FDA to Revise Parts of Food Safety Act —by Lee Dean, Editorial Director Vegetable Grower News

Reprinted with permission February 2014, Volume 48 Number 2

FDA will draft what it calls “significant” revisions to part of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), and launch an additional comment period for those revisions next summer. Michael Taylor, FDA deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine, said Dec. 19 that the agency was reacting to comments from the produce industry during meetings across the country and as part of the official comment period for two of the FSMA rules first published in January 2013, covering fresh produce safety and preventive controls for eliminating pathogens.

Retirement

IR-4 wishes to thank Monte Johnson and wish him much success in his retirement from USDA-NIFA this past December.

Monte provided national leadership for state and federal activities aimed at developing a greater understanding of the toxicological consequences of human exposure to pesticides and the effects of pesticide residues in foods and the environment. He provided administrative oversight and national leadership for IR-4 since

IR-4 Successes Nov. 2013 - Jan. 2014

The trade names listed below are provided as a means to identify the chemical for which a tolerance has been established. A trade name listed here may not be the name of the product on which the new food use(s) will be registered. Only labeled products may be used on a food crop. Be sure to obtain current information about usage regulations and examine a current product label before applying any chemical.

AmericanHort Formally Launched January 1 National Trade Association to Serve Horticulture Industry

AmericanHort, the horticulture industry’s new trade association, formally began with the consolidation on December 31, 2013 of the Nursery & Landscape Association and OFA – The Association of Horticulture Professionals. The more than two-year effort to bring the groups together was initiated by the volunteer leadership of the legacy organizations in order to better meet the needs of the industry and the respective memberships.

Attractive Toxic Sugar Baits for Vector Control — by Karl Malamud-Roam, IR-4 Public Health Pesticide Program Manager

Culex mosquitoes feeding on flower nectar

Attractive toxic sugar bait sprayed on vegetation, with male Anopheles (malaria mosquito)

What do mosquitoes eat? If you’ve been bitten recently by a mosquito, the answer seems obvious – they feed on us! But when we realize that only female mosquitoes take blood meals, and only a few times during their lives, it looks like the answer must be wider. In fact, feeding behavior by mosquitoes is relatively complex, and recent work on this topic is beginning to point toward a range of potentially useful new mosquito control strategies. In particular, the concept of mixing feeding attractants with sugar and a pesticide is reaching maturity, and attractive toxic sugar bait (ATSB) products are now beginning to enter the vector control market, both in the U.S. and globally. IR-4 is working closely with inventors, product developers, and regulators to help bring these new tools to households and organized vector control programs.

Global Capacity Development, Residue Data Generation Project —by Dan Kunkel, Michael Braverman, Edith Lurvey, IR-4, and Jason Sandahl, USDA-FAS

IR-4 involvement in international harmonization of pesticide residues continues to expand as these needs are consistently communicated by our stakeholders.  The 2014 Farm Bill states that IR-4 should  “assist in removing trade barriers  caused by residues of pesticides registered for  minor agricultural use and for use on domestically grown specialty crops”. This recommendation was also noted by several stakeholders in the recent IR-4 strategic plan survey. The needs of U.S. specialty crop growers are better served with resolving international MRL trade barriers as well as our traditional task of establishing U.S. tolerances.

Biotechnoloy Update- RNAi as a New Technology for Pest Management — by Michael Braverman, Biopesticide and Organic Support Program Manager

Most people have heard of genetically modified crops and the use of biotechnology for crop pest management. The most common of these technologies is the use of genetic material from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) to code for the production of a protein in plants which controls certain insects. Because of the history of biotechnology coming through the microorganism Bt, these products are considered to be biopesticides. These are commonly referred to as Plant Incorporated Protectants (PIPs) and are regulated in EPA’s Biopesticide and Pollution Prevention Division¹. A newer form of biotechnology based biopesticides is RNAi technology.

How can this technology be used?

Geraniums? Pelargoniums? What’s the Difference?

Photo Pelargonium triste. Anonymous 

from cactusblog.net

Photo by Cristi Palmer

Geraniums and pelargoniums are often confused with each other. It is very easy to do since the flower widely grown as a bedding plant and in containers is known as ‘geranium’, but its Latin genera name is Pelargonium sp. The genus Geranium contains 422 species of flowering annual, biennial and perennial plants and are found in temperate regions. Several species are cultivated for horticulture and pharmaceutical uses, but the vast majority of ‘geraniums’ sold in the U.S. are actually ‘pelargoniums’.

Congratulations Doug!

Doug Buhler, director of Michigan State University AgBioResearch and senior associate dean for research for the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR), received two awards on Dec. 11, 2013, during the Great Lakes Fruit, Vegetable and Farm Market EXPO annual banquet in Grand Rapids.

New Product Corner

This new section of the IR-4 Newsletter called ‘New Product Corner’ was suggested by grower stakeholders as a way for IR-4 to help inform specialty crop growers about new pest management tools recently registered by EPA. This is for informational purposes only as IR-4 does not endorse a particular product or registrant.

New Assignment — by IR-4 Executive Director, Jerry Baron

IR-4 has had an acute problem of overcapacity of facilities and staff to run residue field trials in EPA Data Region 2 for the last several years. We have too many high quality field research directors in the region and not enough work and associated funds to maintain all the sites at full capacity.

News from the Executive Director

Dear Friends,

Greetings from the snowy East Coast U.S. where we have been hit hard by Old Man Winter forcing IR-4 Headquarters to close or truncate many work days. Regrettably, these shutdowns have impacted many aspects of normal IR-4 work flow.

Funding update

Congress approved and the President signed a funding law for the rest of federal fiscal year 2014 that restored IR-4 funding through USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to the 2012 level of $11.916 million. This funding restoration and a similar one in USDA-ARS, while extremely helpful, does not fully address the current funding shortfalls associated with demand for IR-4 services. The funding restoration may not address the deep cuts that certain USDA-ARS sites experienced during sequestration.

On Point with President Obama

It was on Friday evening, one week before the actual event, when IR-4’s North Central Region (NCR) Administrative Adviser, Doug Buhler “got the call” that Michigan State University (MSU) would be hosting President Obama for a special event. The event, he learned a few days later, was the signing of the Farm Bill.

The Farm Bill is of particular importance to specialty crop growers and IR-4. The law contains language that reflects IR-4’s current mission to support specialty crops and minor uses. The Farm Bill also authorizes IR-4 work in the international arena. This international work will help U.S. growers export their goods by removing trade barriers caused by residues of pesticides in specialty crops and minor agricultural uses.