News

BASF fungicide approved for tomato applications
BASF as received U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approval of Pageant Intrinsic brand fungicide for use on greenhouse-grown tomatoes for commercial production, and for tomato transplants grown in greenhouses, shadehouses and lathhouses for the home consumer market.

“The disease control and plant health benefits of Pageant Intrinsic brand fungicide will be a boon for growers who produce tomatoes,” says Kathie Kalmowitz, market development specialist, BASF. “The product is filling the need for the commercial growers of greenhouse tomatoes. Both large and smaller operations will benefit from having Pageant Intrinsic brand fungicide now in their disease management plan. We’re pleased to provide the industry’s broadest spectrum fungicide to fight troublesome diseases such as Botrytis cinera.”

The new, approved uses will provide growers and consumers who transplant tomatoes grown in greenhouses, shadehouses, and lathhouses with protection from time of seedling emergence to shipping, including protection from seedling diseases and against stresses such as cold, heat, drought and shipping.

Pageant Intrinsic brand fungicide provides superior, broad-spectrum disease control, and research has proven it provides plant health benefits such as enhanced stress tolerance and increased efficiency of plant processes.

For more information, visit www.IntrinsicPlantHealth.com or www.BetterPlants.basf.us.
 

The packaging barn for Charles Jones Produce, LLC lies empty near unplanted fields outside Oak Harbor. The immigrant workers who usually staff the farm were hard to find as a result of tightening immigration regulation in the United States. BARN: THE TOLEDO BLADE, KATIE RAUSCH

Big Ohio tomato grower shuts down for this year
Northwest Ohio's largest fresh-market tomato producer is shutting operations this summer, a move that will cost him millions of dollars, because he can’t attract enough migrant workers to pick his crops.

Charles Jones, 70, owner of Charles Jones Produce LLC in Oak Harbor recently informed the Toledo-founded Farm Labor Organizing Committee of his decision, union President Baldemar Velasquez said to The Toledo Blade.

The farm labor organization represents 500 farm workers who are usually employed by the tomato grower.

Jones, who is in South Carolina, where he owns other agricultural operations, did not return phone calls for comment.

The grower’s dilemma is not unique. Other fruit and vegetable growers across America have also decided to shut down their operations this summer, says Chuck Conner, president and CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives. These crop losses could cost farmers and the American public hundreds of millions of dollars and force the United States to import more food and vegetables, he says.

“Seventy percent of the agricultural work force, including the milk industry, is performed by an undocumented work force,” Conner says. “It’s a problem. Our work force is at risk.”

Conner, whose organization is in Washington, was in Toledo last month to lobby local and state officials to support proposed immigration-reform legislation.

That legislation includes a proposal to provide legal working status for immigrants who aren’t in the country legally. He also spoke to The Toledo Blade’s editorial board.

Velasquez says he wasn’t surprised by Jones’ decision. In recent years, many farm workers and even Latinos who aren’t farm workers in northwest Ohio have expressed concerns about being racially profiled and frequently harassed by immigration border patrol agents and some local law enforcement officers, who don’t have authority to enforce federal immigration laws, but try to, he says.

“There’s a big chill over northern Ohio,” Velasquez says. “Nobody wants to be harassed or having to constantly be looking over their shoulder.”

Velasquez, who worked with Conner on the agricultural portion of the proposal, says immigration reform could alleviate a lot of problems for farmers and immigrants. “Immigration reform is having an immediate impact on northwest Ohio now,” Velasquez says. “Our immigration system has been broken for a long time. The significance of what’s happened in Oak Harbor needs to be understood; it’s affecting more than just the Latino population.”

Those 500 migrant farm workers usually employed by Jones earn a combined annual payroll of about $2.6 million, Velasquez says. A significant portion of that income is spent locally on food, clothing, gas, and big ticket items like new vehicles. Restaurants, grocery stores, laundry facilities, gas stations will all lose business, he says.

Read more at bit.ly/12M6PbX

Source: The Toledo Blade

Thomas Bjorkman; Courtesy of The New York Times

Cornell scientist strives for the perfect broccoli
There it sits, a deep-green beauty at the farmers’ market: that sweet, crisp nutritional dynamo we know as fresh local broccoli. 

And then there’s this: a bitter, rubbery mass that’s starting to turn yellow around the tips, all bumped and bruised from its long trip from the field to the supermarket.

Thomas Bjorkman, a plant scientist at Cornell University, examined the store-bought specimen like a diagnostician.

“It’s soft, almost limp,” he said, prodding one of the heads. “That sharp smell is from the sulfur compounds. Scale of 10, with 10 being broccoli picked the same day you eat it? I’d give this a 2, maybe a 3.”

In most parts of the country broccoli is available from local growers only during the cooler weeks at either end of the growing season. Broccoli hates too much heat, which is why 90 percent of it sold in the United States comes from temperate California. The heads are fine if you live there, but for the rest of us they require a long truck ride (four or five days to the East Coast) and then some waiting time in a warehouse.

But Bjorkman and a team of fellow researchers are out to change all that. They’ve created a new version of the plant that can thrive in hot, steamy summers like those in New York, South Carolina or Iowa, and that is easy and inexpensive enough to grow in large volumes.

And they didn’t stop there: This crucifer is also crisp, subtly sweet and utterly tender when eaten fresh-picked, which could lift the pedestrian broccoli into the ranks of the vegetable elite. Think Asian-style salads of shaved stems, Bjorkman suggests, or an ultra-crisp tempura with broccoli that doesn’t need parboiling.

“If you’ve had really fresh broccoli, you know it’s an entirely different thing,” he says. “And if the health-policy goal is to vastly increase the consumption of broccoli, then we need a ready supply, at an attractive price.”

The new broccoli is part of a mad dash by Cornell scientists to remake much of the produce aisle. In recent months, the Cornell lab has turned out a full-flavored habanero pepper without the burning heat, snap peas without the pesky strings, and apples that won’t brown when sliced.

The Eastern Broccoli Project, based at the university’s Agricultural Experiment Station, also aims to maximize the new broccoli’s concentration of glucoraphanin, a compound that has been found to aid in preventing cancer.

While developing the new plants, Bjorkman has lobbied lawmakers on Capitol Hill to include money for vegetable research in the new farm bill. He has reached out to farmers, grocers and economists to ensure the new broccoli finds a mass market, first in the East, then in other parts of the country.

Read more at nyti.ms/12GD8Es

Source: The New York Times

thinkstockphotos.com

Strawberries with bubble gum aroma arrive in The Netherlands
Beekers Berries in Made, Netherlands, is growing a number of exclusive varieties in their greenhouses, alongside the regular varieties. Wil Beekers, together with Hans de Jongh, decided in 2008 to close a deal for the exclusive growth and sale of the pineapple-strawberry and raspberry-strawberry that are handled by VitalBerry.

In the meantime, after years of growth research and growth optimization, there is also a strawberry with ‘bubble gum aroma’ available, the Bubbleberry. “This product will be available again in our range starting in 2014,” says Ghislaine van Berkom from VitalBerry.

Ghislaine says that demand has been very good this year for these special strawberry varieties. “There’s a lot more demand than last year. The pineapple-strawberry is familiar to a widening audience. It’s sold throughout Europe and beyond. The pineapple and raspberry-strawberry are available from March until around Christmas. We’ve noticed that demand declines from mid-July. Our peak really lies in the springtime.”

“We strive to have a slight increase in volume each year. However, pineapple and raspberry-strawberries are niche products. It’s not easy to increase volumes due to their complicated cultivation characteristics,” Ghislaine says.

“Inquiries are made through all available channels because of the remarkable characteristics of the pineapple-strawberry and the raspberry-strawberry. The prices of our specialties are more stable than of the familiar red strawberries, but they do vary each season. We only apply occasional discounts in cases of increased production.”

Source: www.theglobalfruit.com

Growers Supply to host a Controlled Environment Agriculture School in September
Growers supply will be hosting a Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) School Sept. 17 to 19, 2013.

This three-day workshop will take place at their campus in Dyersville, Iowa, and participants will take part in three one-day sessions focusing on hydroponic growing, fodder production and aquaponics.

Each session and will provide attendees with instruction and hands-on experience in these areas.

The purpose of these sessions is to educate growers of any background about the variety of controlled environment agriculture opportunities. The hydroponics portion of the event will discuss production factors, troubleshooting, disease control, marketing produce and more.

The fodder curriculum will cover using fodder in livestock operations, system components, sanitation, producing microgreens for high-end markets and more.

The introduction to aquaponics will go over the basics of fish farming, the connection between hydroponic vegetable production and fish farming, how to construct aquaponic systems to produce at a variety of levels and more.

The CEA school costs $995.00, which includes three nights lodging and lunch each day. As an added bonus, if a complete hydroponic, fodder or aquaponic system is purchased after completion of the school, the cost of the school will be deducted from the purchase.

If a system has already been purchased from Growers Supply, the cost of the CEA school is free.

Registration is currently open for the September 17 to 19 CEA school. Attendance is limited to 24 people.

For more information and instructions on how to register, call 1.800.476.9715 or visit www.GrowersSupply.com/TechCenter.

First Miscanthus-based bio-plastics produced
The first commercial-scale production facility for Miscanthus-based bioplastic products has been commissioned after three years of research and development.

This project is a collaboration between New Energy Farms (NEF) and Competitive Green Technologies in Ontario. The project has been featured in the Game Changers in Agriculture series.

The development of these products is based on the principle of fractionating the bale, not the barrel, to extract fibers for multiple end uses. The current site utilizes 30,000 tons of biomass per year for heating of 40 acres of glasshouse vegetables, with 2,000 acres of Miscanthus established.

The process allows products with high levels of plant fiber to be manufactured at the same speed as for using virgin plastic. This provides products with less plastic to the customer at competitive prices. The first storage bins have been test marketed at a national chain level. Further expansion is planned.

Source: www.agannex.com

For more information, visit www.newenergyfarms.com.

Salt Lake County Jail inmate George Raska weeds onions and look for pests working in the jail’s 1.5 acre garden. Inmates grow everything from blackberries to tomatoes, peppers and flowers in the diverse garden. The jail’s gardening program teaches inmates job skills and helps them reintegrate into society. Al Hartmann, The Salt Lake Tribune

Fresh produce, fresh start for Salt Lake County inmates
When Kevin Long and George Raska talk about their daily routine, they interrupt each other with excitement. They mention the sunshine, the healthy food, the educational opportunities, the trust — not exactly what you’d expect to hear from a couple of inmates at a county jail.

But, as Sgt. Michael Johnson said, the Salt Lake County Jail’s horticulture program “is about as different as you can get” when it comes to the realm of corrections.

The Excellence in Gardening program, which consists of 10 hours of class time and months of hands-on experience, is designed to instill in inmates a work ethic and teach them job skills as they maintain the jail’s 1.5-acre organic garden.

The inmates maintain the garden in shifts, with half of them working in the morning and the other half taking over in the afternoon. Only minimum-security, non- violent offenders are selected for the program.

The inmates receive initial training from Katie Wagner, an assistant professor at Utah State University’s extension program, and two horticulturists help guide them through their daily tasks. Other than that, the inmates are responsible for the upkeep of the garden. They pull weeds, amend the soil, monitor the irrigation system, identify and eliminate pests, harvest the produce and sell it at the Downtown Farmers Market on Saturdays.

Raska, who was incarcerated in January, has worked in the garden for just over a month and gushes about it at every opportunity.

“It’s a great program,” he says. “It really is. There’s freedom involved. You feel like a regular human being, not just an inmate. Plus I’m paying back my debt to society, and that’s the most important thing.”

Long, who has been in jail for four months and in the horticulture program for two, agrees.

“All the sergeants, all the officers, they’re great when they come out here with us,” Long says. “It really does make you feel more like a man out here to be entrusted with this responsibility. This is the one program desired by every inmate. This is the program that everyone wants to be in, and there’s only 16 of us out of 2,300.”

Long says he initially thought the garden was a myth, and he and Raska were thrilled when they were selected for the program. Without it, they would have to endure a life more typically associated with jail life.

“It’s almost like the movie ‘Groundhog Day,’  “ Raska says of jail. “If you don’t have a good job assignment, you just have to try to find a way to fill all those hours on a daily basis. It’s a pretty monotonous routine.”

Source: Salt Lake Tribune

Read more at bit.ly/17N3x83

Ottawa to host inaugural agricultural biomass conference
Canada's fledgling agricultural biomass industry will get a kick start in August when players from across Canada meet in Ottawa to discuss how to move this energy sector forward.

The 2013 Ag Biomass Canada Conference, “Connecting the Agricultural Biomass Industry Across Canada,” poses an opportunity for Canada to discuss this important topic at a key information and networking event.

“Developing a biomass aggregation chain in Canada is the first step to establishing a purpose-grown crops industry,” says Nick Betts, conference coordinator and applied research coordinator with the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association. “To get this industry off the ground we need to create markets, secure investments and establish infrastructure to make this new renewable energy industry a part of Canadian agriculture. This conference will bring together representatives from every aspect of the agricultural biomass industry — from growers to transportation, and financing to energy generation.”

The first of a planned annual event, the 2013 Ag Biomass Canada Conference is on August 22 to 23 at the Minto Suites in Ottawa. The conference will feature facilitated panel discussions with industry representatives. Each panel will cover an aspect of the agricultural biomass industry, including developing the supply chain, getting a product to market, bio-products and domestic and European markets.

© MAGDALENA ZURAWSKA

Plant Pathways Elucidation Project launched in North Carolina
Most people know that eating fruits and vegetables is good for you. Now, a $1.5 million research program will try to pinpoint why.

Academic and industry leaders at the North Carolina Research Campus recently launched the Plant Pathways Elucidation Project, a first-of-its-kind, educational research endeavor.

Two dozen graduate students and undergraduate interns, representing 10 colleges and universities throughout the state, will team with scientists and industry leaders to determine how and why fruits and vegetables benefit human health.

Also called P2EP, the program aims to provide ongoing educational opportunities, initiate scientific discoveries and create a broad knowledge base on plant research.

“We’re tackling a series of questions that have been of great importance throughout the world since the beginning of plant sciences,” Dr. Mary Ann Lila, director of the Plants for Human Health Institute at the Kannapolis biotech hub and part of the P2EP leadership team, said in a news release. “By answering the questions of how, why and what healthy compounds does a plant produce, we’ll be able to advance scientific research, create opportunities for industry and consumers, and ultimately enhance human health.”

Students arrived at the 350-acre biotechnology research campus in Kannapolis on June 10 to start learning about the program and participating in team-building activities.

Justin Moore, a spokesman for the Plants for Human Health Institute, says the program has been funded to operate through fiscal 2017, but there are plans to expand and extend it indefinitely.

“We’ve broken down the walls and are talking to our colleagues,” he says. “And we’ve involved students from across the state to educate them on how the future of research ought to be.”

New era of research
Doctoral students will be in charge of six lab teams, with undergrads as research staff. The students will conduct research on specific foods, such as blueberries, broccoli, oats and strawberries, or will mine data to generate a research knowledge base.

The ongoing project will focus on plant pathways, or chemical reactions in plants that help them survive and adapt to environmental stressors such as disease or climate change.

Plant pathways are elaborate and complex. A primary goal of the P2EP program is to identify and map plant pathways in food crops, or to decode how plants produce beneficial compounds and to better understand how they function.

A “pathway” is the path a molecule takes when it undergoes a chemical reaction, changing from one form to another, according to a news release. Often, the reaction creates a new product, such as amino acids or fibers. Having been created to combat health risks in plants, these newly formed compounds can benefit human health when consumed.

Project leaders and faculty from the partnering organizations — N.C. State University’s Plants for Human Health Institute, UNC Charlotte, UNC General Administration, the David H. Murdock Research Institute, the Dole Nutrition Research Laboratory and General Mills — also will collaborate with lab teams.

“The knowledge discovered within this project will be made available online to the public and the scientific community,” says Cory Brouwer, director of UNC Charlotte’s Bioinformatics Research Services. “This will truly be a great benefit for the scientific community.”

Other partners include the Cabarrus Economic Development Corp., the Duke Energy Foundation, Turner Construction and educational institutions including Catawba College and Rowan-Cabarrus Community College.

Source: Winston-Salem Journal

Read more at bit.ly/14LfmsW

All-America Selections showcases container edibles program for growers
Now is a perfect time for growers to start planning their container edibles program for the 2014 season, and All-America Selections (AAS) has done some of the work by selecting eight of its best-selling edible winners that are perfectly suited for container plantings.

The varieties also lend an ornamental quality to combination containers. In addition, AAS is working with Summit Plastic Company to create printed pots featuring the AAS logo and program description, geared for the consumer’s benefit.

The AAS Winners in the program include varieties from the best-selling multicolored 1998 winner, Swiss Chard ‘Bright Lights’ to the just-announced 2014 winner Bean ‘Mascotte,’ bred for both container and in-ground gardening. Also included are two violas: ‘Endurio Sky Blue Martien’ (2010) and ‘Shangri-La Marina’ (2011); two tomatoes; one herb; and one pepper.

AAS printed containers are now available in two sizes from Summit Plastic.
 

PMA announces new COO, strengthens senior leadership
At its meeting in Denver, Colo., Produce Marketing Association (PMA) announced a strengthening and greater integration in the senior staff leadership of the association and its foundation. Addressing the board of directors, PMA President and CEO Bryan Silbermann told of new responsibilities for Tony Parassio and Margi Prueitt, two current members of the association’s senior management team.

Parassio joined PMA in 2008 as the vice president of business development and in 2010 was appointed senior vice president of member value. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Bucknell University and has done graduate studies in marketing and leading organizational change. Prior to joining PMA, he held a variety of commercial leadership roles with global companies, including sales and product management, global business development, and executive-level positions. He currently serves on the Produce for Better Health Foundation’s board of directors.

Recognizing the growing importance of the value that the PMA Foundation for Industry Talent brings to the industry in the U.S. and abroad, Margi Prueitt will now also assume the role of PMA senior vice president while keeping her role as executive director of the PMA Foundation, said Silbermann. “This change is a clear recognition of the integrated role our Foundation now plays in bringing unique and differentiated value to PMA members,” he said. “Since she joined us in 2010, Margi has been the catalyst for an ongoing spring-boarding of greater value and strategic vision for the PMA Foundation. She’s been instrumental in leading the execution of some hugely successful programs like the Emerging Leaders Program, Women’s Fresh Perspectives Conference, the growing portfolio of Career Pathways Programs and more. Just over the horizon is the latest innovation from the PMA Foundation — the High Performance Management Conference debuting this December.”

Prueitt also has expanded the PMA Foundation’s role with regional groups across the U.S. and Canada, along with other countries, including South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, Chile, Mexico and more.

Prueitt earned a Bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Kentucky, holds a Master’s degree in community development from the University of Louisville, and participated in the Harvard J.F. Kennedy School of Government’s Executive Leadership Program. Most recently, she served as the executive director of The Committee of 100, an economic development organization in Delaware, and prior to that, a 35-year tenure with the American Red Cross, most notably as the CEO of the American Red Cross of the Delmarva Peninsula.

© RUUD MORIJN | DREAMSTIME.COM

Strawberry research focuses on greenhouses
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) will be participating in a new project that aims to boost the nation’s strawberry production.

UNL’s role is to continue its research into low-cost, sustainable methods for growing strawberries in winter greenhouses.

Ellen Paparozzi will lead a project to develop and compare a commercial strawberry production system in a heated high tunnel with UNL’s scientifically monitored prototype greenhouse production system.

For more information, visit http://agronomy.unl.edu/cea.

Modest inflation forecast for fresh produce
Retail prices for fresh fruits and vegetables are expected to rise between 3 and 5 percent in 2013, according to a government forecast.

In its June 25 food price forecast, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service estimates retail fresh fruit prices will rise 3 to 4 percent this year after rising only 1 percent in 2012.

Fresh vegetable retail prices will climb between 4 and 5 percent this year, compared with 5.1 percent deflation in 2012, according to the USDA report.

The USDA-ERS inflation forecast for both all food and food-at-home prices in 2013 is 2.5 to 3.5 percent.

“This forecast means that prices are likely to increase more than in 2012, but that overall inflation is expected to be near the historical average for both indexes,” according to a report summary.

Strongest inflation is associated with animal-based food products due to higher feed prices. For most other food products not affected by the drought, inflation for 2013 will be at or perhaps below normal levels, according to the USDA-ERS.

Fresh fruit prices increased 2.4 percent in May, the USDA said, and the fresh fruit retail index is up 2.1 percent compared with a year ago. Retail apple prices were 12.4 percent higher, while banana prices are 1.1 percent down and citrus prices up 1.2 percent.

Fresh vegetable prices at retail declined 2 percent in May, with fresh vegetable prices up 3.3 percent compared with a year ago. Potato prices are down 6.1 percent, lettuce prices are up 4.4 percent and tomato prices were up 11.4 percent compared with a year ago, according to the USDA.

Source: www.produceretailer.com