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  • Boulder County Presents: Sustainable Agriculture Forum

  • November 6, 2010 Silver Creek High School

  • Part 1: Keynote address

  • Cindy Domenico: Good afternoon everyone, we are so happy that you are all here today.

  • Want to say welcome to all of you. And also we are honored to have our panel, who will

  • be speaking with us and are here to help us kick off dialogue about our cropland policy.

  • Iím one of the County Commissioners. My colleague Ben Pearlman is here; Will Toor will join

  • us a little bit later. We just have a couple things weíd like to share with you before

  • we start the program. For those of you who have been around Boulder County for a long

  • time, you know that agriculture is a very important industry here in the county, and

  • there is a long history of agriculture here in Boulder County. The two biggest industries

  • were farming and mining, and particularly my family, we came here because of all the

  • farming and mining in the early 1880s for farming. And that farmland, for us, is near

  • Lafayette, was an 80 acre farm, was a diversified operation for many years, and about three

  • families went through some trying times in the 1920s and 1930s and 1940s. Itís still

  • a farm at the moment, but as you know itís very difficult to keep farmland in the Front

  • Range. And so, the mining aspect is a little bit different, there was a lot of coal mining

  • and that sort of thingÖ the two industries went hand in hand over many years, until relatively

  • recently, and as we looked at agricultural land across the county and over the years,

  • we noticed that is was disappearing, just like every other place in the Front Range.

  • And 30 years ago, a group of people put together some great thoughts; they created a Comprehensive

  • Plan that was focused on preserving at least some of that agricultural land, and preserving

  • the agricultural lifestyle, so that we donít completely lose our heritage, that this county

  • grew from. That Comprehensive Plan helped guide the way for us to preserve quite a few

  • acres here in Boulder County. Actually 25,000 acres, that are currently farmed by small

  • farmers and ranchers. And just as a (there we goÖ maybe) just as a way to understand

  • what 25,000 acres looks like, itís around 40 square miles, thatís approximately the

  • size. Thatís a lot of acreage. And of course, as you know, that land helps buffer our cities,

  • it helps keep our towns and municipalities independent from one another, it contributes

  • to the quality of life here in Boulder County in huge ways; makes a huge difference. So

  • we know weíre on the right track with that Comprehensive Plan, with the open space strategies

  • that we have; putting our efforts into preserving farmland. And certainly in preserving the

  • agricultural way of life.

  • 2:50 But as we look at those 25,000 acres, particularly

  • in regard to some discussions that happened last year, we realize that we need to talk

  • about the cropland policies and strategies that we want to have in place in Boulder County

  • going into the future. How should those 25,000 acres of farmland be farmed? And last year,

  • a very long discussion happened around sugarbeets, what kind of sugarbeets should be grown, and

  • what it means if you donít grow them or if you do grow them. And so that has led us to

  • looking at a framework need for a cropland policy, that is why we are creating a cropland

  • policy advisory committee, to help us work through the process. That group will examine

  • all the issues and lay out

  • the framework for how decisions will be made in the future around our cropland usage in

  • the open space acres that we have. And weíre excited to kick off the dialogue, have a long

  • discussion about it; it was one of the most challenging hearings I think weíve ever been

  • in, certainly for me. I had been in the office for about two years before we jumped into

  • this discussion, and it looks into about every aspect of human life into the discussion that

  • you could think of, and some of you have probably already thought about that. But thatís part

  • of why weíre here today, to start talking about what that framework should look like,

  • and weíre very happy that youíre here to share in the dialogue.

  • Ben Pearlman: Andll just add, that I think it goes without saying, that food is important

  • to all of us, as are our landscapes, the quality of our environment, and this set of discussions

  • concerns all of that, and weíre lucky enough to be in a position in Boulder County where

  • we have over the last couple of decades, preserved this 25,000 acres of land and we have the

  • opportunity to decide how itís going to be managed. And I think thatís something thatís

  • very different than most communities across the Front Range, and I think weíre very lucky

  • to be in this position. Nonetheless, it is a challenging set of issues, and our goal,

  • as a county, is to come up with a path towards sustainable agriculture for the county. We

  • need to have these agricultural lands be productive on into the future, and not just for the values

  • that they provide for wildlife on the edges and the value for buffering between communities,

  • but our food. We believe that local food is going to a tremendous part of the future in

  • Boulder County. People want to be able to consume, eat food that is grown locally and

  • healthfully, and I think itís our obligation to try to work towards that as fast as we

  • possibly can. At a minimum, that means a few things. First, it means a commitment to continue

  • funding the open space program, of the filling out the gaps within our agricultural lands,

  • it means looking at our agricultural infrastructure, which always needs additional funding as far

  • as I can tell from our agricultural managers, but thatís everything from the ditches and

  • flumes and center pivot irrigation systems that allow the water to flow because again,

  • in the arid west, irrigation is tremendously important. Itís also processing facilities,

  • and other ways for farmers to add value to the crops that they grow, and I think we have

  • a lot of work to do on that as well. Itís also finding ways to allow farmers to grow

  • more organic crops on Boulder County open space lands, itís trying to grow farmers

  • themselves. We have some programs in place, and weíre working very hard to try to teach

  • farmers what they need to know in order to run these small farms, market farms, and be

  • successful at it. And then, of course, we need to do what we can as we manage these

  • lands to make available those opportunities to be able to lease out small parcels of land

  • that have the available water rights so that people can create something remarkable on

  • those landscapes. So, I think itís one of the most exciting things we do; I think weíre

  • very lucky to be in this position; weíre also very lucky that just a couple days ago

  • we had another open space ballot measure pass, by a very narrow margin, but this means that

  • we will have resources going into the future to be able to bolster and invest in our agricultural

  • infrastructure and in these lands. And so my thanks go out to the voters of Boulder

  • County and we appreciate their support in what has been a very tough last couple of

  • years in the local economy. Weíre very fortunate. Well with that said, we have some great people

  • to hear from; I think this, what weíre doing today, and what weíve been doing over the

  • last number of years, is I think, the last thing I wanted to mention, which is the engagement

  • of the public in how we manage our lands is tremendously important and weíre deeply grateful

  • to you for being here today. This a joint project, itís a community project, these

  • are all of our lands and how we manage them matters to all of us, so weíre just glad

  • that weíre going to have these kinds of discussions, and have a citizen advisory board for the

  • cropland policy to work with staff on developing that, and this is kicking that off, so thanks

  • to everyone for being here today. Back to David. (applause)

  • 8:12 Well first let me say thanks to the Commissioners

  • for showing up today and kicking us off, I appreciate that, and then I want to say welcome

  • to all of you that have given up a beautiful Saturday afternoon in November here in Colorado,

  • to come here and help us talk about sustainable agriculture here in Boulder County. My name

  • is David Bell, Iím the agricultural resource manager for Boulder County Parks and Open

  • Space. And because we have such a great group of speakers here, I donít want to take too

  • much time, but I think as I heard, even our commissioners talking about some of the terms

  • that we throw around as far as open space, and organic farming, and some of the history

  • weíve had here, I just want to ask, how many people have not been part of this conversation

  • before this forum? So thatís pretty impressive. So, like I said, I want to take a few minutes

  • to kind of put this forum into context of what weíre trying to accomplish, and also

  • kind of put the agricultural program in context of Parks and Open Space, because a lot of

  • times people think about open space programs, theyíre not thinking about agriculture, so

  • something that is unique, and Boulder County again in leading the way in that. So Boulder

  • County protects around 95,000 acres through the open space program. 35,000 of that is

  • through conservation easements. Conservation easements are a program that allows the county

  • to purchase the development rights of a property. And if you think of a property as being a

  • bundle of sticks, you can pull out individual sticks from that bundle. You can sell your

  • mineral rights, you can sell your water rights, you can also sell your development rights.

  • So the county has leveraged some of its funds by buying just those development rights, and

  • allowing the family farmers to keep those grounds, and manage them the way they have

  • throughout their familiesí history. Again, protecting the development of those lands,

  • because development is held by the citizens of Boulder County. The remaining 65,000 acres

  • are called ìfee simpleî propertries. This is property that the county has gone out and

  • found willing sellers, who wanted to negotiate with the county to sell their properties at

  • fair market value, and then once that happens, we as a county take on that property, and

  • the full management of that property. Of those 60,000 acres, 25,000 acres were purchased

  • for agricultural values. As a staff, we donít have the time, the resources, the talent,

  • to go out and keep those lands in productions, so because of that, we partner with local

  • farmers and ranchers to make sure these lands stay productive over time. We call these farmers

  • and ranchers our ìpartners in conservationand these individuals lease the land that

  • produces a diversified variety of crops for our local markets. They range from barley

  • and beans, to kale and corn. And not only do these farmers and ranchers help maintain

  • these lands, but the lease revenues go right back into the open space program. In addition

  • to that, these families farms put right back into the community. These family farms not

  • only purchase their seeds, their crops, insurance, their fertilizers from local dealers, they

  • also purchase food, school supplies and clothes, right here in Boulder County, so that these

  • family farms generate revenue right here in Boulder County as well. While we recognize

  • the importance of our farmers and tenants on open space, we also recognize that these

  • are public lands, and we as stewards of public lands are accountable to the public as well.

  • So, this is where it puts us to day as part of this cropland policy. The Department is

  • in the process of creating this policy which will help us make management decisions that

  • reflect the public values and sentiments of the public, while assuring economic sustainability

  • of agricultural operations, and respecting and enhancing the environmental systems for

  • the foundation of agriculture. This forum is the third in our engagement of the public

  • in this conversation. So again for those of you that this is your first time, weíve also

  • reached out and weíve had an open house at the Boulder County Fairgrounds, where the

  • public has had the opportunity to talk with staff, to talk with farmers about what ranching

  • and farming is like in Boulder County. From then we went ahead and we scheduled tours

  • out in the field. We heard from people that they wanted to get out and see these lands,

  • they wanted to hear from these farmers and ranchers what it was really like out there.

  • So we put together a tour. On our first tour, we rented a bus, we had 50 people, we went

  • out, we looked at a livestock operation, a row crop operation, and a vegetable operation. Those 50 people had

  • a wonderful time. Staff had a wonderful time. I just know when I got done with those tours,

  • you want to get back out again because it was, I think, a great experience. By the second

  • tour, we had over 100 people, by the third tour we had over 200 and some people signed

  • up for this, and again by the fourth, we had the public out there and it allowed over 400

  • people to see Boulder County agriculture on open space. The reaction that I saw from the

  • public was just amazing. It took people back to their childhood with being on farms, it

  • took people that had never been out in a field to see a sugarbeet or corn; the opportunity

  • to get their hands on the products and walk the fields, and again, I think talking to

  • the farmers was a huge part of that too. This now again is this third piece of this conversation,

  • engaging the public in this conversation, about how we manage our public lands for the

  • future. One of the things I want to be sure we are clear about as we talk about this is

  • that Boulder County Parks and Open Space lands and the cropland policy. So weíre only talking

  • about those lands that are owned in fee by the county. So this does not apply to private

  • lands or conservation easements. So with that background, Iíd like to spend a few minutes

  • on logistics of this afternoonís program. So, the program you received when you walked

  • in has a lot of information, so I wonít take a lot of time reading bios, but there are

  • a couple of things Iíd like to go over that will make things go a little smoother. There

  • will be three sessions this afternoon, and between each session there will be a short

  • intermission. During this time, youíll have a chance to purchase some local foods from

  • the 4-H groups out there. Those products were donated by local food merchants, so Iíd like

  • to thank Boulder Popcorn, Moeís Bagels, Boulder Chips, Justinís Nut Butters, and Seth Ellis

  • Chocolatier. All the proceeds from the sales will go back to those local 4-H clubs. Iíd

  • like to thank the kids for selling that as well, because when we talk about the future

  • of food, and we talk about the future of farming, those kids really are our future for farming

  • in this area. And again the adults who have spent time mentoring and teaching these kids.

  • There will also be book sales in the lobby, and the authors will be available to sign

  • those after the event. While we encourage you to buy your products, please enjoy them

  • out in the lobby, because there is no food and drink allowed in here, and weíre trying

  • to respect the school, and make it easy for the staff, so weíd like you to keep your

  • snacks in the lobby. Once youíre in the auditorium, please use the index cards you were provided

  • to write down questions you would like the panel to answer. And does everyone have their

  • index cards? Do we have enough pens to write down stuff? Because we can make sure we get

  • that to you guys as well. These cards will then be collected by staff and then given

  • to the League of Women Voters. They will go through those cards and then they will be

  • the ones to present those questions, and as many of those questions as they can to the

  • panelists when we get to the question and answer period of the program. So, with all

  • that being said, I want to get on to our speakers.

  • 15:55 So itís my pleasure to present the authors

  • of ìTomorrowís Table: Organic Farming, Genetics and the Future of FoodFirst, Raoul Adamchak

  • is an organic farmer and the coordinator at the University of California Davis student

  • farm. Pamela Ronald is a professor of plant pathology at the University of California

  • Davis, and directed the grass genetics at the Joint Bioenergy Institute. Being at what

  • is often considered opposite ends of the farming spectrum, this husband and wife team not only

  • co-authored a book, but are raising two kids and sitting down to dinner together and discussing

  • the future of food. I hope that this is a model for our community, that we can use to

  • begin a civil dialogue about what agriculture in Boulder County will look like. It is now

  • my pleasure to introduce Pam and Raoul.

  • 16:41 Pamela Ronald Thank you all for coming today, we appreciate

  • having you here on a beautiful day, and many thanks to David Bell, heís gone to extraordinary

  • effort to arrange this symposium, and heís been a terrific host. So thank you very much.

  • So before we start the talk, I wanted to just run a two-minute movie, because I find it

  • really frames the debate well. (You can hit the button.)

  • 20:26 And really, this is where Raoul and I began

  • our discussion. And we know through conversation with friends and colleagues, and family members,

  • that there still remain critical questions about agriculture, and particularly about

  • genetically engineered crops, and organic production. Many of our friends have asked

  • us if organic agriculture can produce enough food to feed the world, and many people have

  • asked us if genetically engineered crops are safe to eat, and safe for the environment.

  • So, this book is really our response to those questions, and what we try to do is take the

  • reader into the lives of an organic farmer and a geneticist, so the reader can find out

  • what we actually do. And also, we try to distinguish between fact and fiction in the debate on

  • crop genetics and genetic engineering. So, Iíd like to introduce my husband Raoul, who

  • will begin the talk, and thenll jump in in a little bit.

  • 21:08 Raoul Adamchak You might think that an organic farmer and

  • a plant geneticist wouldnít have much in common. But we do, I mean aside from food

  • and the kids and a love of the outdoors, we also have a sense that agriculture needs to

  • have an ecological basis, needs to be environmentally sound. The kind of agriculture we have today,

  • we have one where agriculture varies globally, in the west, we have a very productive agriculture,

  • feeds everyone, food is abundant, relatively low cost. In Africa and other parts of the

  • developing world, food production is a disaster. Thereís not enough food being grown, thereís

  • malnutrition, thereís starvation. Both in the U.S. and Europe, and the rest of the world,

  • there are a lot of harmful pesticides being applied, there are soluble synthetic fertilizers,

  • nitrogen, being the most commonly applied, that contaminate the environment, thereís

  • continued soil erosion around the world thatís taking cropland out of production. On top

  • of that, there are a billion people in the world that are undernourished now. And we

  • expect, demographers expect another two and a half billion people in the world that need

  • to be fed in the next 40 years. We also have, unfortunately, climate change, where itís

  • going to impact agriculture with increased flooding, and drought. On the left here, those

  • are the Himalayas, and the glaciers are melting there. They provide water for (I didnít do

  • thatÖ donít know where those lights came fromÖ.) the glaciers are providing water

  • for much of South Asia, India, China, where the majority of the worldís population lives

  • and needs to be fed. In Africa, there are ongoing severe droughts that have impacted

  • agriculture a great deal. And itís going to get worse.

  • 24:00 California has been a model state in a few ways; one of which is that they keep

  • track of pesticide use. This is a graph of millions of pounds of pesticides that have

  • been used in California, roughly for the past ten years. Over those ten years, there has

  • been 40,000 agricultural acres fewer each year due to urban development, and yet pesticide

  • use has not gone down significantly over those years, although there have been a lot of programs

  • that have gotten rid of some of the worst toxic pesticides. But as you can see,

  • thereís still a tremendous amount used today. At least in California, those pesticides are

  • used more or less safely, and there are on average about a thousand pesticide related

  • illnesses every year in California. And itís also been shown that pesticides cause non-hodgkins

  • lymphoma, can lead to Hodgkinsons disease, Alzheimers disease, and other diseases of

  • human beings. Pesticides also kill a lot of beneficial insects and contaminate water,

  • kill fish, and in California theyíre used largely safely. In developing countries, where

  • 20% of pesticides are used, theyíre not used particularly safely. This is a Peruvian potato

  • farmer. Heís spraying fungicides on his potatoes. He has no gloves, he doesnít have a resperator,

  • those are his clothes heís going to wear home, and as a consequence of practices like

  • this, the World Health Organization estimates that there are 3 million cases of severe pesticide

  • poisoning a year, that result in 300,000 deaths. (hmmm, here we go). Fertilizer run off, especially

  • nitrogen, affects agricultural systems in the U.S. and around the world.

  • This is the Gulf of Mexico, and on the left, you have a dead ocean, and on the right you

  • have a living ocean. This is caused by nitrogen runoff from the Midwest that causes eutrophication,

  • algal blooms take off from the nitrogen; microbes break the algae down, they take all the oxygen

  • out of the water, and you get a big dead zone. This is a 6,500 square mile dead zone that

  • forms at the mouth of the Mississippi. Itís one of 200 major dead zones that form in the

  • U.S. And if you thought that nitrogen use is in decline, it certainly is not, itís

  • been increasing since 1952, and is going to continue to go up around the world, and I

  • say around the world because, the majority of nitrogen use these days is in the far east,

  • is in India, China, Bangladesh. We use our share here in North America, but if we have

  • the environmental problems here thatve shown you, you can imagine whatís going on

  • in Asia at this point.

  • 28:13 The third big environmental problem generated by agriculture around the world

  • is soil erosion. This is an Iowa farm field that is headed for the gulf of Mexico. And

  • as a result of erosion, weíre losing 10 million hectares a year (itís going by itself nowÖ

  • next slideÖ there we go). So as a consequence of erosion, weíve already lost 30% of arable

  • land. So at a time when we need more land, for more food to be grown, we have less. This

  • map shows you the very degraded soils around the world. So with this understanding we have

  • of what the conventional agriculture system is looking like at this point, Pam and I sat

  • down and thought of criteria for more sustainable agriculture. And if you did the same thing,

  • you would come up with a similar set, I think, maybe a few other things. But, the important

  • parts, are that thereís social, economic and environmental aspects to it all, andve

  • talked about some of the environmental ones: reducing erosion, reducing soil fertility,

  • clearly we also have to reduce energy use, for the County, youíre talking about local

  • food security, but itís an issue around the world. Everyone wants safe and nutritious

  • food, economically, the economics are somewhat a two-edged sword. You want to have an economically

  • viable farm, and sustainable rural communities, but you also want to have affordable food.

  • So, as an organic farmer, I think that organic farming has a lot to contribute to this, toward

  • our goals of sustainable agriculture. And a lot of them are in the farming practices

  • of organic agriculture. This is my farm at UC Davis, and you can see itís a diverse

  • in terms of crops, and itís also biodiverse. We have refuges for insects as well, we use

  • crop rotation, we support our beneficial insects and augment our beneficial organisms. We use

  • resistant varieties to help avoid diseases, and as a consequence, our farm, and organic

  • farms as a whole, have been shown to use 97% fewer pesticides than conventional farms.

  • And this is not to say that we donít have any crop losses. But weíve been remarkably

  • successful, and I think organic farmers as a whole have been remarkably successful growing

  • crops with a minimum of crop loss. Thereís been research done also that organic ag reduces

  • nitrogen leaching out of the soil, depending on a study from 50 to 80 percent, and also

  • depending on the cropping system. And the way thatís done is through the use of compost,

  • which helps build soils, but another important aspect of compost is that it fosters recycling

  • of waste out of both agriculture and urban environments. In California, it was mandated

  • about in the year 2000, that 50% of the waste stream that was going into the landfills had

  • to be diverted into something else. And a big chunk of that turned out to be urban green

  • waste, that is now being made into compost. Thereís a local producer that processes 1,000

  • tons of green waste a day out of urban areas, and the majority of that is going out to farms,

  • out to organic farms, to be used as a nutrient source.

  • 33:40 The other tool that organic farmers use are cover crops to build soil, organic

  • matter, to add nitrogen. This is a crop that grows over the winter in California. Itís

  • vetch and bell beans, and it can fix about 150 lbs. of nitrogen a year per acre. I must

  • say too, that, cover crops are not free, in that thereís the cost of planting the seed,

  • and thereís the time that the crop has to be in the ground. In California, itís an

  • ideal place to grow cover crops, because we have a long winter, the temperatures arenít

  • too cold, and it turns out to be a very good way to add nitrogen and organic matter to

  • the soil. In other parts of the world, where the winters are colder, or there are dry seasons

  • where things donít grow, then growing cover crops can be more of a challenge. Thereíve

  • been a number of studies that have shown that the use of cover crops and compost helps to

  • build soil, and reduce soil erosion. This is a mix here of cow peas on the left, that

  • we planted as a cover crop over the summer, and then we have our fall crops, broccoli

  • and kale growing next to that.

  • So, Iíve talked about how organic agriculture can reduce pesticide use, provide alternatives

  • to soluble synthetic fertilizers, and help reduce erosion, and so you might ask, well,

  • is that enough, is that all we need to do? (oops, letís try that again.) Unfortunately,

  • I think the answer to that question is no, and there are a couple of reasons. There are

  • some pests and diseases and stresses that are really difficult to control using organic

  • methods. We have problems with nematodes and many of our soils in California, we have on

  • the farm an obscure pest called synphylums, very difficult to control, there are viruses,

  • and there really arenít organic ways of controlling. Of course, there are abiotic stresses that

  • are drought, and flooding, that farming practices can only impact so far. Also, in organic agriculture,

  • there are some pesticides that are allowed in the organic system, that if you were going

  • to start from scratch, you might not allow in, you might not think that they were completely

  • sustainable products. That includes copper as a fungicide, or sodium nitrate a fertilizer.

  • Theyíre not that benign on the environment.

  • There have been many, many yield studies about organic agriculture, and I could consolidate

  • them by saying that the studies have shown that organics systems can yield 45-100% of

  • conventional systems. I was an inspector for about 10 years in California, inspected a

  • lot of farms, and for the most part, my observations would be that organic yields are very, very

  • close to conventional yields. But there are some farms I visited, like rice farms, where

  • yields were commonly 50-80% of conventional, because of weed problems that the growers

  • were unable to manage.

  • And finally, the last one, the double-edged sword, I like organic agriculture because

  • itís been able to provide a living for a lot of farmers, a decent living, but the other

  • side of that is that many times organic food becomes too expensive for low income consumers.

  • And thatís true here in the U.S., but if organic food is being grown in developing

  • countries, itís a different economic situation there. So, this is a slide of ñ itís a little

  • hard to get a grasp on it ñ but this is a slide of an Ecuadorian hillside, thatís being

  • farmed, and you can see the top there, on the top, and then to me, the side of this

  • hillside looks vertical. And especially as a farmer thatís growing in California, on

  • utterly flat ground, this is mind-boggling to me. But we have a situation in the world

  • where the populationís increasing. We need more land if weíre going to feed people,

  • unless we can increase yields on the land that we already have. And itís estimated,

  • that without additional yield increases, with the population increasing, that weíre going

  • to need a doubling of cropland by 2050. Well, we donít have a doubling of cropland. It

  • just doesnít exist within the world. So the food we need is going to have to come from

  • the land we have already under production. But one pathway, maybe, to help solve this

  • problem, is that presently we have 30-60% of yield is lost to pest, diseases and environmental

  • stress, so if we can reduce losses, itís the same as increasing yields. So we have

  • a situation where we need to increase yields, and we need to do it in an environmentally

  • sustainable way. Plant breeding has been the traditional method over the years of both

  • increasing yields, and breeding crops that are resistant to pests. And Pam is now going

  • to talk about modern genetic approaches that can help us achieve these goals of sustainable

  • agriculture that weíve laid out here.

  • 41:30 Pamela Ronald So I want to talk about some modern approaches

  • to crop improvement, and in particular, how scientists have developed new crops through

  • these approaches to reduces losses due to pest, disease, and environmental stresses.

  • So the first story I want to share with you is papaya ring spot virus. This is a papaya,

  • and plants, as animals, can be infected by viral pathogens, and these pathogens can be

  • quite devastating. This shows you, you can see these little rings, these are called ring

  • spots caused by papaya ring spot virus, and this is a very severe disease. In fact, in

  • the 1950s, the entire Oahu crop was destroyed by papaya ring spot virus. This is particularly

  • important to Californians, because all of our papaya comes from Hawaii. So the farmers

  • had no way to control this disease, no conventional approach, no pesticide they could spray, no

  • organic approach, and so what they had to do was move. And they moved to the island

  • of Hawaii, all the papaya orchards. And then, unfortunately, in 1992, the virus was discovered

  • in Hawaii. And very quickly, the production started to plummet. And by 1995, the production

  • had dropped 20-fold and papaya growers there were facing the complete loss of their industry.

  • And these are small farms; many of the farmers are recent immigrants from the Philipines.

  • So, along came Dennis Gonzales. He is a local Hawaiian, and he had been very interested

  • in this new concept at that time of genetically engineered crops. So what he did was take

  • a snippet of a mild strain of a papaya, and he introduced that into the papaya, and in

  • a way itís like vaccinating the papaya, just as humans go to get vaccinated once a year

  • for severe diseases, this is conceptually similar and has the potential to eradicate

  • certain diseases as weíve almost eradicated polio and smallpox. So this was an extremely

  • successful project. (I think itís getting ahead of itself hereÖ soÖ I want to go to

  • this slide, thank you.) So this shows you ñ I should say this project was funded by

  • the USDA, a nonprofit agency, for about a cost of $60,000, so this was many years ago

  • before there were very expensive regulatory requirements, you know the regulation was

  • basically OK, you put a fence around your field, which is what he did. So you can see

  • the transgenic papayas grown here on the center and on the outside here is the conventional

  • papaya. This is a natural field inoculum. All the farms in the area look like this and

  • the transgenic virus can carry any small snippet of viral protein, and it looks like this.

  • And I should mention, you can eat the papaya thatís infected with the ring spot virus,

  • but it has a lot of viral proteins and RNA, and the main problem of course is for the

  • farmer, who canít produce much of it. So this was a very successful project. Today,

  • 80-90% of all Hawaiian papaya is transgenic, and thereís still no other method to control

  • this disease.

  • So I also wanted to talk about another very severe pest, this is a cotton boll worm; heís

  • emerging from his boll. And he looks pretty ferocious, and he is. Itís estimated that

  • 25% of the worldís insecticide is used to control this single pest. Now this then, is

  • an excellent target for figuring out how to develop genetic engineering approaches, and

  • geneticists took a page from the organic farmer, because itís been shown for many years, that

  • thereís a protein call Bt thatís produced by a bacteria called Baccilus therengensis,

  • thatís very effective for controlling this particular pest. And itís very specific as

  • well, so it doesnít affect non-target insects. So, this is, now, geneticists took the gene,

  • and introduced it to many crops, including cotton, and this is one of the genetically

  • engineered crops thatís grown widely around the world. This is a farmer in Arizona in

  • his field. Thereís some really fantastic studies over the past 14 years, showing that

  • an integrated pest management approach is working very well to reduce insecticides,

  • and also to prevent resistance of the insects to this toxin. The Bt cotton fields, the farmers

  • in those fields, use half the amount of insecticides than their neighboring farms growing conventional

  • cotton, and they achieve the same yields. And itís also been well documented that thereís

  • increased biodiversity as measured by ant and beetle species richness in these fields

  • compared to conventional fields next door. And itís not hard to understand why, because

  • when youíre no longer spraying broad spectrum insecticides, non target insects can flourish.

  • And itís not only in the United States where this has had a huge effect. This is a farmer

  • in India, and thereís been tremendous increases in yield in India, and enormous reduction

  • in insecticide uses, and those two combinations have lead to a very large profit gain and

  • thereís one study showing that these profits are shared throughout the villages in a variety

  • of ways. So thereís great socieoeconomic benefits in countries like India. In China,

  • within a couple of years of introducing Bt cotton, growers were able to reduce about

  • 160 million lbs. of insecticide. This is significant, so if you recall, Raoul said we use about

  • 180 million lbs in California every year, just to give you an idea of how much insecticide

  • was reduced. And this reduction in insecticide correlates with increased health of farmers

  • and their families, and that was published in Sience a number of years ago. So, I wanted

  • to say that, you know, one common thread in the debate on crop genetic area I hear again

  • and again, is, well, you know, I donít want to just use seed, you have to use integrated

  • approaches. And thatís exactly right. You canít rely on seed to solve all your problems.

  • It doesnít really matter if itís a conventionally improved seed, genetically improved seed,

  • or genectically engineered seed; seed is seed and it can only go so far for transforming

  • an agricultural system; you also need to have very careful farming practices, and thatís

  • been shown for a lot of studies now, particularly for Bt, and many of these studies were lead

  • by Tabashnik and his colleagues in the University of Arizona. So for example in China, after

  • these dramatic reductions in insecticide use, other insects began to increase, and thatís

  • because farmers no longer sprayed these broad spectrum insecticides, and then there was

  • no way to control these other types of insects that arose. And theyíve shown in Arizona

  • that other insects can be suppressed by many different types of management practices, which

  • really proves that you need to integrate the use of genetically engineered seed with these

  • management practices. And theyíve also shown globally that you can reduce evolution of

  • insects that are resistant to this toxin by doing crop rotation, sort of an integrated

  • program, where you plant GE seed next to non-GE seed. And again, this is true with any type

  • of seed, whether itís genetically engineered or not. If you reduce the selection pressure,

  • you can reduce the possibility that insects will evolve resistance. So you really need

  • to integrate the best seed that you that you have with ecological farming practices.

  • So, I just have one slide on herbicide tolerant crops. These crops have also been planted

  • very widely throughout the globe, and again for about 14 years, so thereís a lot of data

  • about how these crops are behaving. They have really two advantages. Thereís been a shift

  • to the use of less toxic herbicides in these round-ups, so the use of round-up ready crops

  • that are genetically engineered to confer resistance to this herbicide round-up, which

  • is considered class 4 non-toxic, and so the growers can spray to control weeds using this

  • herbicide instead of some of the other herbicides. Ö. Iím sure the growers in the audience

  • can speak to this. So thereís been Ö less toxic herbicides, and more importantly as

  • weíve shown in the movie, 30% of greenhouse gases are from agriculture. So if we can reduce

  • those emissions from agriculture, we can have really a very huge beneficial impact on the

  • climate, and thereís also Ö showing that just in the years from 1996 to 2005, the plant

  • of herbicide tolerant crops reduced a huge amount of greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent

  • to removing 4 million cars from the road, this is about 20% of all the cars in England.

  • 51:50 So I wanted to just finish with work from my lab. Iíve worked on rice for 20 years,

  • and I chose to work on this crop because itís a staple food for half the worldís people,

  • and any incremental small improvements you can make in productivity of rice will really

  • have a very large impact on a large number people. And this just shows you a typical

  • breakfast of a family in Mali. Theyíre cooking rice porridge. And this is one point I wanted

  • to make. Rice is almost throughout the world, except perhaps in California, and some of

  • the other large farms in the United States, is grown on very small farms, of two hectares

  • or less, and this is a family farm in Egypt. So, importantly, we also need to consider

  • that as the climate changes, large areas of some countries, including Bangladesh, are

  • expected to be submerged and Bangladeshi people get two-thirds of their total caloric diet

  • from rice. If you look at these kids in the field; these plants will survive the flood,

  • but the ones here will not. And thatís because rice likes to grow in the water, but if itís

  • submerged for more than three days, it will Ö And this causes severe problems in this

  • area, where subsistence farming is being carried out. Ö I just wanted to show you; Raoul mentioned

  • the Himalayas, and those , thereís aabout five rivers that irrigate this entire area

  • of southeast asia. As the climate changes, thereís increasing flash floods and melting

  • of these glaciers, and itís already creating problems in these countries. Eastern India,

  • Thailand, Burma, Bangladesh. Itís critical because 25% of the worldís rice is grown

  • in this area, and this is where a huge proportion of the worldís population is living. (Weíre

  • fighting back and forth about whoís going to click itÖ). So in Bangladesh and India

  • alone, I was just trying to give you an idea about just how much rice is lost every year

  • to flooding. Itís estimated that 4 million tons of rice just in these two countries,

  • enough to feed 30 million people, is just lost every year to floods. So this has been

  • an important goal for many years, of plant breeders and plant geneticists to develop

  • new varieties, that can withstand these floods. And, about 50 years ago, there was an old

  • rice variety, called flood resistant rice, that was shown to be highly tolerant to submergence.

  • And unlike all modern varieties grown all over the world, this variety (ummm, would

  • you go back pleaseÖ) this variety is very tolerant to submergence (would you go back

  • pleaseÖ I thinkll just say ënext slideí and thenll put this thing down, that might

  • work a little better). And so, what I wanted to say here is that this has been an important

  • goal, and this particular variety could stay under water for 14 days, as opposed to 3 days,

  • and then come out alive. So itís almost like this variety can almost hold its breath under

  • water. The issue though is that this variety has not been used for 50-100 years, because

  • it has very poor yield, poor taste, and farmers in Bangledesh and India have rejected it.

  • So the idea was to bring this trait into modern varieties, locally adapted varieties. Breeders

  • had tried to do this really for about 50 years, but itís a very complex trait and very difficult

  • to introduce a single gene without bringing in a lot of other traits. So in conventional

  • breeding, when you do these crosses, you bring in, you mix large sets of uncharacterized

  • genes, and thereís a lot of genes in this whole variety that farmers donít want, because

  • it reduces the yield, it reduces flavor, it doesnít flower at the right time, and so

  • conventional breeding failed to develop a variety that was acceptable to farmers. So

  • about 10 years ago, I started working with a rice breeder, whoís now in the international

  • rice breeding research institute, to see if we could use the modern genetic approaches

  • of gene isolation and genetic engineering and precision breeding to develop a new rice

  • variety.

  • (Next side please.) And my lab was able to isolate a gene that confers tolerance to flooding

  • and is called sub1a for the submergence tolerance 1 gene. This shows you some of the experiments

  • in my lab. On the left is the conventional variety, the non-genetically engineered variety,

  • for submergence. On the right are the two GE varieties that we developed. So actually

  • Ö .the same genetic background Ö Before submergence they look fine. Itís really very

  • important, because flooding is unpredictable So you need to develop a variety that will

  • behave well without floods and when floods are there.

  • (Next slide please.) So this is what the plants look like after 16 days of submergence. The

  • conventional variety is all droopy, itís yellow, itís losing its chloryphyll which

  • is needed for photosynthesis; itís actually the leaves are elongated and itís a little

  • bit hard to see, but the rice plant is growing very quickly, itís trying to grow out of

  • the water, but it really doesnít have a chance. So, the GE variety on the right, are very

  • clever, theyíre just sitting there and thinking, ëwell, weíre just going to wait until that

  • flooding goes awayItís almost like theyíre holding their breath under water. (Next slide

  • please.) And this is what it looks like seven days later, after the recovery, and you can

  • see that the conventional variety dies, and the GE varieties now can re-grow, and can

  • now produce seed. (Next slide please.) So, my collaborator David McHillÖ, used this

  • basic knowledge, developed through genetic approaches to introduce this gene using a

  • very precise approach called precision breeding, or marker assisted breeding, and he was able

  • to introduce this gene into many different genetic backgrounds.

  • (Next slide please.) And you can see Samba vs. Samba sub 1. This is a field experiment

  • in the Phillipines after 17 days of submergence, so you can see the difference between the

  • conventional variety and the new variety, Ö with the same genetic background called

  • IRIS64. So these were very promising field tests, under controlled conditions.

  • (Next slide please.) I wanted to give you a time lapse video, to give you an idea of

  • the power of genetics. And again, this is in the field, in the Philipines, and this

  • is a time lapse video over 4 months. (If you click, letís see if this thing runs.) So

  • on the left is the new variety that the team developed; on the right is the conventional

  • variety; the flood comes, stays for about 1 days, this is the growth after the flood

  • recedes, and now the varieties on the left are the golden grain that are producing. And

  • this field test the variety Sub1 had three-fold increase in yield. So I like this slide because

  • it really shows the power of genetics, itís a very small genetic region, thatís been

  • introduces, and importantly, my collaborator showed that the field characteristics, which

  • are important to farmers, are completely identical. So the differences are really only after flooding.

  • (Next slide please.) So, Dave led field tests in many fields in India, Bangladesh, and Indonesia,

  • and what you see, our team visited a couple years ago, and we visited this group of farmers

  • in India, and on the left you can see the control field, and on the right, you can see

  • the sworn of sub 1 varieties. And you can understand then why the farmers are smiling.

  • Theyíre seeing even more dramatic increases in their fields than weíve seen in control

  • plots. Theyíve seen 3-5 fold increases in field. This is another site in eastern India,

  • and then on the lower right is in Bangladesh. And the field tests have been carried out

  • for four years now, and every year the floods come, and theyíve seen a 4-45 fold increase

  • in yield (next slide please, I have just one more). We also visited a place in Eastern

  • India called Orissa. (Next slide please.) And this is a womanÖ so you know, itís typical,

  • the men are out there doing the field testing, and the women are all in the village, you

  • know, hanging back. So we went over to talk to them, and it was really a wonderful experience

  • to get their impression of the rice (if you click, click one more time, one more clickÖ).

  • And so we heard this a lot from farmers, and this really was a fantastic program led by

  • the International Rice Research Institute, it was a participatory breeding program, so

  • the scientists were able to talk with the farmers; the farmers were able to give us

  • their input. (Next slide please.)

  • So thatís really the few examples we wanted to give you. I hope weíve demonstrated the

  • power of genetics and the power of seed, as well as the power of farming practices and

  • I wanted to just run through where we are in plant genetics today, because I often realize

  • that talking to audiences that itís not really understood whatís going on in the world of

  • biology. So this little plant is called ërabbitopsisitís a model, what we call a model plant.

  • It grows in Petri dishes; you can grow it from seed to seed in six weeks so you can

  • do lots of genetic experiments and understand what genes are controlling important stresses.

  • (Next slide please. One more click.) In the year 2000, the genome sequence was released.

  • This took seven years, $70 million, and 500 people. And one comment I hear really quite

  • often, is ëplant genetics is too expensiveí and ëletís put the money elsewhereí but

  • technology changes. And just to give you an example ñ and you know, this is pretty expensive

  • ñ next year the same project is expected to take two to three minutes and cost $99.

  • And then I have a couple more images you can click through. And so itís not only the rabbitopsis

  • genome, we have the rice genome. We have the corn genome. A couple weeks ago, the cocoa

  • genome was released. We have the wheat genome is being sequenced. And we not only have a

  • single genome from one variety, weíre now able to explore diverse genetic diversity

  • in many different varieties. And thatís critical, because there are 80,000 different rice varieties.

  • It has been saved and seed banks. Much of that biodiversity has been untapped for all

  • the years of breeding because we donít really understand how to get the genes from those

  • varieties into our modern varieties, and so thereís a huge push now in plant biology

  • to really tap into that deep genetic reservoir, and develop plants that can withstand pest,

  • disease and environmental stresses. Next slide. So I just wanted to have you, for a moment,

  • imagine your children, your grandchildren, and imagine if we make no changes. If we make

  • no changes to our agriculture. If we think what we have is good enough, you know, what

  • that would mean for the world as the population increases. We have not only very little arable

  • land left to farm, we have less water available, fresh water available now than we had 50 years

  • ago, and thereís no more water now that we can generate. And so it is really important

  • that people work together. I really admire what you all are trying to do here, and talk

  • about many of these important aspects of farming, and see what you do locally will have an affect

  • globally. I think every farming community needs to be ecologically minded, and productive.

  • Next slide please. And so, this is just a child, sitting on her bag of rice, and I think

  • ll just close by saying, you know, we really feel, based on the evidence from many many

  • years, that it is very possible to feed the growing population in and ecological manner,

  • and that we should use the best science based information, and the best farming practices

  • to accomplish this. So thank you.

  • David Bell. Thank you Pam and Raoul. And right now weíre going to take our first break.

  • If I could get people back here by 4:30, again because of the technical problems we had at

  • the beginning of the program, weíre running a little behind. If our panelists could come

  • up to the stage a little before, that would be great, and if our techs could come up here

  • and help get these micís set up that would be appreciated. Thank you.

Boulder County Presents: Sustainable Agriculture Forum

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持続可能な農業フォーラム 第1部 基調講演者 (Sustainable Agriculture Forum Part 1: Keynote Speakers)

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    ykk に公開 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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