I'm is Colorado and know that Colorado State University is also gearing up
with more research in organic production and the Extension Service Agents are
also learning more about organic production. We had to fight a few years
back to keep the only faculty position working on organics at CSU, and now it's
expanding.
Elaine
Denver
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, September 10, 2007 11:53
AM
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Organic vs
conventional agriculture production
Jay
That's a great vote of confidence Jay!
Thanks.
I should say that there are actually many faculty involved in
organic research or non-chemical methodology at land-grant Universities
all over the US. The mood in these institutions has changed considerably
in the last 20 years. I have several colleagues who are making organic
research the focus of their programs.
Plus, it looks like new
sources of funding are emerging to support organic or sustainable
production methodologies, the USDA being one source. In the state of
Illinois, the state government is developing programs to support organic
research and educational programming. So I think the research-based
information you're interested in is coming.
Regarding the issue
this thread has been discussing, I think Jim Riddle (Univ of Minn)
addressed it quite well. Dennis Avery was politicking, nothing more.
Expect it to continue, and expect consumers to drive more agriculture
toward organic and sustainable methods. I think the base Mr. Avery stands
on will continue to dwindle.
Just a note on projects we are working on.
One of our primary vegetable crops in Illinois is pumpkins. One of the
biggest challenges to pumpkin production is viruses, which are vectored by
aphids primarily. We had a season several years ago which had yields
reduced about 80% by viruses, so it's a major problem. Growers used to try
to control the problem by spraying an insecticide for the aphids. But it
didn't work because the aphids would transmit the virus before the
insecticide could kill them.
So we needed a strategy that would prevent
the aphids from landing on the crop, at least until the fruit were set and
largely sized up, when the virus would have little impact. We began
looking at reflective mulches as a deterrent to the aphids. It works
pretty well, though not perfectly. Cloudy days sometimes will reduce
reflectivity. And you need to use a lot of reflective mulch for it to
work. But, you get some increases in yield to compensate for the cost of
the mulch. In a nutshell, it's promising, though not perfect. We're still
working out the strategy.
We also just recieved notice for funding from
USDA on a project to evaluate cover cropping systems and integrating them
with vegetable planting schedules to optimize soil rejuvenation while
cropping the fields. this is led by Dr. John Masiunas and a colleague from
Cornell. It'll be several years of work before results are published but I
think it'll be a promising project.
We are also planing on
establishing a series of orchards next season that integrate the new
disease-resistant varieties with non-chemical pest-management strategies
for apple production in Illinois. This will be complicated as there are so
many diseases and insect pests of apples. But there are a number of new
strategies available that make this project promising.
Just a few
of the projects we're working on at the UI. I think the younger generation
of farmers has reason to be hopeful that they won't have to listen to
folks like Dennis A. too much.
Bill Shoemaker, Sr Research Specialist,
Food Crops University of Illinois - St Charles Horticulture Research
Center www.nres.uiuc.edu/faculty/directory/shoemaker_wh.html
>
Since many of us who support organic methods may feel a need to >
occasionally support our position, I would appreciate research Bill >
Shoemaker or his students might provide. > > Jay > Palisade
Garden >> >> >> > >
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