Chemically Speaking Art 6


January 2006
Pesticide Potpourri
Similar to last month’s report that glyphosate inhibited rust diseases, it is now reported that another herbicide may be protecting plants from diseases. Lactofen, though effective in keeping weeds controlled, can also cause the crops' leaves to be bronzed and damaged. An Ohio State University researcher has documented that such bronzing is actually accompanied by cell death in a plant. The paper, which appears in the latest issue of Plant Physiology, tested the effects of lactofen on soybean plants, and tracked what genes were expressed during application of the herbicide. The scientist found that the isoflavone synthase genes were expressed at higher levels during herbicide applications. These genes play a part in the crop's defenses, and are usually expressed when a plant is wounded, or is being attacked by a disease. The researcher concludes that lactofen may have the potential to be a disease resistance-inducing agent. (CropBiotech Net, 12/21/05).
Out-manned by the forces of nature, Florida has drafted citrus growers themselves to help fight the war against citrus canker. Denise Feiber, a spokeswoman with the FDACS, was cited as saying on December 12 that grove owners must now submit a business plan to the state outlining how they will help keep their groves from contaminating other groves, and they must also specify how they will inspect their groves for canker before they can sell their fruit to processors or packing plants. Once the plans have been submitted and approved, grove owners will receive a compliance agreement number that must appear on all their trip tickets accompanying shipments. Feiber was quoted as saying, "A juice processor can't accept fruit without a compliance number on it. This is all to make sure the grove owner has submitted a business plan." (The Bradenton Herald, 12/13/05)
Related to the above, state citrus officials were cited as saying on December 16 that winds from Hurricane Wilma may have spread citrus canker so widely that it could result in the destruction of many more acres of fruit trees in commercial groves, based on a preliminary study given to state and citrus industry leaders by the USDA. If the report's predictions come true, millions more trees will have to be destroyed through the eradication program because they are either infected or stand within 1,900 feet of an infected tree. One study scenario suggests that the spread may force the state to take out anywhere from 70,000 to 170,000 additional acres of citrus south and east of Lake Okeechobee. That would raise to about 265,000 the number of acres that must be bulldozed. There are currently about 750,000 commercial acres of citrus in the state. (The Miami Herald, 12/16/05).
A revised manual describing how to comply with EPA requirements to protect agricultural workers from pesticides is available from the Pesticide Information Office. The new resource, Worker Protection Standard for Agricultural Pesticides - How to Comply Manual has been updated to reflect amendments to the Worker Protection Standard, a regulation designed to protect agricultural workers and pesticide handlers. The revised manual provides detailed information to agricultural operators on who is covered by the standard and how to meet regulatory requirements. The Worker Protection Standard contains requirements for pesticide safety training, notification of pesticide applications, use of personal protective equipment, restricted entry intervals following pesticide application, decontamination supplies, and emergency medical assistance. The revised 2005 manual supersedes the previous 1993 version. Changes to the standard since 1993 have made the earlier version obsolete, and its continued use may lead an employer to be out of compliance. Paper copies or CD’s are available. (EPA, 12/8/05).
Last year, strawberries, grapes, vegetables and other produce generated a near billion-dollar bonanza in Santa Barbara County, California, but the Washington-based Crop Protection Research Institute (CPRI) was cited as saying that without fungicides, growers could have waved goodbye to between 50 percent and 90 percent of those crops. Two years ago, the CPRI produced a report on the benefits of using herbicides. The bottom line was a gain of $1.2 billion for California growers. Now the institute, created in 2001 to "promote and advance sustainable agriculture and the environmentally sound use of crop protection products and bioengineered agriculture," has run the numbers on fungicides. The recently published results show an even greater net benefit of almost $5.3 billion for California. Growers in the Golden State apply 61 million pounds of fungicides annually, and the CPRI says that for every dollar they spend on this type of chemical control, they reap $25.30 in benefits. The report concludes that without fungicides, 95 percent of the U.S. grape crop would rot, while 86 percent of apples, 62 percent of watermelons and 54 percent of peaches would also be destroyed by pathogens. (Santa Barbara News-Press, 12/3/05).
A USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist has developed a new method for propagating June-bearing strawberry varieties in the mid-Atlantic states that allows the plants to fruit in the fall, continue fruiting until December, and then fruit again in the spring. This double cropping of June-bearing strawberries is a phenomenon not normally observed in this region. The new method of double cropping June-bearing strawberries requires harvesting small plants (called runner tips) from mother plants in early July. Those tips are put into containers and placed under water misters for rooting. Eight-week-old transplants are planted in the field in early September. They will flower and fruit during the same fall. With the standard method, runner tips are harvested in early August and planted in the field as 4-week-old transplants. They will flower and bear fruit only during the following spring. There are clear economic benefits for growers who wish to use the new method. Not only are two crops harvested in one year, but fruit harvested in late fall or early winter commands prices four times as high as fruit harvested in the May-June period. Where the danger of freeze exists in late fall and early winter, plastic tunnels must be used to protect the fruit. The tunnels are relatively inexpensive and are easy to erect in the field. The ARS researcher is now evaluating the performance of strawberry plants produced by the new method in Florida, Oklahoma, Tennessee and the Eastern Shore of Maryland. As of early December, fruit harvest was proceeding in all these locations and is expected to continue - until the end of December in colder sites, and much longer in warmer locations. (ARS News Service, 12/14/05).
The World Trade Organization (WTO) will, according to a judgment that will be sent to governments on January 5, and is due to be made public in March, let food producers in the U.S., Canada, Argentina and Australia sell processed food containing GM ingredients in the UK. The decision would also ban regional councils in the UK, and the governments in Scotland and Wales, from declaring themselves GM-free zones. The WTO has decided that attempts by EU nations to slow approvals for GM foods - or ban them outright - amount to an illegal restraint of free trade. The EU is likely to appeal, a process that could take six months. If the WTO stands by its original ruling, the EU will have to show that it accepts GM crops and food produced overseas or face the prospect of import tariffs on goods and food sent to the U.S. and other countries. (Daily Mail, 1/3/06).
Signatories of the Montreal Protocol agreed to cut by nearly half the quotas on the use of methyl bromide. Meeting in the Senegalese capital Dakar in mid-December, they agreed to a total volume of exemptions for 2007 of 7,466 tons, down 45 percent on the amounts agreed for 2006. Exemptions for 2005 totaled 16,050 tons. Sixteen developed countries including the United States have "critical use exemptions" for methyl bromide. (Reuters, 12/16/05).
On December 9, a French court acquitted 49 activists who destroyed GM plants after ruling their actions were justified. The court in the central city of Orleans dismissed the criminal charges of organized vandalism against the 49, who had uprooted GM maize in the region planted by Monsanto in two incidents, one in 2004 and the other in 2005. The court was quoted as saying, "The defendants have shown proof that they committed an infraction of voluntary vandalism in a group to respond to a situation of necessity," and that situation of necessity "resulted from the unbridled distribution of modified genes that constitutes a clear and present danger for the well-being of others, in the sense that it could be the source of contamination and unwanted pollution."The court, however, upheld the civil complaint against the 49, ordering them to pay a total of 6,000 euros (7,000 dollars) to Monsanto in damages and interest - although that sum was a small fraction of the 398,000 euros Monsanto had been seeking. One of the activists was quoted as calling the verdict "a huge victory for the anti-GM side" and said the judgement would form an important legal precedent.(Agence France Presse, 12/9/05).
In news related to the above, French anti-GM activist Jose Bove was allowed into Hong Kong for the last round of World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial talks after being briefly detained at the airport. Lagarde's chief of staff noted that Bove, who shot to prominence in 1999 after he helped demolish a partly built McDonald's fast food restaurant in southern France, had been asked to "strictly respect public order."(Agence France Presse, 12/12/05).
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