Almond Industry Headline Environmental News Oct. 6, 2006

   Air Quality

• ABC Funds Environmental Research into Air and Water Quality - - The Almond Board of California’s Environmental Stewardship Committee is funding a number of ongoing research projects for 2006-07 to address environmental issues related to almond production and orchard management. For a closer look at some of these projects, click here. October 2006 California Almonds Newsletter

Water Quality

• Water Board Sets Deadline for Joining Watershed Coalitions - - In a 5-2 vote, the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board earlier this summer agreed to extend the Irrigated Lands Program for five years and added a deadline for landowners to join regional watershed coalitions or face requirements to get individual waste discharge permits. The Water Board has also ordered names of individual coalition members to be turned in to the Water Board annually beginning in October 2006. Coalitions must provide the lists and maps indicating properties covered by coalitions, according to Parry Klassen, executive Director of the Coalition for Urban/Rural Stewardship (CURES).  <more> October 2006 California Almonds Newsletter
   

• New dormant orchard spray regulations in effect  - -   Orchard growers in California have new regulations to follow when applying most types of dormant sprays. More than two years in the making, the new rules from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation went into effect on Aug. 17. Driving the new regulations is the long recognized problem of dormant sprays being washed from orchards during winter rains. Runoff from two insecticides used in dormant sprays, diazinon and chlorpyrifos, prompted adoption of Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for the Sacramento, Feather and San Joaquin Rivers.  The new label restrictions apply to all organophosphate, pyrethroid and carbamate insecticides. Exempt are dormant oil only applications or biocontrol agents such as spinosad or Bt or if the orchard is in a “hydrologically isolated site.” This site is “any treated area that does not produce runoff capable of entering any irrigation or drainage ditch, canal, or other body of water.” <more> Sept. 8, 2006 Watershed Coalition News

Crop Protection

• Most Widely Used Organic Pesticide Bt Requires Help To Kill - - The world's most widely used organic insecticide, a plucky bacterium known as Bacillus thuringiensis or Bt for short, requires the assistance of other microbes to perform its insect-slaying work, a new study has found. Writing in the Sept. 26 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison reports that without the help of the native bacteria that colonize the insect gut, Bt is unable to perform its lethal work. The startling new insight into the workings of one of the most important and environmentally friendly weapons in the human arsenal against insect pests has significant implications not only for the control of insects in agriculture, forestry and human health, but for understanding microbial disease in humans and other animals. <more> Sept. 27, 2006 ScienceDaily.com
   
• U.S. Has Been Stockpiling Banned Pesticide Methyl Bromide - - The United States has stockpiled millions of pounds of methyl bromide, a pesticide that depletes the ozone layer, according to newly public documents — information that could create a stir during international negotiations next month, when the Bush administration seeks permission to produce more. Methyl bromide has been banned for almost two years under the United Nations' Montreal Protocol. Under that pact — designed to stop the thinning of the ozone layer, which shields the planet from harmful ultraviolet radiation — the United States is granted annual exemptions to use the chemical at farms that grow California strawberries, Florida tomatoes and other crops deemed "critical." The new Environmental Protection Agency data, which show that the stockpile is big enough to provide those farmers more than a year's supply, are likely to put the Bush administration in the position of defending the size of the U.S. reserve while seeking approval for chemical companies to manufacture more. <more> Sept. 15, 2006 LA Times

Sustainability
 

• Almond Grower Looks Long-Term with His Orchard Growing Practices - - Matt Billings, a fourth-generation almond farmer based in Delano, Calif., takes a long view of his vertical almond operation. The father of two young children, Billings said sustainable farming will help ensure the health and production of his land and orchard for future generations. “For us, the goal is to not use such heavy inputs that you ruin the soil, tree or orchard for short-term gains,” he said. “Especially with a permanent crop. If you have an orchard in the ground, you are committed for 25 to 30 years, so you have sustainability built in from the beginning.”  The key to successful sustainable farming, he said, is more footwork in the orchard, carefully monitoring pest and disease pressures and staying on top of irrigation and nutrient status on a block-by-block—and even tree-by-tree—basis. Billings never sprays on the calendar, and makes decisions about irrigation, fertility and other inputs with consideration for variety, soil type, petiole samples, trap counts, yield potential and orchard conditions. <more> October  2006 California Almonds Newsletter
   
• Almond Industry Explores the Definition of Sustainable Agriculture - - This past year, the Environmental Stewardship Campaign has explored the concept of “sustainability,” a term growing in popularity and use by regulators, academia, granting and funding sources, the media and the consuming public. The use of the term sustainability and sustainable almond growing practices was the topic of professionally moderated focus groups with almond growers, handlers, PCAs and UC farm advisors in Chico, Modesto, Fresno and Tulare. The first—and perhaps most remarkable—finding of the focus groups was that not a single participant opposed the idea of developing a definition for sustainable almond growing. In essence, defining and pursuing efforts in sustainability was not a controversial issue among these industry members.  “From my perspective as someone who has studied several commodities, I found this alone surprising and encouraging,” said the focus group facilitator, Dr. Keith Douglass Warner, Director of the Faith, Ethics & Vocation Project at Santa Clara University’s Environmental Studies Institute.  <more> October 2006 California Almonds Newsletter
   
• Regulators Show Interest in Sustainability at International Conference - - State and federal regulators were well represented at the International Conference on the Future of Agriculture in Sacramento, illustrating intensifying interest in the dominant themes of stewardship and sustainability. DPR’s chief Mary Ann Warmerdam emphasized, “Governor Schwarzenegger wants clean water, air, and soils and no excuses.  He wants environmental improvement with economic growth within the concept of sustainability.”     “The bottom line is, assessment of sustainability could become a tool for development of agricultural policy,” said Gabriele Ludwig, senior manager of global technical and regulatory affairs for the Almond Board of California. “This is the direction regulators are going.” <more> October 2006 California Almonds Newsletter  
   
• When is it “Conservation” and when is it “Sustainable”? - - Those involved in sustainability and conservation efforts seem to use the words interchangeably.  In fact, conservation and sustainable are two different terms, says Dr. Keith Douglass Warner, Director of the Faith, Ethics & Vocation Project at Santa Clara University’s Environmental Studies Institute.  Warner should know. He’s got the book on the subject due to be published in November 2006, Agroecology in Action, MIT Press.   “Conservation focuses on individual resources like air and water, while sustainability is a broader concept, a goal or vision,” said Warner, who also happens to be a Franciscan Friar. “Where conservation is about certain individual practices, sustainability is a collective effort, a mechanism to coordinate actions. It involves the behavior of institutions and assumes organizational strength.” What does the almond industry need to do?  The Friar has an answer:  “That same organizational strength that brought farmers together for marketing purposes is now needed to survive the pressures of farming in California.” October 2006 California Almonds Newsletter

   

General Industry News

• Bee worries plague almond growers. Pollination costs soar as demand for colonies increases - - Their critical 2007 pollination season is still months away, but California almond growers are already fretting about a potential shortage of healthy bees. Concerns were aired at the Almond Board of California's Annual Honey Bee Seminar in Modesto this week. In the audience were almond growers, beekeepers, bee brokers, county agricultural commissioners and officials from California Department of Food and Agriculture, USDA and the University of California. Chico almond grower Dan Cummings, chairman of the board's bee task force, said with "literally hundreds of thousand of acres" of almond orchards coming into bearing in the next few years, bee demand is soaring. "About 60 percent or a little more of European honeybees that are transportable in the United States come to California for almond pollination," Cummings said. "The total number of colonies that are required in California for almond pollination is going to go up substantially in the next five years." <more> Oct. 6, 2006 Capital Press
   

• On The Job: Reaping what he knows. Farm adviser's expertise helps growers - - Like a doctor making house calls, Roger Duncan travels from orchard to orchard examining and diagnosing sick trees. He identifies the disease attacking the tree and advises farmers how to breathe life back into their ailing crops. But there are occasions when Duncan is unable to pinpoint the problem, and his role switches from adviser to researcher. "Sometimes we find new diseases or insects, and I'm unable to offer a good solution because we don't yet know the answer," Duncan said. "It might take a few years to realize how a disease is working." It can be the most vexing part of his job as a farm adviser for the University of California Cooperative Extension in Stanislaus County. <more> Sept. 19, 2006 Modesto Bee
   

• Almond theft: Tough cases for growers to crack - - With the almond harvest well under way in the Central Valley, growers and sheriff's deputies are renewing their efforts to combat the increasing problem of stolen almonds. The farmers and officers are working together to develop information that may lead to suspects as well as prevent further thefts. The ACTION (Agricultural Crime Technology Information and Operations Network) Project recently reported that during the 2005-06 crop year, more than $1.3 million worth of almonds were stolen from growers and shippers in the San Joaquin Valley. <more> Sept. 13, 2006 Ag Alert

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