Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/76198
1 5 9 5. Strawberries 9. Lettuce 2 6 10 DIRTY Dozen? 2. Celery 6. Nectarines (imported) 10. Cucumbers 3 7 11 The Environmental Working Group's Dirty Dozen list was announced this summer. 1. Apples 3. Bell peppers 7. Grapes 11. Blueberries 4 8 12 4. Peaches 8. Spinach 12. Potatoes Washington State University professor Dr. Charles Benbrook says apples should not be on the list, but imported peaches, plums, and cherries should be. NEW ZEALAND'S low-residue focus T he New Zealand apple and pear industry, which is dependent on its ability to export to Europe, launched a program in 2008 to help its growers produce ultralow-residue fruit. Some supermarket buyers in Europe have been using low residues as a marketing tool and have set pesticide residue thresholds far below the maximum residue levels set by European regulators. Some also limit the number of detectable active ingredients on produce. The New Zealand industry saw this as an opportu- nity to position its fruit as a premium product and created the Apple Futures program to help growers produce fruit with residues no higher than 10 percent of the European MRLs. Growers use mating disruption for codling moth and monitor extensively for pests and beneficial organisms to determine when to spray. Early in the season, they use the most efficacious and longest- acting products. They then transition to biological products, such as the codling moth granulosis virus, later in the season. Although European consumers demand residue- free fruit, this is not possible for all plant protection products, as many are designed to protect the prod- uct after application, points out PipFruit New Zealand, an association that represents the country's apple and pear growers. Also, the increasing sensitiv- ity of detection methods means residues can be detected in ever smaller quantities. For more information, watch the YouTube video Apple Futures: Sustainability in New Zealand Apple Production. —G. Warners "If they had done that, it would have driven out most of the OP residues in the food supply and it would not have created a structural bias in favor of food producers abroad." Upbeat The apple industry has an upbeat story to tell about how producers responded to the challenge imposed on them when the FQPA passed, Benbrook said. Entomolo- gists had to develop new integrated pest management strategies, and the pesticide industry also responded by coming out with lower-risk insecticides that made it easier for growers to transition away from the older broad-spectrum pesticides. Benbrook hopes to provide a detailed analysis of the EPA data that will help people from all sides of the issue realize that growers have made great progress in reducing pesticide risk. But he' d like to see the Washington fruit and vegetable industry move totally away from organophos- phates because of the risks to workers and to pregnant women and children who consume residues. "We have some work left to do, but we can get it done because now we know where the risks are, and they are quite isolated," he said. "Just a few organophosphates account for about two-thirds of the total dietary risk. Once you know that, it makes it much easier for people to come to an agreement and say, for example, 'We will phase out diazinon in Washington apple production in the next few years regardless of whether EPA takes action.' "I've been working on this cluster of issues for my entire career, and I'm frankly a little impatient and very hopeful that we can get this job done and be able to say to the American public that we have gotten these high-risk pesticides out of our foods," he said. "And if we lower our tolerances, the rest of the world will have to follow suit. By virtue of that action, we will not only make our food sup- ply safer but force other countries to cut back substan- tially in the use of high-risk chemistry that they should not be using anyway." • www.goodfruit.com GOOD FRUIT GROWER AUGUST 2012 21