Chemically Speaking - August 2006

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Pesticide Potpourri

• IPM Florida recently released a request seeking to identify top IPM producers of lettuce, tomato, green pepper, and red onion.  Both national restaurant and retailer chains are looking for suppliers who have a superior reputation for implementing IPM-based production.  Both Walmart and Scotts Miracle Gro have shown interest in incorporating more IPM in their product lines and consumer information.  Walmart is also developing IPM program components for food/fiber products they source.  Please contact the PIO if interested.  (IPM Florida email of 7/19/06).  
•  The UF Entomology and Nematology Department has issued a request for assistance in collecting a new leaffooted bug which has been found mostly on tomato, but also feeds on many other fruits and vegetables.  Its distinguishing characteristics are two large yellow spots behind the head and a wavy white line across the back.  Place the bugs in rubbing alcohol and send to Lyle Buss at Box 110620, Gainesville, FL 32611.  (UF/IFAS e-mail of 8/3/06). 
• The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has recently published a document entitled Guidance for the Management and Disposal of CCA-Treated Wood.  The document provides guidance on identification of treated wood, recycling recommendations, disposal BMPs, and FAQs.  Please call the PIO if you are interested in a copy or the link where it can be found.  (FDACS email of 7/16/06).

•  The grape developed at the UF/IFAS Mid-Florida REC (initially named H18-37) but better known as the source for the Blanc du Bois wine is gaining acreage throughout the South.  Twenty-four vineyards in Texas, Louisiana, and Florida produced 162 tons of this dry white wine grape in 2005.  The grape is a hybrid of a red table grape and a muscadine hybrid.  The muscadine hybrid provides Pierce’s disease resistance, which precludes other grape types from being grown in the South.  (Gainesville Sun, 7/13/06). 

•  Researchers at Iowa State University have successfully inserted genetic material into a corn plant that produces the protein LT-B, which is a subunit of a larger protein produced by some strains of bacteria that cause pig diarrhea.  The LT-B protein stimulates protective immune antibodies when eaten by test animals.  The group is now trying to conventionally cross the transgenic corn with a male sterile variety of corn, so that pollen is not produced.  The university is hoping to also patent the process of creating the male sterile/transgenic hybrids.  (Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News, 7/3/06).  

•  Whole Foods Stores, based in Austin, Texas, has been criticized that it has grown so rapidly that it has left some of its core values behind, and is now requiring that each store buy products directly from at least four local farmers.  The company, known for its natural and organic products, sources most of its meat and produce nationally and in some cases internationally, and founder and chief executive John Mackey is attempting to push the chain back to its local roots.  In addition to buying from local farmers, Whole Foods’ 184 nationwide stores will be encouraged to host local farmers markets in its parking lots, and the company has hired an “animal compassion field buyer,” to work with livestock suppliers to enforce its standards of humane animal care.  Further, the company announced earlier that is providing up to $10 million a year in low-interest loans to small, local farmers to encourage the production of grass-fed, humanely raised meat, poultry and dairy products.  (Meatingplace.com, 7/27/06).

•  Bayer CropScience has purchased the rights to FMC’s insecticide discovery pipeline, which will allow Bayer to commercialize new products.  In exchange, FMC will receive royalty and milestone payments on the compounds as well as access to certain Bayer products for premixes with FMC products.  Bayer hopes to launch 26 new active ingredients between 2000 and 2011, including four fungicides, four herbicides, and two insecticides (flubendiamide and spirotetramat).  Bayer has been phasing out 29 older products from 2000 through this year.  (Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News, 7/10/06). 

•  The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is planning to release about 5,500 European leaf beetles near Preston in Caroline County to help stamp out an invasive plant species that is smothering wetlands.  The beetles eat loosestrife, a tall herb with purple and pink flowers that grows in dense patches and has crowded out native Chesapeake plants such as rushes and cattails.  The state has bought 60,000 of the beetles - at a cost of 11 cents apiece - for release this year.  The Galerucella beetles were to be freed near the Choptank River, said Kerrie Kyde, an invasive plant specialist with the state agency.  She said the loosestrife is hurting not just other plants but animals that live in marshes such as bitterns and bog turtles. (AP, 8/10/06).  

•  The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is proposing to amend the fruits and vegetables regulations to allow the importation into the United States of litchi (lychee), longan, mango, mangosteen, pineapple, and rambutan from Thailand.  As a condition of entry, these fruits would have to be grown in production areas that are registered with and monitored by the national plant protection organization of Thailand, treated with irradiation in Thailand at a dose of 400 gray for plant pests of the class Insecta, and subject to inspection.  The fruits would also have to be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate with an additional declaration stating that the fruit had been treated with irradiation in Thailand.  In the case of litchi, the additional declaration would also state that the fruit had been inspected and found to be free of Peronophythora litchii, a fungal pest of litchi.  This action would allow for the importation of these fruits from Thailand into the United States while continuing to provide protection against the introduction of quarantine pests.  (Federal Register, 7/26/06). 

•  The EPA has published information on its site to help manufacturers better understand the difference between a pest control device and a pesticide product.  Previously, only a brief definition of pest control devices could be found on the Agency's site.  The new page better elaborates on the distinctions between the two types of products to aid manufacturers in determining whether or not a certain product requires EPA registration.  Please note that this page provides only general clarification.  Manufacturers or applicants still need to consult EPA for a determination regarding the regulatory requirements for any product.  The new page can be found at http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/about/devices.htm  (EPA Pesticide Program Update, 8/8/06). 

•  The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries devised an interesting eradication plan for zebra mussels detected in a 12-acre abandoned quarry.  After wading through a plethora of environmental assessments for state and federal agencies, and submitting special local needs registrations, contractors pumped 174,000 gallons of potassium chloride into the 93-foot deep quarry to attain a target concentration of 100 PPM potassium.  Post treatment monitoring has confirmed total mussel kill while other biota such as turtles, fish, aquatic insects, and snails continue to thrive.  The total cost of the project was approximately $400,000.  (NE IPMC news, 7/25/06). 

•  As mentioned before in Chemically Speaking, imitation butter flavoring has proven hazardous to those people working with it in an occupational setting.  Now, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has been petitioned to enact an emergency temporary standard to prevent worker fatalities related to fake butter flavoring.  In a letter to the OSHA’s director, Elaine Chao, 40 occupational health physicians and scientists asked for a standard to protect workers from diacetyl, a chemical with butter-flavor characteristics that is used in many foods.  The group that sent the letter has contended that OSHA has done nothing to remedy the problem, even though lung diseases caused by diacetyl have been known for over four years.  (Pesticide & Toxic Chemical News, 7/31/06). 

•  A genetically modified grass designed to improve golf courses and lawns has caused alarm after escaping into the wild.  Creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera) has spread up to five kilometers outside a test site in Oregon, with nine plants being identified.  The grass has been modified to make it impervious to the herbicide glyphosate, and was designed to appeal to golf course managers who would be able to spray large areas to kill off weeds without damaging the grass.  Some of the plants found outside the test site had grown from seeds produced by the GM parent, while the others were hybrids derived from a non-GM plant being pollinated by one of the modified specimens.  There is the possibility of litigation if the GM grass contaminates other elite grass strains under cultivation.  Some 70 percent of the U.S.'s commercial grass seed is grown in Oregon, so there is the potential for accidental adulteration.  (New Scientist, 8/9/06). 

•  In the Brandenburg region of Badingen, Germany, militant opponents of genetic engineering destroyed 150 square meters of a cultivated field in late July.  The field contained Bt-maize which was genetically improved to fight the European Corn Borer, a widespread pest which now strikes a quarter of all German maize acreage.  The Innovative Farmers Working Group [Arbeitsgemeinschaft Innovative Landwirte] of InnoPlanta e.V. (InnoPlanta AGIL) condemns this destruction.  InnoPlanta AGIL welcomes the decision to file charges against 90 of the activists.  In addition, those who had called for the destruction should be held accountable.  After the events on July 30, 2006, InnoPlanta AGIL spokesman Karl Friedrich Kaufmann said: “As part of our initiative ‘No Reign of Terror in Germany,’ we decided to confront the influx of 150 genetic engineering opponents.  We were particularly pleased with the support of the leaders of AGIL, Dr. Christel Happach Kazan (MdB) and Professor Klaus-Dieter Jany. We will not countenance destruction as a way to express arguments regarding Green genetic engineering.  In addition, a local opinion poll conducted by the Brandenburger Gransee News and the Oranienburger General Ledger found that 66 percent of respondents were in favor of using plant biotechnology in agriculture.”  Kaufmann says the use of Green genetic engineering is justified.   “Farmers who decided to grow certified varieties of Bt-maize are acting completely within the law.  They decided to grow a type of maize which makes the use of crop protection chemicals unnecessary.  In regions which are threatened by the European Corn Borer, crop biotechnology allows farmers to protect their yields in an environmentally conscientious way.  Many studies demonstrate the advantages by Bt-maize.  It seems that a few critics of genetic engineering have given up on taking part in the debate and have taken matters into their own hands instead.”  (InnoPlanta AGIL Press Release, 8/7/06). 

•  Where’s Jose?  Similar to the above - he’s back on his home turf pulling up plants.  French Agriculture Minister Dominique Bussereau condemned in late July the destruction of two fields of genetically modified corn by activists in southwestern France, calling the actions “vandalism contrary to the rule of law and the respect of private property.”  More than 200 activists tore up 7.3 hectares (18 acres) of the corn in two fields near the southern city of Toulouse.  Five suspects were detained by police and held for questioning.  Jose Bove, an activist who led the group, urged more “civil disobedience” if the government rejects its call for a national referendum on whether genetically modified crops should be permitted in France.  (Agence France Presse, 7/26/06).