ATTRA/NCAT is one the most comprehensive, credible and influential organizations involved in creating a sustainable, profitable economy for rural areas, and those of us who are country people know that means farming!
(Myself, I was born in a town of 85 people in south central Vermont, years before the introduction of pavement, electricity or telephones...)
]]>Second generation transgenic crops are being designed more for expression of traits useful to processors than to farmers. Doing so complete the industrialization of the farm and finishes the long term trend toward making farmers producers of industrial inputs rather than simply (but more importantly) food and fiber.
So now farming really has been reduced to manufacturing, but with that old sad twist we've heard before: the farmer is the only businessperson forced to buy their imputs at retail and sell all their outputs at wholesale. Read more about it here.
]]>Researchers at the University of California -- San Diego have identified a molecule in the gut of caterpillars and roundworms that is responsible for their susceptibility to Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) toxin, which is widely used by organic farmers, and has been genetically engineered into some corn hybrids to kill corn earworm and rootworm.
Since Bt is non-toxic to humans, one new idea that has come out of this work is to create a pill for that would kill roundworms, human parasites that in the developing world can cause both river blindness and elephantisis.
]]>This past Friday I paid a visit to the Virginia piedmont, just over the Blue Ridge from the Shenandoah Valley, where I was raised. I was headed to Ayrshire Farm, where Sandy Lerner has done a wonderful job of restoring a classic Piedmont farm to its glory. It is, as the website notes "a working farm that has met the 21st century with one foot firmly planted in the 19th."
The occasion was a conference for Piedmont farmers who are considering an entry into the organic meat market. As many of you certainly know, organic meat is the fastest growing sector of the organic market (79% a year), which is the fastest growing section of American agriculture (20% a year). This has had the effect (fortunate from the perspective of grain farmers and unfortunate as far as prospective organic meat producers are concerned) of raising organic grain prices to record levels. To get a sense of just how high prices are -- if you can find any organic grain at all to buy -- then check out the New Farm Organic Price Index and look at what organic #2 Yellow Corn is bringing in your area! But there is a solution...
]]> ...which is to grow your own organic grain. And that is just what people at the Virginia Organic Producers and Consumers Association (VOPACA) meeting were considering. It was an eminently practical meeting, in that the main presentations included a pair (Ellen Holton and Meghan Kuhn) from one of the oldest organic certification agencies, Quality Assurance International (QAI) and one of Virginia's best known independent organic inspectors, Catherine Cash. In one afternoon the assembled forty or so farmers got a complete rundown on the size of the market and exactly what they'd need to do -- in a regulatory sense -- to take advantage of it.Virginia is fortunate to have two slaughter facilities that can process organic meats, so the main hitch at this point (other than the farmer's decision to give organic production a try) is feed cost, and the fact that prices are high does not affect production cost for the individual farmer. Modeling those costs is exactly what FarmSelect is all about, so I was thrilled to be there, and to be given 2-3 minutes to describe what it can do to help production farmers understand the differences between conventional and organic production budgets.
Now if we can just get our online course whipped into shape by this fall, so all those newly psyched up producers can while away a few winter evenings learning about the operational differences...I'll feel like all these hours staring into a computer screen -- instead of being out in the field -- will have been worth it!
Now the Vermont Public Interest Research Group has released a report on the threat of transgenic crops to the continued growth of certified organic agriculture in Vermont, even within the overall continued decline of agriculture in the state.
]]> Growth trends highlighted by the report include:If you'd like to see the complete report, it is available on line at http://www.vpirg.org/pubs/GMO report FINAL.pdf
You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it. If you don't have Acrobat Reader, you can download a free copy from the Adobe website.
This is a problem no one seems to want to talk about, though everyone knows it to be true: that the ag input companies might just walk away from the ag market after creating dependencies (and attendant, persistent problems) for producers who have no other "business" they would rather be in...
]]>WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana, April 2003. Farmers applying popular herbicides to their fields one day might receive an unwelcome chemical reaction: weeds ignoring the products altogether.
Scores of crop-damaging weeds are developing immunity to even the strongest herbicides in farmers' arsenals, said Bill Johnson, Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service weed specialist. What's more, fewer chemical methods for controlling the undesired vegetation are being introduced to replace them.
It all adds up to trouble for producers, but all is not lost if farmers change some current practices, Johnson said.
"We are developing glyphosate-resistant weeds at a rate of about one new species per year over the last four years," he said.
"There are about 250 species of herbicide-resistant weeds in the world. The highest number is in areas where production row-crop agriculture is most intense and relies almost exclusively on herbicides for weed control. That would be North America, Australia and Europe."
Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup, considered the king of herbicides. So dominant is Roundup that 83 percent of United States soybean acres are expected to be planted to Roundup-tolerant varieties this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Indiana farmers are projected to plant 91 percent of their soybean acres to Roundup Ready varieties.
Statewide, several weeds are demonstrating resistance to herbicide ingredients and brand-name products, Johnson said.
"In Indiana we have glyphosate-resistant marestail; jimsonweed resistant to atrazine; giant and common ragweed resistant to First Rate, pigweed resistant to Scepter, Classic and Pursuit; and lambsquarter resistant to atrazine."
Herbicide resistance in weeds started slowly in the 1970s and picked up steam in the early 1980s. Between 1990 and 2000 the number of confirmed herbicide-tolerant weeds worldwide jumped from about 125 to more than 240.
The rapid increase in weeds unaffected by herbicides was caused, in part, by the use of herbicides with identical control methods ‹ known as modes-of-action - on both soybeans and corn, Johnson said. The same is now happening to herbicides with aceto-lactase synthase (ALS) inhibitors. ALS inhibitors kill weeds by preventing them from producing essential amino acids necessary for growth.
Weed-control chemistry isn't keeping up with weed physiology, Johnson said.
"For the most part we haven't lost active ingredients in corn or soybean production, but we're not getting new active ingredients introduced, either," he said.
"In the 1980s and through the early part of the 1990s, we probably were getting one or two new herbicides with a relatively new mode-of-action every couple of years. We haven't gotten a new mode-of-action introduced into research programs in probably four or five years."
Developing effective new herbicides is a time-consuming and expensive task, Johnson said.
"There's probably a misconception out there that companies can turn on the spigot and turn out a new active ingredient, when in fact it takes probably $100 million and 10 years of research to get a new product to the marketplace," he said.
Although weeds are gradually winning the control war, farmers still have a fighting chance. Johnson recommends producers avoid using similar mode-of-action herbicides on two or more crops. Also, planting soybeans in narrow rows helps minimize weed emergence later in the crop season, and can be effective with corn, as well.
"One of the best things we can do is rotate crops," Johnson said. "We rotate crops for insect and disease problems, and we need to rotate crops for weed problems. Most of our corn and soybean crops in Indiana are rotated. However, there are certain areas where soybeans are grown continuously.
"The other thing we can do - if soil erosion is not a big problem - is introduce tillage back into our systems. That could be some primary tillage in the fall, some secondary tillage in the spring or simply using a rotary hoe and cultivator in the crop. There aren't too many weeds that have developed resistance to being torn out of the ground by a piece of steel."
Source: Bill Johnson, (765) 494-4656
Related Web sites:
Purdue University Weed Science Page
International Survey of Herbicide Resistant Weeds
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096
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MONTPELIER, VT -- The Farmer Protection Act (s.18) passed out of the Senate Agriculture Committee this morning on a voice vote. The committee expressed its intention to move the bill to the Judiciary Committee, as the bill deals with liability, contract, and patent infringement issues that face Vermont's family farmers because of the presence of genetically engineered crops in the state.
CONTACT: Amy Shollenberger, Policy Director, Rural Vermont 802-793-1114
Peto was also the most active tester of biotech vegetables in the USA, with more than 90 permits for tomatoes alone a few years back. If you are curious you can look at the status of most any permit at the APHIS biotechnology regulation website.
Anyway, here is the release from this morning:
Monsanto in .4 billion seed co. deal
January 24, 2005 -- Reuters
NEW YORK - Agriculture products company Monsanto Co. was cited as saying on Monday it will buy vegetable and fruit seed company Seminis Inc. for about $1.4 billion in a bid to capitalize on the trend toward healthier diets.
The story says that Seminis supplies more than 3,500 seed varieties to commercial fruit and vegetable growers, dealers, distributors and wholesalers in more than 150 countries around the world.
Hugh Grant, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Monsanto, was quoted as saying, "The addition of Seminis will be an excellent fit for our company as global production of vegetables and fruits, and the trend toward healthier diets, has been growing steadily over the past several years."
The change will exempt producers and marketers operating under a National Organic Program-approved organic system plan from paying assessments, provided they produce and market only commodities eligible for a '100% organic' label.
Currently, 17 national research and promotion programs exist for blueberries, beef, cotton, dairy, eggs, fluid milk, Hass avocados, honey, lamb, mangos, mushrooms, peanuts, popcorn, pork, potatoes, soybeans and watermelons. Eligible producers and marketers will be exempt from all assessments under these programs.
Under the marketing order programs, eligible producers and marketers will only be exempt from assessments for market promotion activities. The 28 marketing order programs that have market promotion authority are Texas citrus; Florida avocados; California nectarines; California peaches and pears; Washington apricots; Washington sweet cherries; Washington/Oregon fresh prunes; Southeastern California grapes; Oregon/Washington winter pears; cranberries; tart cherries; Oregon/Washington Bartlett pears; California olives; Oregon/California potatoes; Colorado potatoes; Georgia Vidalia onions; Washington/Oregon Walla Walla onions; Idaho/Eastern Oregon onions; Texas onions; Florida tomatoes; Texas melons; California almonds; Oregon/Washington hazelnuts; California walnuts; Far West spearmint oil; California dates; California raisins; and California dried prunes.
Details of the exemptions, including application procedures, will be available in the "Rules" section of the Jan. 14 Federal Register. Eligible persons should contact their board, council or committee for additional information.
The new Final Rule to Exempt Organic Producers from Assessment by Research and Promotion Programs, and related information is available at:
]]>"...Preliminary results suggest that the non-transgenic corn hybrids were better able to take advantage of the available nutrients in the Clarion soil than were the transgenic hybrids....the non-transgenic hybrids also were better able to respond to fertilizer placement."
]]> I found this reference while doing an unrelated search of ARS research papers. It seems that inserting a bt gene construct into corn doesn't leave us with a substantially equivalent plant after all.Klaas
Technical Abstract: Information on the nutrient requirements and growth habits of newer transgenic corn hybrids is needed. To evaluate hybrid responses to fertilizer placement, a pot experiment was conducted in a controlled-climate chamber. Fertilizer was added to Clarion silt loam (fine-loamy, mixed, mesic Typic Haplaquolls) at two rates comparable to those used in a previous field trial (22-30-19 or 67-30-19 kg nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium ha-1, respectively). Three kg of soil (dry-weight basis) were placed in 3.8-L plastic pots, vertically divided into five parts with plastic screens. Fertilized soil was placed in a 0.20 fractional volume. Seedlings of two isolines (non-transgenic hybrids Pioneer 36R10 and 33P66 and transgenic hybrids Pioneer 36R11YG and 33P67YG) were planted two per pot and grown 13d. At harvest, roots growing in fertilized soil and a comparable unfertilized 0.20 fraction were removed separately. Preliminary results suggest that the non-transgenic corn hybrids were better able to take advantage of the available nutrients in the Clarion soil than were the transgenic hybrids. Dry matter accumulation was greater for both non-transgenic hybrids, regardless of fertilizer rate or placement. Based on measurements of root length in fertilized and unfertilized soil, the non-transgenic hybrids also were better able to respond to fertilizer placement. It is difficult to draw conclusions because information on plant uptake of nutrients is not yet available.
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