Ag Pro reports that Tyson Foods is partnering with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) to develop and employ strategies that promote ecologically sound growing practices while meeting the needs of the sustainable foods market. The partnership will initially target 500,000 acres of corn and aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve water quality, and generate maximum… Read more »

Keith Eggleston, a Northeast Regional Climate Center (NRCC) climatologist, received an Excellence in Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Award from the New York State Integrated Pest Management Program (NYSIPM) at the Empire State Producers’ Expo in Syracuse. NYSIPM develops methods of sustainable pest management, and educates stakeholders and the public on how to use these methods to… Read more »

As herbicide resistance and pesticide litigation issues in agribusiness intensify, electricity as a method of weed control is getting closer to becoming a widely available option for farmers. Grower Kevin Olson says, “Herbicide issues are unrecognizable from what we dealt with as farmers 40 years ago. There are no two ways about it—the Lasco kills… Read more »

The Sandy County Foundation is partnering with educators and students to build habitat for insect pollinators by offering $1,000 grants and plant materials for high school teachers in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Read more about this opportunity on the Sandy County Foundation website.

The brown marmorated stink bug, Halyomorpha halys, is an invasive pest introduced to North America in 1988 that damages fruit, vegetable, and nut crops. A January 10 article in Entomology Today discusses the work of researchers at Virginia Tech, the University of Georgia, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and the USDA Agricultural Research… Read more »

A January 4 article on Agpro details how the Food Machinery Corporation (FMC) is developing an herbicide that contains both a new active ingredient and a new mode of action (meaning a functional change at the cell level of an organism exposed to a substance). This will give growers an advantage against weed pests, because… Read more »

A 12/12/18 post on the Environmental Defense Fund’s blog analyzes the smaller provisions within the 2018 Farm Bill that have the potential to open up new approaches to climate and water conservation. These include incentives for growers to protect water quality, a directive for the federal government to “recognize and encourage partnerships at the watershed… Read more »

On December 27, the Center for Biological Diversity issued a press release addressing the Trump administration’s decision to permit the expansion of streptomycin (an antibiotic regularly used on humans) spraying on all US citrus crops. The largest amounts of streptomycin will be deployed in Florida and California. “Trump’s EPA is taking us in a dangerous new… Read more »

The USDA recently released two reports, one analyzing pesticide residue and one analyzing antibiotics in the US food supply. The pesticide report found that “In 2017, over 99 percent of the samples tested had residues well below the tolerances established by the EPA with 53 percent having no detectable pesticide residue”. The study also found… Read more »

The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell recently released their 2018 version of their Pesticide Decision Making Guide. The guide provides at-a-glance perspectives on best choices for protecting tree fruit crops while protecting pollinators. This guide and future guides in this series can be found on the Cornell Pollinator Network “Grower Resource Page”