05/30/07 Working On Pests

Working on Pests. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. The fruit industry is still trying to come to grips with the fact that a number of important tools in the pest management game are about to go away and according to Jim McFerson with the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission, the industry has finally reached an important stage. MCFERSON: Rather than wait or stonewall, our industry has decided to proactively develop this education outreach program based on solid research conducted largely by Bruner and associates at WSU to bring to our growers programs that work, practices that are efficient and effective and the kind of extension supports that producers need to implement the program. In other words, the industry has decided to work with the issue and stop fighting it. MCFERSON: You pretty much encapsulated what I was saying. As opposed to another effort that the legislature funded which was air monitoring for pesticides  about a $500 thousand dollar program that at this point has no plan but it's going to be sniffing the air in various places around the state to detect chemicals that we are actively going to be transitioning out of. So it's kind of a look backward across the last 20 years  their approach versus as you've correctly said, let's move forward. Let's take the industry where we need to stay locally competitive; meet our regulatory responsibilities and continue to provide a healthy workplace for our employees. The big issue for the industry is the eventual phase out of organophosphates like azinphos methyl more commonly known as guthion. Tomorrow McFerson talks more about what direction the fruit industry is heading. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.