Japan’s Most Popular Green Tea Variety Depends on Fungicides

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In the 1970s, a new high-yielding green tea variety – Yabukita – was introduced in Japan and has been wildly popular because of quality attributes that Japanese tea drinkers favor, including the characteristic “umami” savory taste. This one-cultivar industry led to prevalent and frequent outbreaks of tea plant diseases which has resulted in a dependence on regular fungicide applications.

“Tea is one of the most important cash crops in the warm southwest areas of Japan. The green tea cultivar ‘Yabukita’ has been cultivated since the 1970s and grown in about 75% of all tea fields in Japan. Using a monoculture cultivation system, new Yabukita tea shoots can be harvested synchronously, producing green tea of consistent quality. However, this system has resulted in severe pest problems such as outbreaks of tea anthracnose … and tea gray blight … Therefore, repeated spraying of fungicides is needed to protect tea plants against both the diseases for each tea crop.”

Authors: K. Yoshida, A. Ogino, K. Yamada and R. Sonoda
Affiliation: National Institute of Vegetable and Tea Science
Title: Induction of disease resistance in tea (Camellia sinensis L.) by plant activators.
Publication: Japan Agricultural Research Quarterly. 44(4):391-398.

Fungicides Make Apple Growing Possible in South Korea

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Farmers in South Korea harvest about 900 million pounds of apples annually. This production is only possible because a large number of fungicide sprays are made to prevent fungal pathogens from rotting the apples. The most common disease of apples in Korea is white rot, a disease that starts on the apple peel, moves toward the core and turns the entire fruit into a soft, watery, pale rotten mess.

“In Korea, due to frequent rain during apple growing season, especially in one month of the rainy season, the disease problem is very serious. If fungicides are not used at all, more than 90% of the fruit may be rotten and almost all the leaves may drop before harvest. Most apple growers spray fungicides 14 to 16 times in each growing season. Among the diseases of economic importance, white rot is the most serious, as cv. Fuji that is highly susceptible to this disease accounts for more than 70% of apples produced.”

Authors: J.Y. Uhm, D.H. Lee, D.H. Kim and H. Woo
Affiliation: School of Applied Biology and Chemistry, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea
Title: Development of a spray program for apple with reduced fungicide application in Korea.
Publication: Journal of Plant Pathology. 2009. 90(Supplement 2):S2.155.

Herbicides Eliminated Inhumane Drudgery of Weeding Rice

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For centuries, rice fields in Japan were weeded by millions of people who spent their summers in the hot, humid, muddy fields working in a stooped position that could cause permanent back pain and damage. Herbicides freed people from this drudgery…

“For a long time before 1949, all weeding in rice fields had to be done by man-power. It was so severe and cruel labor for farmers. Modernized weeding, that is with the use of herbicides, has saved them from these physical and mental pains.”

“Herbicide has brought a great benefit to rice cultivation… in liberation from the inhumane physical and mental pains of farmers during serious weeding labor in hot, humid and muddy paddy fields. …for the ‘perfect’ hand weeding we need 506 hours/hectare, which can be calculated as the work of 1.89 million people every day for 60 days in summer all over Japan. It is not practical in the present status in this country.”

Author: Shooichi Matsunaka
Affiliation: Former President of the International Weed Science Society
Title: Historical review of rice herbicides in Japan
Publication: Weed Biology and Management. 2001. 1:10-14.

“Organic Blueberries Don’t Come Easily”

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The New York Times ran an article with this title in 2011 to inform readers why there are so few organic blueberries grown in New Jersey – “the blueberry capital of the world”. It seems that the organic blueberry growers are powerless to prevent massive feeding on their berries by insects that call New Jersey home. On the other hand, blueberry growers who use chemical insecticides are able to control the insect problem and harvest 2 to 4 times more blueberries per acre.

“New Jersey is one of the country’s top producers of blueberries, yet only a small number of farms are organic. And considering all the obstacles presented by nature, it’s not hard to see why. Insects like the root grub and the plum curculio, as well as some fungi, contribute to organic farmers’ loss of up to 50 percent of their berries a season, whereas conventional farmers may lose 5 percent or 6 percent, said Peter Oudemans, a Rutgers professor and a plant pathologist at the Philip E. Marucci Center for Blueberry and Cranberry Research in Chatsworth, Burlington County. Blueberry plants are native to New Jersey, Dr. Oudemans said, which makes them a natural food choice for native insects. ‘Planting a solid acre of organic blueberries in New Jersey is like throwing a peanut butter sandwich into a room full of kindergartners,’ said Dr. Oudemans, of Hammonton, ‘the blueberry capitol of the world,’ according to a local highway sign. ‘Everything around is going to go for them.'”

“‘We have to do twice the work of conventional growers,’ Mr. Condo [an organic grower] said. ‘It’s a lot harder and much more labor-intensive. Conventional farmers probably get around two or three thousand crates per acre. We’re lucky if we get 700 to 900.'”

Authors: Tammy La Gorce
Title: Organic blueberries don’t come easily.
Publication: The New York Times. June 17, 2011.

Nutritionists Credit Pesticides for Widespread Availability of Apples in the American Diet

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Apple production has come a long way in the U.S. thanks to the protection against insects and diseases provided by pesticides. In fact, without pesticides, this important fruit would largely disappear from our diets. A point recently made by nutritionists from the University of Nebraska…

“Apples play an important role in the American diet. … Apples and apple products offer several important health benefits. Besides supplying key nutrients, apples contain important compounds that may protect against cancer, heart disease, and other chronic diseases.”

“The availability and judicious use of pesticides is important for the production of high-quality apples. Without the use of pesticides, there would be very few apples grown in the United States. Pesticides protect the fruit from attack by insects, mites, disease organisms, and weeds. … Pesticides are necessary to produce an abundant, consumer-accepted, affordable apple supply.”

Authors: Lewis, N. and Ruud, J.
Affiliation: Department of Nutrition and Health Sciences, University of Nebraska
Title: Apples in the American diet.
Publication: Nutrition in Clinical Care. 2004. 7(2): 82-88.

Fungicides Necessary for Southeast Peanut Production

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In the U.S., fungicides are used in the field to control ten major diseases of peanuts. For decades, peanut harvesting started when the peanuts in a field were stripped of their leaves by one of these diseases. Peanut yields increased dramatically between 1969 and 1987 following the introduction of effective synthetic chemical fungicides. Fungicides continue to be needed to maintain high peanut yields.

“It’s one of the harsh realities of growing peanuts in the Southeast – you will have disease problems. ‘The same type of weather and climate that helps you grow peanuts so successfully in the Southeastern United States also makes it difficult to control diseases,’ says Bob Kemerait, University of Georgia Extension plant pathologist. Fungicide programs, he adds, constitute the single most expensive input a grower will have in peanut production. ‘It’s not seed, insecticides or herbicides. You spend more in fungicides than perhaps anything else – that’s the bad news. The good news is the tremendous value you receive from controlling diseases. We could not make the desired yields and grades without these programs,’ says Kemerait.”

Author: Paul L. Hollis
Title: Peanut fungicides valuable tools.
Publication: Southeast Farm Press. 2008. Vol. 35(12).

National Academy of Sciences Credits Pesticides with Improving American Diet

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Americans take for granted a plentiful, inexpensive daily supply of fruit and vegetables. This bounty has come about due to increased production throughout the county as a result of pesticide use – a point made by the National Academy of Science…

“Pesticides are used widely in agriculture in the United States. When effectively applied, pesticides can kill or control pests, including weeds, insects, fungi, bacteria, and rodents. Chemical pest control has contributed to dramatic increases in yields for most major fruit and vegetable crops. Its use has led to substantial improvements over the past 40 years in the quantity and variety of the U.S. diet and thus in the health of the public.“

Authors: National Research Council
Affiliation: National Academy of Sciences
Publication: Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children. 1993. National Academy Press, Washington, DC.

Jimmy Carter Lived the Weed Nightmare

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Our 39th President, Jimmy Carter, grew up on a peanut and cotton farm long before herbicides were available to manage weeds. In his autobiography, President Carter recounts the nightmare of trying to control weeds with tractors and hand labor.

“Our part of Georgia receives about fifty inches of rain during an average year, mostly during the spring and early summer… However, depending entirely on draft animals and hand labor, small variations in the rain pattern could be devastating. … The dry ground permitted the mule-drawn cultivating plows and hoes to restrain the ever-encroaching weeds and grass. However, when no plowing was possible because of several successive days of rain, the noxious plants were uncontrollable. Something like the terrible creeping and oozing things in horror movies, Bermuda grass, coffeeweed, cocklebur, Johnsongrass, beggar-lice, and nut grass would emerge from what had been a cleanly cultivated field, and in a few days our entire crop of young peanuts and cotton could be submerged in a sea of weeds. Often, despite the most heroic efforts by the best farmers, parts of the crop would have to be abandoned. Although partially salvaged, the remaining young plants were heavily damaged by the aggressive plowing and hoeing. During these rainy times, Daddy would pace at night, scan the western skies for a break in the clouds, and scour the community, often far from our own farm, to recruit any person willing to hoe or pull up weeds for day wages.”

Author: Jimmy Carter
Publication: An Hour Before Daylight: Memories of a Rural Boyhood. 2001. Simon & Schuster, New York.

Organic Methods are Not an Option for Feeding China

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China has made remarkable progress in increasing food production to feed its growing population. China can feed itself thanks to the widespread adoption of chemical pesticides and industrial fertilizers. Organic yields are considerably lower without these inputs, which means that widespread adoption of organic practices is not an option for feeding China’s 1.3 billion people.

“Today, China provides enough food for 21% of the world’s population from 9% of the world’s cultivated land. From 1949 to 2000, China’s population increased from 450 million to over 1200 million. During the same period, China’s food crop production increased from 130 Mt to 550 Mt. … This remarkable increase has led China to be able to feed its people.”

“Although organic farming is an old system brought out as a new concept, in our view it is not a practical national farming system for many developing countries – like China. … In organic farming, crop yields and production efficiency are lower and the unit cost of production higher. To produce the same total quantity of any crop, a larger area of land is needed. This additional area is not available in China, so that organic farming on a large scale is not an option to be advocated.”

Authors: Fang Chen & Kaiyuan Wan
Affiliation: Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China
Title: The impact of organic agriculture on food quantity, food quality and the environment: a China perspective (Letter to the Editor).
Publication: Soil Use and Management (2005) 21:73-74. Available: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1475-2743.2005.tb00109.x/abstract

Heavy Thrips Infestations in Virginia and North Carolina Cotton

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Thrips have many hosts, including grasses, grains and alfalfa. Large populations often develop on these hosts and fly into cotton fields when the cotton seedlings are developing. Thrips feeding causes severe deformation and stunting of the developing cotton leaves. The Upper Southeast cotton region (Virginia and North Carolina) could be designated “Thrips Central” for the Cotton Belt. Jack Bacheler, a North Carolina Extension Entomologist, explains…

“With the exceptionally warm winter and good moisture levels, at this point it looks like thrips flights into cotton should be both large and early this year. … Our region has earned the distinction of having the highest levels of thrips and greatest potential damage to seedling cotton of anywhere in the U.S. In some tests, with the help of a microscope, we sometimes count as many as 200 to 500 thrips per 5 seedlings! That’s a “ton” of thrips, especially if seedlings are unprotected. So it’s probably not a surprise that Virginia and North Carolina have the highest ratio of surrounding host vegetation to small average cotton field size.”

“Over the past eight years, more than 85 percent of our cotton acreage has been over-sprayed [i.e. sprayed over] following a seed treatment. With the potential for thrips damage lasting up to 5 or 6 weeks after planting and seed treatments varying from about 2 to 3 weeks in their activity, a high percentage of foliar follow-up treatments for thrips is not surprising.”

Author: Jack Bacheler
Affiliation: North Carolina Extension Entomologist
Title: Heavy thrips populations anticipated.
Publication: Southeast Farm Press, April 18, 2012. Available: http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/76291692/thrips-pressure-heavy-mississippi-cotton