

In October, he pleaded guilty in a federal court in Indiana to one count of stealing trade secrets from Cargill and one count of engaging in economic espionage at Dow AgroSciences, one of a handful of cases charged involving the U.S. Economic Espionage Act of 1996.

 

Theft of valuable trade secrets from American companies has become an increasing concern, U.S. officials have said, as countries like China can bypass spending millions of dollars and years of research and development as they compete for lucrative business.

 

"The theft of American trade secrets for the benefit of China and other nations poses a continuing threat to our economic and national security," Lisa Monaco, head of the Justice Department's national security division, said in a statement.

 

Prosecutors had sought 87 months imprisonment.

 

In a similar trade secrets theft case involving Ford Motor Co, a former product engineer who stole design documents and took them to China was sentenced to 70 months in prison earlier this year.

 

Cargill conservatively estimated at $12 million the research and development invested in the information stolen, according to court papers filed earlier this month. Huang admitted giving the information to someone at a Chinese university.

 

Cargill told the court that Huang worked on a project related to one of its "most significant R&D projects" to develop a new food product that has yet to be commercialized, spending tens of millions of dollars over many years.

 

The court filing gave no specific estimate for the loss by Dow beyond millions of dollars. The company said in a letter to the court that Huang was working on a family of crop protection products that have taken hundreds of millions of dollars to develop and two decades of research to create.

 

In his plea agreement, Huang admitted that, despite signing a confidentiality agreement, he passed numerous secrets about Dow's products to others doing research in Germany and China. He also acknowledged that he was trying to develop and produce the pesticides in China to compete against his former employer.

 

The case is USA v Kexue Huang, No. 10-cr-00102, in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana.

 

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Natural enemy unleashed on citrus psyllid

 

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – University of California, Riverside scientists released a natural enemy of the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) this morning on campus to help control the spread of the psyllid, an invasive pest that could devastate the state’s $1.1 billion citrus industry and citrus trees in home landscapes. This is the first time the psyllid’s natural enemy has been released in California.

 

UC Riverside Executive Vice Chancellor Dallas Rabenstein and Mark Hoddle, the director of the Center for Invasive Species Research, released Tamarixia radiata – tiny, stingless parasitic wasps that lay eggs in ACP nymphs – in a citrus grove near the UCR Botanic Gardens. A total of 281 wasps (95 males and 186 females) were released.

 

Over the next several years, UCR and California Department of Agriculture Food and Agriculture (CDFA) scientists will raise thousands of Tamarixia for release throughout California. The Tamarixia larvae will eat the ACP nymphs, killing them, and emerge as adults about 12 days later. Adult female Tamarixia also eat other ACP nymphs, killing many in the process.

 

“This release of 281 Tamarixia is the first salvo against ACP in California,” Hoddle said. “We anticipate that over the next year or so thousands of these parasitoids from Pakistan will be released throughout Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties and other areas as the pest continues to spread. Once Tamarixia establishes, it will move and find new populations of ACP to attack and kill.”

 

Hoddle, a biological control specialist in the Department of Entomology, collected colonies of Tamarixia radiata during four trips to the Punjab region of Pakistan during the past 18 months. Christina Hoddle, his wife and an assistant specialist in the department, was an integral part of the field work in Pakistan.

 

In total, about 1,500 parasitic wasps were brought to Riverside from Pakistan under permit from USDA-Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Twelve colonies were quarantined on campus. On Dec. 7, 2011, state and federal authorities cleared Tamarixia from quarantine with the issuance of a permit to release this natural enemy for establishment in California. The parasitic wasps do not bite or sting people or animals. Safety testing in quarantine demonstrated that the parasites are disease free and pose no environmental risk.

 

Hoddle explained that the Indian subcontinent is likely part of the ACP’s native range. The first study of the pest was published in 1927 by scientists in the region. ACP is now found in parts of the Middle East, South and Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean. In the United States, this psyllid was first detected in Florida in 1998 and is now also found in Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, Texas and Arizona. In 2008, the pest was detected for the first time in California in San Diego and Imperial county backyard trees. Large ACP populations are now well established in urban areas of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

 

The ACP feeds on citrus and close relatives of citrus. When the psyllids feed on leaves and stems, they damage the tree by injecting a toxin that causes leaves to twist and die. More importantly, however, is the psyllid’s ability to spread a bacterium that causes Huanglongbing disease. Huanglongbing, also known as citrus greening, is one of the most harmful diseases of citrus worldwide. The leaves on infected trees turn yellow, the fruit becomes bitter and eventually the tree dies. There is no known cure for citrus, and this plant disease is not a risk to people.

 

Huanglongbing has made its way to Mexico and Florida, but so far it has not been detected in California. Currently, the citrus industry is dependent on insecticide sprays to control ACP and prevent the introduction of Huanglongbing. Citrus entomologist Elizabeth Grafton-Cardwell, an extension specialist in the Department of Entomology and the director of UC’s San Joaquin Valley citrus research center, welcomes the promise of biological control with introduced natural enemies.

 

“This is very good news for the integrated management of Asian citrus psyllid and a highly significant contribution of the University of California,” she said. “Parasitoid releases will add a new and exciting component to the management program for ACP, especially for the many homeowners who have citrus trees in their yards.”

 

Hoddle said Tamarixia won’t eradicate ACP, but scientists predict it will reduce the densities of the pest, giving other control practices a better chance of working.

 

“Every ACP killed by Tamarixia will be one less pest for homeowners and commercial citrus growers to worry about,” he added.

 

Commercial citrus producers in California will still need to apply insecticides to control ACP and prevent the spread of Huanglongbing, should the disease be found in the state. However, the frequency of these applications may be reduced because Tamarixia will be killing ACP nymphs that would have otherwise grown into adults in the absence of this natural enemy.

 

Hoddle collected the parasites in collaboration with scientists in the Department of Agri-Entomology at the University of Agriculture in Faisalabad (UAF), Pakistan. According to Hoddle, UAF was an ideal base for the project because it had citrus research plots infested with ACP that had not been treated with insecticides. The university is also situated near local commercial citrus production, the area has a climate similar to citrus-growing regions of California, and the university’s vice chancellor is a UCR alumnus who also has an active research program on Huanglongbing in Pakistan.

 

In March and April 2011, Hoddle spent four weeks at UAF to set up research plots in kinnow and sweet orange trees. Coincidentally, kinnow is a mandarin that was bred at UCR in 1935 and accounts for 85 percent of citrus produced in the Punjab. Hoddle and his Pakistani colleagues collected 24 male and 56 female Tamarixia radiata, which were brought back to UCR to establish colonies.

 

At UCR, the colonies of Asian citrus psyllid and their natural enemies are double caged, kept in secure rooms. Workers wear coveralls, which are removed in designated changing rooms once work is completed for the day.

 

Hoddle returned from a June 2011 trip to Pakistan with 151 male and 255 female Tamarixia radiata. An October and November 2011 visit netted another 800 parasitic wasps.

 

“Gathering insects from citrus plants in the Punjab generated an immense amount of curiosity,” he said. “Kids in particular were super-curious about what we were doing, where we had come from and why we had come to Pakistan. The people in the Punjab were incredibly courteous, polite and generous.”

 

Hoddle has trained a Pakistani graduate student at UAF to monitor the interaction of the ACP with its natural enemies in their native environment. The researchers will determine whether other natural enemies of the pest could provide additional biological control of California ACP in the future.

 

Funding for the Asian citrus psyllid biocontrol effort was provided by the CDFA Specialty Crops Program, the USDA Citrus Health Response Program, the Citrus Research Board, and the UC Hansen Trust.

 

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Invasive weed threatens Calif. waterways

 

(MercuryNews.com) – An invasive weed just now taking hold in the San Joaquin Delta could clog water delivery pumps, irrigation pumps and even marinas on a scale never seen here, and California state officials say they are nearly hamstrung in trying to deal with it.

 

Few have even heard of the new threat, South American spongeplant, because it has been found only recently and in just a few places, all in California.

 

But what they have seen so far has alarmed experts.

 

"Your jaw drops at what's going to happen," said Lars Anderson, a weed scientist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's agricultural research service. "The weeds don't stop." Anderson and other experts say that if it is not controlled or eradicated, spongeplant could become a bigger problem than water hyacinth, one of the world's most troublesome water weeds. The state spends more than $2 million a year to control the hyacinths, established in the Delta for several decades, so water delivery pumps can work and boats can move about.

 

The spongeplant, like water hyacinth, floats on the surface and threatens to clog channels with impenetrable masses of weeds.

 

But because it is smaller, spongeplant could spread more easily and get deeper into pumps and water works. It is a prolific seed-bearer, unlike water hyacinth, meaning it could be even harder to eradicate, experts say.

 

"I think we're going to see a large expansion of spongeplant in the next three to five years if nothing is done," Anderson said. "It's very serious."

 

Although the invasion was detected early, weed control agencies say they lack the legal authority to spend state money to attack it.

 

Drifting in a small boat toward a stand of tules at Decker Island, between Antioch and Rio Vista, state Department of Food and Agriculture weed biologists David Kratville and Jonathan Heintz spotted some spongeplant among the tules, hyacinth and several other kinds of weeds.

 

"You can see how densely packed it is," Heintz said.

 

Kratville separated a small floating seedling from a larger mat of weeds and explained how easily it could float away and spread.

 

For now, large mats of spongeplant can be removed fairly easily by scooping it out of the water with heavy equipment. But as it becomes established, herbicides may be needed.

 

If it does become established, how bad will it get?

 

"We don't want to find out the hard way," Kratville said.

 

Named for the spongy leaves that keep them afloat, spongeplants likely made their way into the Delta from backyard ponds containing the ornamental plant. Though they are the newest intruder in the West Coast's largest estuary, they carry a practical threat -- the Delta is a water source for two-thirds of California, and serious weed infestations can clog pumps and canals, making it more difficult and expensive to keep water flowing to farms and cities.

 

Spongeplant was first detected in California in 2003, when a dense mat choked a pond in Redding. In 2007, it turned up in the Delta near Antioch but disappeared after a rainstorm.

 

It reappeared in 2009 in the western Delta, where it appears to be taking hold.

 

Weed experts say that because the infestation was detected early, there is a good chance it can be eradicated or controlled relatively easily. But money to do that is tied up. By law, state weed control agencies can spend money to attack only a handful of specified water weeds, including water hyacinth, Brazilian water weed and hydrilla.

 

State officials are sensitive to the possibility that lawmakers might yank on their purse-strings if they divert funds intended for one problem to attack another, especially in tight budget times, said Duane Schnabel, who heads the state Food and Agriculture Department's integrated pest control branch.

 

That has prevented the state Department of Food and Agriculture from more aggressively looking for and removing spongeplant, even though the rule of thumb is that every dollar spent on the problem in the early stages of infestation might save $100 worth of work that could be needed later, he said.

 

Such an attack on spongeplants now could "avoid that catastrophic infestation" like water hyacinth, Schnabel said.

 

Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan, D-San Ramon, is looking into introducing legislation next year to help them, according to her chief of staff, Susanna Schlendorf.

 

"We are doing some investigation on it because there's growing evidence that it's spreading more quickly than some of these other species," Schlendorf said.

 

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The back story: The Christmas tree

 

(FoxNews.com) – Growing Christmas trees is a long tradition for the Shealer family of Eastern Pennsylvania. One year, they even provided a tree for the Clinton White House.

 

"This has been a family business since 1945," says Paul Shealer, owner of Evergreen Acres tree farm in Auburn, Pa. "We have grown over the years from what used to be a hobby."

 

According to the National Christmas Tree Association, the first known decorated Christmas Tree made its appearance in Riga, Latvia, half a millennium ago, in 1510. Not much is known about it.

 

Five centuries later, 25 to 30 million trees are sold annually in the U.S. That’s a lot, but it’s far fewer than in Germany, where 50 million trees are cut annually, according to Rick Moore, owner of Moore Tree Farms in Groton, N.Y.

 

"I went over to Germany a year ago; the Christmas tree market is twice as large in Europe than the U.S.," Moore said.

 

Interestingly, evergreens have no biblical ties to celebrating Christmas.

 

Gregg Allison, professor of Christian Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, asserts that "The Christmas tree is not by any means an essential element of Christianity or the story of the birth of Jesus. There is no association from a biblical and theological point of view."

 

But the trees do have religious origins. Ancient Egyptians, Romans, Druids and Celts all celebrated festivals around them.

 

Germanic tribes connected trees with deities, and some sacrificed animals or slaves to them. But St. Boniface, an English Monk, put a stop to it in the seventh century.

 

Phil Vischer, creator of Veggie Tales, a series of Christian-based animated videos for children, has produced a new DVD called “Buck Denver Asks ...'Why Do We Call it Christmas?'” In it, he tells the tale that "St. Boniface got so mad that he picked up an ax and chopped down Odin's oak tree. And that ended the practice. And then he said, OK, you guys love trees, look at the evergreen. It's ever green, it never dies. It's the eternal life that Jesus gives you. It's an arrow. It points to heaven. It points to God."

 

A few hundred years later, the legend goes, Martin Luther, the father of the Protestant Reformation, found safe passage from a dark forest in Germany with the help of moonlight and stars twinkling through the spaces of an evergreen's branches. He cut down a fir tree, brought it home and attached candles to it as a symbol of God's light, shining in the darkness.

 

"This is particularly important,” Allison says, “because it will be the Germans that will introduce the Christmas Tree to the Americans and the U.S.”

 

During the Revolutionary War, the Hessians, German soldiers hired by the British to put down the Americans, brought the custom of decorating Christmas trees to the colonies.

 

They decorated their trees with dried fruit and cookies, which later gave way to ornaments, and then electric lights.

 

Today, choosing the perfect tree is a family affair.

 

Devin Stein and his two young children make an annual visit to Evergreen Acres. "We come out every year and get a tree and decorate it,” Stein says. “And mom works second shift, so I’ll surprise her when she comes home from work and the tree is all decorated."

 

Shealer makes sure his trees are trimmed to hold the best part ... the star.

 

"To me, that's the most important part of the tree, is the top,” he says. “I put more effort getting a nice top."

 

And it's the star at the top, symbolizing the one that led the Wise Men to Bethlehem, that lights the way to a Christmas tradition.

 

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