GMOs Are Part of Nature’s Technology

Lowell Catlett On Ag, Part Two

GMOs Are an Ancient Technology

By Jessica Theisman, Associate Editor

Lowell Catlett says GMOs have been around for thousands of years.

There is not a morsel of food that 7.2 billion people put it their mouth today that is not GMO. “That is called agriculture,” said Dr. Lowell Catlett, Ph.D. He is a futurist with a positive and upbeat predictions about agriculture.

Catlett gave California Ag Today the inside story on hybrids and GMOs. One question arose about whether hybrids are indeed considered genetically modified organisms. “Of course they are,” he said. “If you want to say it’s transngenetic, somebody moved a gene out of a fish into corn, that’s trans genetic. If you say GMO, that’s all of agriculture.”

What many people do not understand is that their non-GMO products, do come from GMO sources. “I get a kick out of people saying, ‘Well, this is non-GMO milk for ice cream.’ That Holstein has been genetically modified for 400 years. She is a genetically modified organism. There is no question about it,” Catlett said.

“We have the ability to move things around with genetics. The whole green revolution that gave people more food than at any time in history was all about accelerating genetically. Genetic modification in the old traditional ways is [what] we now call hybridization or crossing, ” Catlett said.

Corn is a GMO crop as well. “It was domesticated about 8,000 years ago by Neolithic women by crossing two grasses. Also, diabetic insulin is the result of GMO technology,” Catlett explained. “If you love yogurt, most yogurt in the United States is manufactured through a genetic modification called CRISPR, which is mother nature’s way of modifying genes.”

This process is caused by the bacteria in the yogurt. “It is the technology that bacteria use to protect themselves from invading other bacteria or pathogens. Right now, the 27 countries that are the EU, or soon to be the 26 EU countries that have banned GMOs, are now having to come back and say, ‘Wait a minute, CRISPR technology is Mother Nature’s technology.’ Mother Nature was a good genetic engineer long before we did it in laboratory” Catlett said.

“It is going to be an interesting time for GMOs in the next few years as the technologies merge to help us have better understandings and better control over things,” Catlett said.

2021-05-12T11:17:10-07:00March 23rd, 2017|

A Great Time to Be in Agriculture

Lowell Catlett On Ag, Part One

Agriculture Is Primed to Provide Different Food to Masses

By Jessica Theisman, Associate Editor

Lowell Catlett says California agriculture is in a good place.

Lowell Catlett, a former professor at New Mexico State University who continues to lecture with a style that keeps the audience engaged, shared with us what a great time it is to be in agriculture. “I think it is the best time because we have never had a period in history where we have had so many people, worldwide, rising out of abject poverty into middle class” he explained.

“They become consumers, and they want things, and they want a lot of things. They want the things that they see other people have. That means they want California pistachios, almonds and walnuts, and all the bounty that California produces, including its milk and eggs and cheeses, and everything else,” Catlett said.

“Once someone earns more money, one of the first things they change is their diets, and they like to get things that are unusual and unique. And California is the breadbasket of the world in terms of its ability to produce different things, and you’re seeing that translate into best time ever to be in agriculture,” he said.

Not only does current agriculture have the products, but there is plenty of money to buy those products. “There is so much money. The net worth of the United States right now over 123 million households is $94 trillion. The world’s output last year was $73 trillion, so we have $20 trillion more in household net worth than the whole world combined, The consumers want organic, or they want certified to the source. We have to certify those things to the source. They want all kinds of different food choices,” Catlett said.

“Before, people just wanted food, and they now want all these other foods. They may want gluten free, and they many not even have celiac disease. And it all helps the farmers to have markets we never had before, and that is fabulous,” Catlett said.

2017-04-20T13:54:41-07:00March 22nd, 2017|

Paraquat Resistance in Weeds?

Weeds Now Showing Paraquat Resistance

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Farm News Director

There’s been weed resistance to glyphosate herbicide, but now some weeds show resistance to paraquat herbicide.

“When we see paraquat resistance at often a very high level of resistance, it doesn’t cause any visual injury, which is different than a lot of cases,” said Brad Hanson, a UC Cooperative Extension Weed Specialist at UC Davis.

“We’re dealing with a lot of glyphosate resistant weeds right now, and when you spay glyphosate on the resistant weeds, they are slightly injured and then they recover,” said Hanson. “With paraquat resistance, it’s very stark. You often don’t see any symptoms at all. I describe it almost as immunity. It’s such a high level of resistance.”

“We have glyphosate resistance to annual ryegrass and hairy fleabane, and we have some populations of those same weeds that are resistant to paraquat,” Hanson said. “We see a very temporary reduction in the photosynthetic ability, but within a few hours it bounces back to normal.”

The plant is taking that active herbicide molecule, and it is being sequestered. It’s taking that molecule and putting it somewhere in the cell where it cannot get to the photosynthetic apparatus that’s its target site. It’s a very unique and interesting kind of resistance challenge.

“I think we’re talking about multiple resistance to paraquat and glyphosate. The grower likely switched to use paraquat in order to kill the glyphosate resistant weeds, and then the weeds selected paraquat resistance on top of that.”

2021-05-12T11:05:42-07:00March 6th, 2017|

Pyrethroid Review Deadline Nearing

Pyrethroid Review Commenting Deadline is March 31

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Farm News Director

The EPA is reviewing the pyrethroid class of crop protection materials and it’s concerning the Ag industry, which often turns to the materials as part of an integrated pest management strategy – recommended by the University of California.

David Haviland – an entomologist with UC Cooperative Extension Kern County – said he is not too concerned with the EPA review.

“Every pesticide should be periodically reviewed to make sure that all new information about a product gets reconsidered. Our ability to test for products changes over time. Our experience with products changes over times. The role of products changes over time, so a re-review is warranted. I don’t have any concerns with that,” Haviland said.

Of course, the big question is what is the current role of pyrethroids in the grower’s toolbox?

“It absolutely has a role. The best way to manage pests we know is through integrated pest management, and integrated means using lots of different tactics. Sometimes, there’s a way to control a pest completely with biological control, sometimes there’s a cultural control, but there are cases where pesticides are needed,” Haviland said.

“There’s a time and a place for a very soft surgical strike against one-species pesticide and there’s also a time and a place for a product that can kill two or three or four different pests at the same time. Sometimes, those broader spectrum products are the only ones available for certain pests,” Haviland explained.

“Pyrethroids fit that role as the last group of broad spectrum products that are effective on a wide range of pests, particularly with organophosphates, which is being phased out of most crops,” Haviland said.

There is time to comment on this EPA review – and this time expires March 31, so it’s critical for anyone who needs these pyrethroids as an IPM strategy to go to www.defendbifenthrin.com and post a comment.

 

2021-05-12T11:05:42-07:00February 27th, 2017|

EPA Reviews Agricultural Pyrethroids

Pyrethroid Products Reviewed

By Brian German, Associate Broadcaster

Pyrethroids are synthetic chemical insecticides that are included in more than 3,500 registered products, with many of those being used in agriculture. Every 15 years, the Environmental Protection Agency is required by congress to review all registered pesticides.  They received their first-ever review evaluating how they impact fish and aquatic plants.

John Cummings is the Registration and Regulatory Affairs Manager for FMC, a diversified chemical company that has been serving the agricultural community for over a century. “We are very concerned with the content of that risk assessment – that they have identified that there is high-risk concerns to certain aquatic organisms, not necessarily fish or anything like that, but small aquatic organisms,” Cummings said.

The underlying purpose of these kinds of reviews is to ensure public safety, especially when reviewing products used in ag production.  “They’ve done a very high level, simple, cursory risk assessment that has identified these concerns,” Cummings said.

During the past decade, the use of pyrethroids has increased, as the use of organophosphate pesticides continues to decline.  That is due to their higher toxicity to birds and mammals when compared to pyrethroids.  Cummings expressed his concern regarding the data that the EPA bases their decision on.  “There’s been other actions by EPA recently around the use of the best available data and the best science around risk assessment. … The EPA should be using the best science to make the right regulatory decisions while protecting the environment,” Cummings said.

Through their industry consortium, the Pyrethroid Working Group, FMC is in the process of putting data together that they hope the EPA will take into consideration.  Cummings explained that their research will “make it more real world while still conservative and protecting the environment. It’s more real world and typical of how these products are used.”

Pyrethroids are a broad-spectrum insecticide that have shown tremendous success in controlling a variety of different insects considered to be economically important to the ag industry. “Pyrethroids are a very important element of both integrated pest management as well as resistance management. Growers today are facing very complex insect control problems, and it’s necessary to have many tools in the tool box,”  Cummings said.

“I think EPA needs to understand how important it is to consider the benefit of these to production agriculture as well as society, in feeding the world,” Cummings concluded.

The public comment period for the EPA’s risk assessment has been extended to March 31st.

Ag Stakeholders are urged to comment at http://www.defendbifenthrin.com

 

2021-05-12T11:05:43-07:00February 26th, 2017|

FSMA Requirements Must Be Addressed

FSMA Requirements Must be Understood and Documented

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Farm News Director

When it comes to the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), there are now some big changes for food processors, farmers and farm employees.

“One of the things we’re seeing that has changed as of recently, mainly due to the Food Safety Modernization Act, is there are standardized curriculum requirements within what we call the food processor rule, or the preventive controls rule, but now that’s going back to the farm in what’s called the produce safety rule,” said Jeremiah Szabo, vice president of operations for Safe Food Alliance, a division of DFA of California.

“These rules are actually regulations that have been published and finalized by the Food & Drug Administration, and there are federal regulations, of which the states are going to adopt and manage and regulate,” Szabo said.

“One of the things we’ve been doing, and what our organization has been preparing for, is really beefing up the number of trainers we have on staff, their qualifications, sending them to lead instructor courses as we did, actually, starting about a year ago,” he said.

“We were involved with becoming lead instructors, and we have lead instructors on staff, to offer the preventive controls qualified individual training for food processors, which is a mandatory requirement when it comes to education requirements for those individuals at every food processor site that will manage their food safety system,” Szabo said.

The training includes documentation, record-keeping and education of staff working at those facilities, as well as their supply chain management and sanitation practice management.

Szabo said that the two-and-a-half day training has been successful. “As of March of 2016, we’ve conducted about 20 of those food processor trainings in California and other states.”

“They’ve been really successful,” he said. “I think the practicality that comes with those courses is really important for the industry to hone in and to learn about how regulators are going to be expecting food facilities to document their food safety plan, as well as implement their food safety plan in their facilities.

Szabo noted that as the Safe Food Alliance was rolling out the preventive controls for qualified individual training, there were FDA and state regulators present in the training to learn about the preventive controls along with the industry. “This was good because the industry could hear from both sides of the aisle,” Szabo said.

On the farm side of the FSMA rule, farms not exempted from that rule will require eight hours of standardized training. “It involves things that are mentioned in the regulations, such as employee qualifications and education when it comes to personal hygiene for those employees that are interacting with the harvest activities, as well as the produce itself,” Szabo said.

For farms, there are eight modules of training, including worker health and hygiene and soil amendments, as well as agricultural production and post-harvest water quality.

“We’ve also partnered with the California Farm Bureau and their Farm Employee Labor Services Association to offer the training to farm supervisors and farm managers, as well as anybody else on the farm who are managing farm food safety plans and training and education,” Szabo said.

2017-02-01T19:33:27-08:00February 1st, 2017|

Pyrethroids Under Review

EPA Reviewing Pyrethroids

Ag Industry Urged to Comment

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Farm News Director

The pyrethroid insecticide class is in review for ecological risk assessment by the Environmental Protection Agency. John Cummings, Registration and Regulatory Affairs Manager at chemical company FMC believes that the assessment could have a large impact on producers.

Agricultural leaders have urged all to comment on the need to keep this chemistry available.  Please share your thoughts by clicking here.

“At FMC, we’re very concerned with the content of that risk assessment that they’ve identified that there’s high risk concerns to certain aquatic organisms, not necessarily fish or anything like that, but small aquatic organisms,” Cummings said. “Our concern, as a company who manufactures these pyrethroids, which are used in California, is that the EPA has not used the best science that’s available. They’ve done a very high level simple cursory risk assessment that has identified these concerns.”

More than 3,500 registered insecticides contain a pyrethroid. Many pyrethroids are household products and are not limited to agricultural usage.

“Our hope, as a pyrethroid company, is that EPA will consider better data which FMC and our industry consortium, the Pyrethroid Working Group, are developing to incorporate into this risk assessment. We need the EPA to look at the real world of how these products are used. With that, that risk assessment should look much better and remove any of these risk concerns that EPA currently has,” he said.

There have been other actions conducted by the EPA around the use of the best available data and the best science in risk assessment. These kind of precedents will impact production agriculture in the U.S. as well as California.

“EPA should be using the best science to make the right regulatory decisions while protecting the environment,” Cummings said. “It is very important, and I think it’s important, too, that EPA understand the implications of taking a conservative approach and making regulatory decisions that may impact production. I think EPA needs to understand how important it is to consider the benefit of production agriculture in feeding the world.”

It is important to keep many pest control products available to prevent the overuse of one product. Pesticide resistance is a growing problem, and it is essential that producers are able to keep all of their options open.

“Pyrethroids are a very important element of integrated pest management, as well as resistance management. Growers today are facing very complex insect control problems,” Cummings said.

“It’s necessary to have many tools in the toolbox to control insects. We have multiple classes of chemistry, but based on regulatory decisions, the EPA could potentially remove some of these important tools, which puts more pressure on other tools that remain in the toolbox, and insects may become resistant to many of these tools,” Cummings explained.

“Pyrethroids are a critical broad spectrum insecticide that are very affordable and control a lot of different insects that are economically important,” Cummings said.

Bob Klein, the manager of the Pistachio Research Board, agrees that pyrethroids are essential to pest management.

“The use of pyrethroids goes hand-in-hand with the use of soft chemicals like the growth regulators, or some of the neonicotinoids, or some of the other new chemistries we have,” Klein said.

“It guards against resistance development in those other chemicals as well. The inclusion of pyrethroids by the University of California, and many other Integrated Pest Management manuals, shows that pyrethroids are an important part of any IPM program. IPM programs are the way that people control pests in their orchards,” Klein said.

The risk assessment is currently open for comment and will remain open until March 31st.

Comment: Here

 

 

 

2021-05-12T11:05:43-07:00January 26th, 2017|

California Ag Today Seeks Guest Writers, Story Suggestions

Are you a writer with a passion for agriculture? A student looking for publication experience? An organization that wants to highlight a great project or message?

California Ag Today is looking for guest writers to contribute ag-related content on a volunteer basis. Whether you just have a story idea you want to pitch or you want to write articles on a more regular basis to add to your portfolio, we would love to hear from you!

Please fill out the form below and leave us a brief message about your professional background and any potential topics you would like to write about. We’ll be in touch!

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Feel free to share with your friends by clicking one of the links below!

2021-05-12T11:17:11-07:00December 12th, 2016|

The Latest Buzz in ‘RoboBee’ Research

Thanks to recent headway in RoboBee research and development, these mechanized pollinators could be headed to a greenhouse near you soon.

Guest Editorial By Tim Jennings, President of Custom Case Group, Maker of DroneHangar

My company has been manufacturing custom cases in the drone and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) industry for decades. Because we’re involved in so many facets—from the military to the consumer and agricultural segments—my team is often privy to advancements early on. Being a drone enthusiast myself, I try to keep up with the latest developments on my own time, too.

Today, some of the most exciting activity I’m seeing is in the field of agricultural drones, where researchers are making major progress toward mainstreaming RoboBees—tiny drones capable of pollination and other forms of indoor crop maintenance. While open-air agricultural applications, such as crop scouting and pesticide application, are now standard, there’s been little progress in indoor agriculture applications—until now.

New microdrone research in the U.S. and Spain could soon allow RoboBees to run greenhouses and large-scale indoor farms around the globe.

“RoboBees” – The Pollinators of the Future

RoboBees have been on the scene for some time through a collaborative project between teams at Harvard University and Northeastern University. The teams have been working together about 12 years to create “swarms” of tiny worker drones capable of tethered flight. The drones, with wingspans of just 1.2 inches, weigh less than real bees, but, tiny as they are, RoboBees are the result of some intense collaboration among experts in dozens of fields, including neurobiology, computer science and chemical engineering.

The Latest Advancements

Perching & Takeoff. It seems simple: Design a tiny drone that can take off and land easily. However, perching and takeoff have turned out to be among the most critical functions and toughest challenges in RoboBee development. This year, though, the Harvard team may have a breakthrough. The functions of perching and takeoff are critical because they allow the drones to “rest,” protecting them from the mechanical fatigue and power drain of constant flight. The team reported the possible breakthrough in an article in the journal Science titled, “Perching and Takeoff of a Robotic Insect on Overhangs Using Switchable Electrostatic Adhesion,” where they suggest that electrostatic forces allow the small drones to “stick” to different surfaces, such as plant leaves. And the power required to generate those forces is less than what’s needed to keep the RoboBee in flight.

Indoor Environmental Mapping. Large drones that can map and negotiate complex outdoor environments have been around a while; however, small size has been a major limitation in the development of drones capable of indoor mapping. So far, the massive data collection and processing necessary for environmental mapping requires a machine too large for indoor use. But that may be changing.

This year, a research team from the Centre for Automation and Robotics in Spain published a paper titled “Heterogeneous Multi-Robot System for Mapping Environmental Variables of Greenhouses” in the journal Sensors, where they describe a heterogeneous robot team capable of monitoring the environmental variables inside greenhouses. They call the drone team, which includes aerial and ground drones, a “system” that understands and negotiates its surroundings by way of a shared multi-sensor application.

The drones within the system, some of which have cameras for visual monitoring, can also measure factors like soil and air temperature, humidity, luminosity and carbon dioxide concentrations in the greenhouse environment.

How Soon?

It could be a couple more years before RoboBee teams will totally manage indoor crops. But advancements like that above ensure this tech is headed to the mainstream fast. What are your thoughts on drone automation for indoor agriculture? Where do you see this tech bringing the industry in the next 20 years?

Feel free to share on the California Ag Today Facebook page; we’re interested in knowing what you think.

2021-05-12T11:05:43-07:00December 12th, 2016|

Record Enrollment at UC Davis College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences

UC Davis College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences Really Rocks!

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Farm News Director

 

Helene Dillard, dean, UC Davis College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, is pleased with the big numbers of students attending the top-ranking College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

Helene Dillard, dean, UC Davis College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences

Helene Dillard, dean, UC Davis College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences

“It’s really rocking,” said Dillard. “We’re doing very, very well. We have one of the largest numbers of incoming students ever in the entire university. Our College has peaked out its 7,300 undergraduates. We’ve never had that many at one time.”

Why the increased interest in studying agriculture? Dillard said, “We think what’s moving that needle is that everyone is interested in food. They are interested in agriculture.  And they are really interested in that intersection between agriculture and the environment. We have a record number of students that just cannot wait to come on board. We are really thrilled with how smart they are and how eager they are to learn.”

Among the many courses offered by the College, Dillard said Animal Science classes are probably among the most popular. “But of course, beer classes and the coffee class are really popular too. But right now, I’m seeing tremendous interest in agricultural economics and in animal science, to become veterinarians and ranchers, plus specific academic interest in poultry and sheep.”

“Again, those are all things that UC Davis does, so we’re really excited. We’re also seeing a lot of interest in plant sciences, more on that sustainable and food systems and our viticulture and enology program’s growing as well.

Recent Graduate Program Rankings for UC Davis College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences and related disciplines include:
  • 1st in agricultural sciences (Thomson Reuters ScienceWatch 2011) 
  • 2nd in agriculture and forestry (QS World University Rankings 2016)
  • 2nd in agriculture worldwide (U.S. News & World Report’s “2016 Best Global Universities”)
  • 1st in ecology and the environment (Thomson Reuters ScienceWatch 2011) 
  • 1st in food science and nutrition (Thomson Reuters ScienceWatch 2010)
  • 1st in plant science (U.S. News & World Report’s “2016 Best Global Universities”)
  • 1st in animal science (U.S. News & World Report’s “2016 Best Global Universities”)
  • 1st for veterinary science (QS World University Rankings 2016)
  • 1st among the nation’s veterinary schools (U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Graduate Schools” 2016)
  • Between 1st and 15th among 44 programs in nutritional biology (National Research Council 2010)
  • 4th in environment/ecology (U.S. News & World Report’s “2016 Best Global Universities”)
  • Between 1st and 7th in Entomology among 28 programs (National Research Council 2010)
  • Between 5th and 29th among 116 programs in plant biology (National Research Council 2010) 
  • Between 7th and 42th among 116 programs in plant pathology (National Research Council 2010)
  • 13th in environmental engineering worldwide (QS World University Rankings 2016)
  • 29th in environmental engineering worldwide (2016 Global Ranking of Academic Subjects, ShanghaiRankings)

(Source:  University of California, Davis, Graduate academic program rankings.)

UC Davis College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences

2021-05-12T11:17:11-07:00December 7th, 2016|

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