IPM Institute News: IPM in the Marketplace
May 2004
Volume 5 Issue No. 2
Contents
I. IPM Eco-labeling Progress Report
II.
Corn Rootworm IPM Guarantee
Underway in Wisconsin and Illinois
III.
Check out the IPM Institute Website
IV. IPM Star
Certification for Schools is Here!
V. About the IPM Institute and IPM in the
Marketplace
I.
IPM Eco-labeling Progress Report, 2003
What have The
Food Alliance, Protected
Harvest, National IFP Development for
Canadian Apples and Rainforest Alliance
been up to this past year? Read on to find out.
The
Food Alliance
Makes Headway in Food Service
The
Food Alliance has come a long way since it started in 1994.
Executive Director Deborah Kane reports that this
Portland-based eco-label has certified over 200 different
agricultural products, including fruits, vegetables, wheat, wine,
livestock and dairy. With an affiliate office in St. Paul,
Minnesota, the Food
Alliance currently has certified agricultural operations in 12
different states.
Food
Alliance-certified products are sold in retail establishments in
nearly 20 states, from Costco in Hawaii
to Fred Meyer
stores up and down the west coast. In addition, Food Alliance-certified
products can be found in corporate (Hewlett Packard, Intel,
Adidas) and collegiate cafeterias (Carlton
College, Reed
College and Oregon State
University) through unique
partnerships with some of the nation’s largest food service
providers (Bon Appétit, Sodexho, and Aramark).
In 2003, the Food Alliance launched a restaurant program that
has grown to include fast food establishments such as the
Burgerville chain, as well as a number of white tablecloth restaurants.
According to Kane, participating farmers and ranchers report
new markets, price premiums and sales volume increases as a
result of marketing opportunities created by Food Alliance. Retailers report strong sales of Food Alliance products, with over
half of those surveyed experiencing increases in sales.
Matthew Buck
joined the Food Alliance this spring as assistant director in the
Portland office.
Protected
Harvest
Increases Production, Sales and Staff
Protected Harvest certifies
Wisconsin
potato producers that have met strict, bio-intensive IPM production
and pesticide standards developed in collaboration with the World
Wildlife Fund, the
University
of Wisconsin
and
the Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Association (WPVGA).
These potatoes are marketed under the “Healthy Grown” brand.
Deana
Sexson, Bio-intensive IPM Coordinator for
the
University
of Wisconsin
Cooperative Extension, estimates that over 6 million pounds of certified potatoes
were sold in 2003, a 457 percent increase from 2002.
In 2002, Protected Harvest certified 4573 acres, and in
2003, 8500 acres were enrolled in the program.
Big news came for the “Healthy Grown” brand in June when
the Eco-Potato Partnership received the prestigious USDA
Secretary’s Honor Award for 2003. Together, the WWF,
University of Wisconsin and WPVGA helped certified farmers achieve
a 37% reduction in high-risk pesticide toxicity and an overall 21%
toxicity reduction of the potato production system from 1995-1999.
The partnership was honored for "Maintaining and
Enhancing the Nation's Natural Resources and Environment,"
Fourteen
grocers in 14 states have stocked
the “Healthy Grown” brand on their shelves, including over 70
stores in Wisconsin
alone. For a complete
list of grocers that carry the label, visit the Protected Harvest
Website at www.protectedharvest.org.
This
spring, Protected Harvest welcomed two new staff members, Andrea
Caroe, Certification Director,
and Jerry Hensley, Technical and
Scientific Coordinator. Caroe is an organic
certification expert, with more than 600 organic inspections under
her belt as well as a term as Vice President of Certification
Services for Quality Assurance International (QAI). Jerry
has served as Western US Regional Research and Development Manager
for Novartis Crop Protection and Vice President of Product
Development for Agraquest, managing research on the impacts of
crop protection chemicals have on soil, water and avian and fish
species.
National
IFP Development for Canadian Apples
In
2001, the Apple Working Group of the Canadian Horticultural
Council embarked on a project to develop Integrated Fruit
Production (IFP) guidelines for the Canadian apple industry. The
goals of the project were to (1) enhance the economic viability of
the sector while producing high quality fruit economically and
assisting the industry in providing an alternative marketing tool
for Canadian apples, (2) minimize negative impacts on the
environment by reducing reliance on pesticides and implementing
IPM programs, and (3) enhance grower awareness and acceptance and
adoption of sustainable apple production practices through
education, opportunity and incentive.
In 2002, a draft of the National IFP Guidelines and a grower
self-assessment was distributed to 45 apple producers across the
country as a pilot project. One hundred ten participants attended a national
IFP conference in February 2003 to launch the Guidelines. The final
published guidelines were distributed to apple producers across Canada
in March 2003.
Phase II of the project was initiated a month later.
Goals include (1) development of a grower toolkit to
accompany the National IFP Guidelines, (2) development of a method
to measure IFP adoption in Canadian apple production and establish
a baseline and benchmarks, (3) development and distribution of a
brochure for retailers and consumers the efforts of the Canadian
apple industry in environmental sustainability and on-farm food
safety through IFP, and (4) delivery of IFP workshops in all major
apple-growing provinces in the Winter of 2004.
Rainforest
Alliance
Certified
The Rainforest Alliance currently certifies
coffee, bananas, orange juice and ferns.
The Rainforest Alliance Certified eco-label focuses on
“good neighbor” policies towards surrounding communities,
adjacent parks and wild lands, worker safety and reduced impacts
on the environment aided by IPM methods.
Its Smartwood program also certifies forest products.
In early October of
2003, the Rainforest
Alliance announced a multi-year arrangement with Kraft Foods to
promote sustainable coffee. Kraft
Foods will purchase over 5 million pounds of coffee from farms
certified as sustainably managed by the Rainforest Alliance.
According to the Alliance,
ongoing monitoring and verification will be provided by itself and
the Sustainable Agriculture Network.
Later the same month, the Rainforest Alliance
announced that Ben
& Jerry’s ice cream will offer a new flavor, Coffee For A
Change™, made with coffee extract certified by the
Rainforest Alliance. According to the Rainforest Alliance, the
coffee extract is derived from beans grown and harvested by La
Trinidad, a cooperative of small-scale farmers near Oaxaca,
Mexico.
In November of this year, the National Audubon Society joined
forces with the Rain Alliance, offering Rainforest Alliance
certified coffee labeled as Audubon™ Coffee.
The new line aims to “promote environmentally and
socially responsible products that protect bird species, wildlife
habitat and dwindling rainforests and raise the quality of life
for people in the world's coffee communities.”
III.
Corn Rootworm IPM Guaranty Project Underway in Wisconsin and
Illinois
April 7, 2004
- Northern and western corn rootworms (CRW)
are important insect pests of corn throughout the corn belt.
Approximately 50 percent of continuous corn acres are treated with
soil insecticide for control of CRW larvae. Many of these
applications could be avoided with the use of crop scouting and
IPM treatment thresholds.
Farmers and crop advisors can be reluctant to scout and leave
below-threshold fields untreated due to the risk that yields and
income may suffer if something goes wrong. Agren, Inc., a
consulting firm located in Carroll, Iowa, has won an EPA Pesticide
Environmental Stewardship grant to test a guarantee on the
“no-treat” recommendation in fields that scout below
threshold. The guarantee provides compensation to farmers if
damage exceeds acceptable levels. The goal is to increase adoption
of corn rootworm scouting by protecting farmers from economic
risk.
The project will establish “check,” or comparison strips on
participating fields. These check strips will receive a soil
insecticide or Yieldgard® Rootworm variety. The balance of the
field will not be treated for rootworm. Rootworm feeding damage,
lodging and yield at harvest will be compared between the check
strip and the untreated portion of the field.
The project has enrolled acres in Wisconsin and Illinois that were
scouted in 2003 and found to be below threshold. Project
collaborators expect to recruit additional acres for scouting
during the 2004 season.
This project follows two years of successful testing of a corn
nutrient Best Management Practice, or BMP, guarantee that protects
corn farmers from yield and income loss when they follow
University-recommended fertilizer application rates. Participating
farmers in four states have reduced fertilizer use by 24%.
IV.
Check out the IPM Institute Website
The IPM Institute is your resource center for IPM
standards, IPM certification and IPM eco-labeling in agriculture, school and community IPM. Our
website includes information on recent IPM news, links to IPM
eco-labels, school IPM and IPM Institute services.
Visit our homepage.
V. IPM
Star Certification for Schools is Here!
How
does the IPM program measure up at your school?
The IPM STAR certification program for school systems can
provide an answer.
The
IPM STAR project grew out of a USDA-funded project to develop
measurable IPM standards for school buildings and grounds.
Under a grant from the US EPA Pesticide Environmental
Stewardship Program, an IPM evaluation tool was developed and has
now been used in more than nine school systems across the US.
The
process includes an on-site visit from an IPM professional.
School administrators responsible for the pest management
program are interviewed, as well as any outside contractors
providing pest control services.
A walk through is conducted of representative facilities,
with special attention given to sensitive areas such as kitchens,
cafeterias, custodial closets, mechanical rooms and locker rooms.
Documents are also reviewed, including IPM policies and
plans, contracts with service providers, pest report logs and
pesticide application records.
After
the visit, an interim report is prepared, including an evaluation
scored on a 0-100% scale, a descriptive profile of the overall
pest management program, and a spreadsheet listing all of the pest
control products used in the school system.
The spreadsheet includes a profile for each pesticide
including both acute and chronic toxicity, and environmental
issues such as ground water contamination potential for products
used outdoors. Detailed
recommendations are included, identifying potential improvements.
The
school administrators then review and comment on these interim
report, and can update the reports with any changes they have made
as a result of the site-visit and interim information.
It’s not been uncommon for schools improve their interim
score by ten percent or more by implementing immediate
improvements in their IPM programs.
VI. About the IPM Institute and IPM Institute
News
The
IPM Institute of North America, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt,
non-profit organization formed in 1998 to promote and support
marketplace recognition for goods and service providers who meet
high standards for IPM. Consumer
support for IPM provides a powerful incentive for increasing IPM
adoption in agriculture and communities!
The
IPM Institute provides services to ecolabel programs including IPM
research, standards development, program management and inspector
training and certification. The
Institute operates certification programs for IPM professionals,
schools and other organizations and IPM products and services.
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