IPM Voice Newsletter                                                                                                    September 2014

Crop Protection in President's FY 2015 Budget

The USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) has released the Fiscal Year 2015 President's Budget Proposal. The proposed budget funds research, education and extension programs to enhance the country's agricultural systems. Priority areas include sustainable food production, water resource management, climate adaptability, bioenergy production, food safety and nutrition and the reduction of childhood obesity. Important to IPM is the Crop Protection/Pest Management program, proposed to receive just over $17 million or roughly 1% of the total discretionary budget, the same amount as FY 2014.


New in this year's proposal is a $25 million investment in three new public-private "Innovation Institutes" to address pollinator health, biomanufacturing and antimicrobial resistance. Also new is a program to engage veterans working in agriculture, and a program to advance food safety training and extension for small fruit and vegetable producers, processors and vendors complying with the Food Safety Modernization Act.

Watershed Contamination Study Gains National Attention

A new study published this month in Environmental Science & Technology and highlighted by The New York Times reports on pesticide contamination in US streams. The study, conducted by the US Geological Survey National Water-Quality Assessment Program, compares sampling data to human and aquatic health benchmarks.

 

From 2002-2011, close to 200 agricultural, mixed-use and urban streams were sampled, with only one exceeding human health benchmarks for pesticide contamination, a significant improvement from the previous decade. However, percentages of agricultural and mixed-use streams exceeding thresholds for healthy aquatic life decreased only slightly, at 61% and 46% respectively. Urban streams exceeding aquatic health benchmarks increased from 53% in the first decade to 90% in the second, due mostly to the introduction of two pesticides not present in the earlier decade. 

 

The authors caution that, due to budgetary and methodological constraints, more than half of pesticide active ingredients used in the US were not included in the sampling, including glyphosate and neonicotinoids, which represent the leading herbicide and insecticide uses in the US. They conclude that although regulatory processes including the Food Quality Protection Act have positively impacted water quality, threats persist to both aquatic life and human health requiring additional action in agricultural, mixed and urban settings. 

IPM Committee Meets to Discuss New Federal Crop Protection Program and More

The National IPM Coordinating Committee is meeting in Washington, D.C. this week. The meeting, themed "Coordinating and collaborating for effective IPM in the context of our current situation," features presentations on coordination and implementation of IPM in both agricultural and community settings including schools and public housing, as well as brown marmorated stinkbugs. 


Organizations, agencies and institutions represented include the USDA Agricultural Research Service, Association of Public Land Grant Universities, US Housing and Urban Development, the IPM Institute of North America, IR4, the National Alliance of Independent Crop Consultants, USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the National Invasive Species Council, the NSF Center for IPM, Regional IPM Centers, USDA Office of Pest Management Policy, 1994 land grant universities and others. IPM Voice will also be in attendance, represented by board member and Michigan State University entomologist Larry Gut, with additional board members Jim Farrar, Jerry Baron and David Epstein also attending.

Upcoming IPM-Related Meetings and Conferences

October 8, 2014. C-IPM Workshop. Berlin, Germany

October 21-24, 2014. National Pest Management Association "PestWorld 2014" Meeting. Orlando, FL

November 10-12, 2014. Sustainable Agriculture Conference. Greenville, SC

November 16-19, 2014. Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting. Portland, OR

January 14-16, 2015. IPM Innovation in Europe conference. Poznań, Poland

January 21-24, 2015. National Alliance of Independent Crop Consultants Annual Meeting. Reno, NV

March 23-26, 2015. Eighth International IPM Symposium. Salt Lake City, UT

IPM Voice is an independent, non-profit organization advocating for integrated pest management (IPM) that is genuinely progressive and seeks continuous improvement of environmental, social and economic conditions through application of accepted scientific principles.  IPM Voice was formed in 2010 by more than 35 professionals working to expand the benefits IPM has provided to agriculture and communities for more than 40 years.

IPM Voice, Inc. / 1020 Regent Street  Madison, Wisconsin 53715 / 608-232-1410 / www.ipmvoice.org