Free Integrated Pest Management Supplies & FDA Food Safety Rules

Free Integrated Pest Management Supplies & FDA Food Safety Rules

I’m Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

The Washington State Potato Commission will once again be providing free Integrated Pest Management supplies and other resources to Washington potato growers in order to help them avoid crop damage from pests and disease. These free supplies include yellow sticky cards for psyllid and leafhoppers, as well as delta trap supplies for tuberworm. A regional monitoring program that tracks key pest populations size and locations is also available to growers at www.nwpotatoresearch.com. Free hands-on training sessions covering the identification of insects caught on yellow sticky cards will be held June 3rd and 4th. For exact times and locations contact the WSPC office at 509-765-8845.

The comment period for the FDA’s new proposed food safety rules, originally scheduled to close May 16th, has been extended for another 120 days. The proposed rules would subject fruits and vegetables to strict new standards, which would include the regular testing of irrigation water, sanitizing canvas fruit picking bags, and keeping animals away from crops. Chris Schlect, President of the NW Horticulture Council, says this new umbrella approach over all of produce could be detrimental for a lot of operations.

SCHLECT: To include apples, pears and cherries, which haven’t had a problem in terms of food safety of any major note, this is a huge additional cost and we hope they rethink the whole premise of the rule as well as the individual components of the rule.

I’m Lacy Gray and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Ag Information Network.