Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - [permaculture] Fwd: Re: [SANET-MG] Harpin

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Fwd: Re: [SANET-MG] Harpin
  • Date: Sun, 27 Nov 2011 18:25:23 -0500

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [SANET-MG] Harpin
Date: Sun, 27 Nov 2011 17:50:47 -0500
From: jcummins <jcummins@UWO.CA>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

Hello Klaas Martens,
I certainly hope that your expectation about harpins is correct. However, the situation with the harpins has changed drastically in the past few years. The main thing that happened was that Monsanto entered the seed treatment area with harpin and they are among the world's largest producers of seeds. Both GM and non-Gm crops may be seed treated treated with GM harpins.
Along with that a clique of National Academy scientists are are agitating to stop government regulation of GM crops all together and these people wish to make GM orgaic. In UK the harpins are being advertised as 'organic' products while in USA the net advertises 'The original Messenger® product containing the patented Harpin Protein was manufactured by' Your Organic Gardening Supply Store or 'Organic Control; Messenger - A New Gardening Tool Against Plant Diseases'. I expect many certified organic producers may get fooled into using GM harpins for seed treatment, crop production or post harvest treatment of fruit and vegetables.
I think that we need to be vigilent about these developments. A quick ELISA color test for harpins could be produced at a reasonable price and that should be done asap.
sincerely, joe cummins


On 11/27/2011 1:10 PM, Mary-Howell & Klaas Martens wrote:
I live near Cornell and knew the people who did the early work on Harpin. I
also remember Eden Biosciences' early efforts at selling 'Messenger' and
getting it reviewed for possible use on organic farms.

There was never any real doubt that it could not be used on organic farms.
The gist of the review was that while using natural harpin proteins to
stimulate disease resistance in plants could have been allowed under NOP
rules, the product called 'Messenger' was clearly not allowed because it is
produced using 'excluded methods'.

That seems like a simple common sense ruling and there is no reason for it
to be any different now.

I also remember that the bigger problem with Messenger was that it did not
perform reliably. In some trials, it gave excellent protection, while in
others it had no measurable effect. It seemed that there were some
environmental interactions that determined the effectiveness of the product.

Klaas Martens



  • [permaculture] Fwd: Re: [SANET-MG] Harpin, Lawrence F. London, Jr., 11/27/2011

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page