What's HOT in Blueberry Production and Research
(Updated 17 July
2008)
New! A
new active ingredient has been labeled on fruit crops. See
rynaxypyr, or Altacor, listed below under pesticide registrations
New!
The
College of Agriculture and Life Science at Virginia Tech has
established a new on-line Master's in Agriculture
and Life Sciences. This curriculum has been
approved by the State Council of Higher Education and is now accepting
applications for Fall semester 2007. In this program, you can
earn
a
master's degree in agriculture while working in your current job -
emphasis is on education for place-bound learners, and all courses are
taken on-line. In addition to a core area, there are courses
offered in five areas of concentration: (1) Biosecurity,
Bioregulations and Public Health, (2) Education, (3) Environmental
Science, (4) Food Safety, and (5) Plant Science and Pest
Management. In addition to course work, the student completes a
project decided upon in consultation with your major advisor.
Lists
of courses within each concentration may be found in the web site
linked above. This program was recently the subject of an interview
by Jeff Ishee with Virginia Public Televsion's Virginia
Farming. For
more information, contact Doug Pfeiffer (dgpfeiff at vt.edu) or Sharon Proffitt (sproffit at vt.edu) (see
2008-2009 Extended Campus tuition
rates).
New edition! Mid-Atlantic
Berry Guide
- Produced by Penn State, Rutgers Univ., Univ. Delaware, West Virginia
Univ., Univ.
Maryland and Virginia Tech. Order through Penn State for $18.00.
Upcoming Meetings:
Virginia
Berry Production and Marketing Conference - Petersburg VA, March
15, 2008
carbaryl - EPA announces
Interim
Reregistration Eligibility Decision (IRED -
this pdf exceeds 300p. See also 6-page fact
sheet)
for carbaryl on 10/27/04. On 30
March 2005, National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) requested
that EPA revoke
all tolerances for carbaryl. NRDC's letter
to EPA is posted (html).
EPA's
assessment of human health and environmental risks of carbaryl, and
finding on whether the tolerances for carbaryl comply with the safety
standard in FFDCA section 408, as amended by the FQPA, are contained in
the IRED document for carbaryl, which is available on EPA's website at http://www.epa.gov/edocket, under docket number
OPP-2003-0376. (More information on risk
assessment is available). The e-docket
for this issue has several items listed (NRDC letter, notice of EPA of
public comment period, public input, and an opportunity
to provide input. Public comments
must be received by May 31, 2005.
spinetoram - A new active ingredient in the same
class as spinosad (SpinTor, Entrust) has been registered for fruit
crops. Delegate WG
is registered on pome and stone fruits, bushberries, caneberries and
grape. Radiant SC
is the formulation registered on strawberries
For some industry discussion on FQPA changes and
issues, see Issues section of the CropLife America
web
site.
2008 Revisions to Pest Management Guide for
Commercial
Small Fruits:
The revised Pest Management Guide for Commercial
Small
Fruits now available. (The
Pest Management
Guide is available
on-line
for free. Hard copies are also available at no cost, but must be
requested and picked through your county extension office (no funds are
available for mailing these publications).
Tables of recommendations
for commercial blueberries are also available in the fruit web page.
2008 Revisions to Home Fruit Spray Guide:
The revised Pest Management Guide for Home Small
Fruits
is now available. (The Pest
Management
Guide is available
on-line
for free. Hard copies are also available at no cost, but must be
requested and picked through your county extension office (no funds are
available for mailing these publications).
Recommendations for home
blueberries are also available in the web page.
Pesticides in the news:
Response to Consumers Union Study, "Do You
Know
What You're Eating?"
The current issue (March 1999) of Consumer Reports
contains a brief account of the recent study performed by Consumers
Union.
Although this article ("How Safe is our Produce?") probably will be
much
more visible to the public than the full accounts, it is really
impossible
to assess much about it because of its brevity. The claims of the short
version are that current laws do not protect children from consuming
dangerous
amounts of pesticides, that such consumption is fairly common, and that
one pesticide in particular, methyl parathion, is a major contributor
to
the problem of residues danger. The shortcomings are not readily
apparent
until the full account, entitled "Do You Know What You're Eating?" is
examined.
For a fuller account of this article, and a response, click here.
Other stories deal recently from the Consumer
Reports
issue: (Fruit
Growers News link). On Thursday, Feb. 25, the U.S. Apple Assoc.
held
a press
conference to address this issue. This release followed a statement
by the Environmental
Working Group that maintained that children are at risk from eating
apples and peaches, and recommended parental choices away from these
fruits.
The Apple Association response provides a more balanced treatment of
this
emotional issue.
This is the latest is a series of developments
relating
to pesticides, starting with FQPA (see below). There have been two
documents
recently from Consumers Union, Worst First (html
and PDF)
and
Do You Know What You're Eating? (html
and PDF)
(PDF
files require Adobe Acrobat to download). A basic premise of Worst
First
is that the most hazardous uses are already declining and alternatives
to these materials are already available or nearly so (therefore there
should be no opposition to loss of these materials through FQPA). The
report
contains many oversimplifications however, and alternatives are
actually
not as ready as portrayed.
One area of risk that has been attributed to
certain
pesticides is estrogen
disruption. This has been one cateogry to have been addressed by
FQPA.
However, an early report of this effect, published in the journal
Science,
has
been retracted. How this retraction affects the public debate is
yet
to be seen. The "risk" is still claimed in discussions on the web and
elsewhere.
A series of pesticide profiles are currently
under
development for Virginia apples.
New Pesticide Legislation - Updates on FQPA:
The Food Quality Protection Act became law in 1996.
This revision of FIFRA contained elements that pleased environmental
and
agricultural groups. The Delaney Clause is abolished, replaced with a
concept
of reasonable risk. Increased attention is given to high risk groups,
primarily
young children.
Many in the industry regarded this as a benefit
of
the new legislation. However, it is increasingly apparent that many
commonly
used pesticides are at risk of being eliminated or their use
restricted.
Of most immediate concern are the organophosphate and carbamate
insecticides.
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Fruit page
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Regional Fruit Loop
Send comments by e-mail to: Douglas
G. Pfeiffer