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Will Mexican Tariffs Lead To NAFTA’s Unraveling?
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How green is ag? |
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A few years back, it looked as if agriculture might be a bright green spot in the future battle to reduce the level of greenhouse gases and their contribution to global warming. And if you’re an orchardist, you can probably make a good case.
Not only does fruit production depend on your trees and vines capturing sun energy and removing carbon dioxide from the air, the trees themselves bind carbon, as does the grass in the alleyways. And the low level of tillage in orchards (compared to field crops) means carbon is sequestered in organic matter in the soil.
But recently, agriculture is taking a public relations hit. Ruminating livestock – beef and milk cows, sheep and goats – release lots of methane gas. And agriculture worldwide uses 100 million tons of nitrogen fertilizer each year, much of which denitrifies and off-gasses into the air. Both methane and nitrogen oxide gases are some 200 times as nasty as carbon dioxide when it comes to global warming.
A couple of weeks ago, the Environmental Protection Agency appeared to be winning the right to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under both the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. If that occurs, EPA will get powers to regulate cows, fertilizers, tillage and other important farm activities, as well as emissions from power plants and car exhaust pipes.
One frequently forgotten issue is that carbon dioxide in the air dissolves in water, acidifying the oceans. Carbon dioxide levels in the air have risen in the last century from 270 to 385 parts per million, and the level is rising 2 ppm a year. Some scientists now say that, if the level reaches 500 parts per million, the oceans will be too acidic for calcium carbonate to be created by shellfish, plankton and coral – leading to a collapse in the chain of life there. Hence the Clean Water Act applies to coastal waters.
The American Farm Bureau issued a statement saying that EPA’s regulation of agricultural emissions, using a tax system to penalize greenhouse gas emissions, could cost dairy farmers $175 a cow. Fees might be charged for tillage (which oxides soil carbon) and use of nitrogen fertilizers.
We can only hope that our society will realize, in setting our future priorities, that agriculture is at least part of a cycle of uptake and release of greenhouse gases (oil wells and coal mines are not), that food production is more important than driving gas guzzlers, and that fossil fuels are dinosaurs in the future energy picture.
We need to look first at developing renewable energy sources, making much greater use of nuclear power and much making more efficient use and conservation of fossil fuel energy. These are more important issues than cow flatulence.
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Julianna Tuell
Researcher, Michigan State University
 Wild Bees Can Be Effective Pollinators
Keepers of honeybees have experienced problems due to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), causing some fruit growers to wonder how effectively their crops will be pollinated in the future. A new study – published in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America – shows that wild bees, which are not affected by CCD, may serve as a pollination alternative.
Researchers Julianna Tuell and Rufus Isaacs at Michigan State University and John Ascher at the American Museum of Natural History, using traps and direct observation on 15 southwest Michigan blueberry farms, identified 166 bee species, 112 of which were active during the blueberry blooming period. Many of these species visit more flowers per minute and deposit more pollen per visit than honeybees and most of them are potential blueberry pollinators.
We asked Julianna Tuell these questions:
Q. Should fruit growers be paying more attention to the welfare of non-honeybee pollinators in their orchards?
A. Yes, I think so.
Q. What practices should they use to attract and keep them safe in their orchards?
A.There are three things a grower can do to encourage native bees in fruit crops:
1) Provide flowering plants before and after bloom in field perimeters. Most bee species do not make honey and are solitary – that is, each female creates and provides for her own nest and lays her own eggs – as opposed to social – in which a single female lays all the eggs and most of her daughters help provide and care for their sisters.
Both honey and pollen bees require nectar, which they consume to fuel their foraging activity as adults, and pollen, which is the protein needed for their offspring. Honey bees store up nectar in the form of honey so that they can survive the winter as active adults.
Pollen bees spend most of the year as developing larvae from the previous season and emerge all at once for a short annual period of adult activity. Some emerge in early spring, and these are the ones that will be important for fruit crop pollination. Others emerge later in the summer and are more important for vegetable and sunflower pollination. Many of these species will be active before and after bloom, at least for part of the season, and need flowering plants other than the crop to maximize the number of offspring produced for the next season. Thus, it is essential to consider whether a particular field or orchard has other flowering plants in its perimeters, and if there is very little in bloom, a grower may consider adding flowering plants into the landscape.
2) Practice bee-friendly or bee-safe pest management. Bees, of course, are insects and as such are vulnerable to insecticides used to control pest insects. However, there are a number of insecticides now available that are considered to be safer for bees that a grower might consider using instead of more broad-spectrum insecticides.
In addition, the timing of insecticide application can be more or less safe for bees. For instance, it is generally best to avoid applying especially bee-toxic insecticides during bloom, and most growers recognize this danger for honey bees. But even before and after bloom, if there is a bee-attractive flowering plant within a field or if insecticides are likely to drift onto adjacent blooming plants, this can be very detrimental to bees that live there throughout the season. Spraying crops in the evening, after most bees have finished foraging for the day, is one way to prevent unintentional bee poisoning.
3) Provide nesting materials for mason bees. Most solitary bee species actually nest in the ground, so providing additional flowers and practicing bee-friendly pest management is likely to be sufficient in encouraging these bees to be more abundant in fruit crops. However, there is another group of solitary bees that naturally nest in beetle-bored holes in wood, and/or woody plant stems with soft pith. In early spring, these are mostly mason bees, so-called because they use mud to divide their nest cells.
Many of these species are active very early in spring and are excellent pollinators of fruit crops, but they are generally thought to be limited by natural nest availability. Fortunately, they readily nest in man-made materials, such as blocks of wood drilled with holes, cardboard straws, sections of bamboo and pithy stemmed plants like sumac and bramble. By providing this nesting opportunity, over time a grower can greatly increase the number of mason bees populating his or her orchard or field. There are a number of resources available online regarding nests for mason bees. In addition, consider whether there is a pesticide-free water source nearby because these bees require water to form the mud for their nest partitions.
Q. How important are these pollinators in the overall pollination picture?
A. It depends on each particular field or orchard and the surrounding landscape. The surrounding landscape can be a significant factor in acting as a source of these bees, especially if the surrounding landscape contains other flowering plants and nesting materials. In some fields, assuming that honey bees are brought in for pollination, pollen bees might make up a third of the visitors to a flowering fruit crop. But in other fields/orchards, they may only make up 1-10 percent of the flower visitors. Even so, many of these pollen bees have been shown to deposit more pollen per visit than honey bees. Additionally, during colder weather, some of the pollen bees will continue to forage while honey bees wait in their hives for better weather. This is particularly important for the earliest spring blooming crops, such as cherries. So, it is both crop and site dependent.
Q. Which fruit crops respond best to non-honeybee pollination?
A. Most tree fruit flowers are considered to be simple, in that both nectar and pollen are easily accessed by pollinators. Raspberries and strawberries also have readily accessible nectar and pollen. Blueberry and cranberry have more complex flowers and honey bees have a harder time providing pollination, although, if a field or bog is inundated with honey bees, they typically manage to get the job done. Pollen bees move more pollen than nectar-foraging honey bees, which suggests that they may also be doing more pollination with each visit. Thus, on a per bee basis, it is very likely that a portion of the pollination in fruit crops is being done to a greater or lesser extent by pollen bees. Typically, the pollen bees simply go unnoticed.
The paper, which can be found on the Web site www.entsoc.org/wildbees.htm, contains a list of the names of these wild bees, so growers can investigate further if they desire.
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Danny Stanaland
Blueberry Agent, University of Georgia
Southeast Turns Wet after Long Dry Spell
After several years of severe drought across much of the southeastern United States, torrential rains have erased much of the deficit. Fields have flooded in south Georgia and much of the water deficit in north Georgia, around Atlanta, has been eliminated. At the same time, freezing temperatures have shocked plants in south Georgia, turning spring into a roller-coaster weather ride for Georgia farmers.
From mid-March to mid-April, areas in south Georgia received up to 18 inches of rain, coupled with cold fronts dropping spring temperatures below freezing.
We asked Danny Stanaland, the University of Georgia area blueberry agent in Bacon County, some questions.
Q. How has the blueberry crop fared?
A. Farmers in south Georgia plant two types of blueberries: highbush and rabbiteye. The freezing spring temperatures zapped about half of the highbush crop. Highbush were damaged, but the rabbiteye variety, which is the most planted (90 percent of the 15,000 acres), is on track to make an excellent crop due to good pollination. Last year, farmers produced 34 million pounds. This year they could produce 15 percent more. Blueberry harvest for early-maturing varieties will start in early May.
The area here is not what you’d call lowland, but it’s flat and it can get wet. With 18 to 20 inches of rain, there’s no place for it to go and it sort of stacks up on us. When blueberries are under water for a day or two, you can expect to see root diseases.
Q. Recently, the plumbing code in Georgia was amended to allow homeowners to collect and use rainwater and gray water to flush toilets and urinals, something that will help them weather the next drought and conserve water. The new code allows purple pipes to be installed to route gray water from showers, sinks and clothes washers to use to flush toilets. They’re discussing how to collect and store rainwater from rooftops. Georgians apparently learned some hard lessons from the extended drought?
A. Water is something we all, rich and poor, have got to have. We can all do a better job of conserving. Any way we can use our water more than once and still remain healthy seems like a good idea to me. We have lots of irrigation water available in south Georgia, but in north Georgia collecting water for irrigating might be something to consider. The area depends on stored water, in ponds or public reservoirs.
Q. How are other fruit crops faring this spring?
A. I specialize in blueberries. But I hear the strawberries and blackberries are looking good. A recent survey said that 86 percent of the peach crop is in good condition.
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Events Calendar
May 28-29
Pear Bureau NW Annual Meeting
Portland, Ore.,
503-652-9720.
June 11
Illinois Summer Horticulture Field Day
Royal Oak Farm Orchard, Harvard, Ill.
Don Naylor, 309-530-7678, ilsthortsoc@yahoo.com
June 14-15
The Michigan Food Processors Association 104th Annual Meeting
Shanty Creek Resort, Bellaire, Mich.
K. Terry Morrison, 231-271-5752, mfpa@centurytel.net
Click here to view more calendar listings...
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