CHEMICAL “WORKER BEES” HELP KEEP PRODUCE SAFE, ABUNDANT
Published December 2019
The term chemical is frequently thought of a dirty word. A chemical is any substance consisting of matter. This includes any liquid, solid, or gas. A chemical is any pure substance (an element) or any mixture (a solution, compound, or gas). They can either occur naturally or can be created artificially.
The chemicals used today in agriculture to boost yields and protect crops from pests, weeds and other problems are a little like worker bees -- they do their job and disappear long before produce goes to market.
Just how well chemicals work is apparent in the abundance of beautiful produce the Imperial Valley sends to market. Now a recently released state report offers fresh evidence that today’s agrichemicals effectively decompose and disappear after doing their work in fields in Imperial County and elsewhere in California. In its 2018 annual survey, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation found that 95 percent of all produce samples it tested had no detectable pesticide residues or had levels below what is allowed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). Many of those scant exceptions were samples grown outside of California and even internationally.
“Our growers take food safety very seriously,” said Kay Day Pricola, executive director of the Imperial Valley Vegetable Growers Association. “That affects every aspect of their operations. Using the right pesticides, herbicides, soil supplements and other necessary chemicals is part of the equation.”
The importance of agrichemicals goes far beyond its ability to dissipate. They play a vital role in helping farmers grow the quantity and quality of produce needed to feed the nation and the world.
Today’s agrichemicals are a far cry from the old broad-spectrum pesticides that used to kill good bugs along the pests and then lingered and caused long-term environmental harm, according to Frank Miranda, manager of Rockwood Chemical in Brawley. And the effectiveness, safety and precision with which today’s agrichemicals work are improving all the time.
Chemicals used today are much more targeted to specific pests and they decompose more quickly, Miranda said. “There is less persistence (in the field), which makes it safer for the user and the consumer.”
“Older chemistry used more pounds of material per acre and you had to wait sometimes up to 30 days to get back into the field to harvest,” he said. “With newer chemicals some are so safe that you can get back into a field in four hours.”
Miranda, who is a Pest Control Advisor (PCA), likened the newer generations of agrichemicals to medicine that can be prescribed to treat specific conditions or symptoms.
“They go through rigorous testing, just like pharmaceutical drugs, maybe even more, before they’re available,” Miranda said. PCAs are required to get 20 hours of continuing education a year to keep up with what is on the market and the constantly changing requirements.
The precision with which new agrichemicals works broadens the range of options PCAs can recommend for increasing crop yields and reducing damage from pest infestations.
“In a sense, I work like a doctor in the field, advising a farmer on what steps to take for certain conditions,” he said. “My work starts before a seed goes in the ground.”
Sometimes the PCA’s recommendation has nothing to do with chemicals. Miranda is a big fan of using long sheets of plastic to heat or “solarize” certain fields to reduce weed germination prior to planting, He also is a proponent of a crop rotation that includes certain crops, such as types of Sesbania hemp, to increase nitrogen in the soil, which reduces the need for need for soil supplements.
A PCA’s recommendation must take into consideration what is going on beyond a specific field or crop. Miranda said what is appropriate for one crop could pose a problem for what is growing on the adjacent field or what is planned in the future crop rotation.
“We grow so many different crops here it makes my job more challenging,” Miranda said.
Miranda is especially enthusiastic about the latest generation of agrichemicals, known as “biochemicals” or “biopesticides.”
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Biochemical pesticides are naturally occurring substances that control pests by non-toxic mechanisms. Biopesticides generally affect only the target pest and closely related organisms, in contrast to broad spectrum, conventional pesticides that may affect organisms as different as birds, insects and mammals.”
Many formulations of biopesticides are licensed for use on organic crops.
One of the early biochemicals on the market is called azoxystrobin, which is derived from a strain of mushroom that was discovered to be extremely effective at protecting itself by killing mold growing around it. Today azoxystrobin is widely used as an agricultural fungicide.
Because biopesticides are less toxic and pose fewer risks, the EPA usually requires much less data to register a biopesticide than a conventional pesticide.
“New biopesticides are often registered in less than a year, compared with an average of more than three years for conventional pesticides,” the EPA website states.
Even with improving formulations and less broad-spectrum toxicity, ag chemicals remain very tightly regulated and their use is closely monitored by state and federal regulators. Miranda said Rockwood must file regular state reports that account for every drop of ag chemical it supplies and uses.
All that effort helps ensure that the agrichemicals used to boost yields and protect crops from pests, weeds and other problems have, like worker bees, worked well and disappeared before beautiful, bountiful produce gets to market. These improvements are yet another example of food safety.
Food safety is a top priority for all IVVGA Members.