Vegetable Crops Edition
Seasonal updates and alerts on insects, diseases, and weeds impacting vegetable crops. New Jersey Commercial Vegetable Production Recommendations updates between annual publication issues are included.
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Rutgers Weather Forecasting - Meteorological Information important to commercial agriculture.
EPA Update on Existing Stocks Provisions for Three Chlorpyrifos Products (with Editor commentary)
EPA Update on Existing Stocks Provisions for Three Chlorpyrifos Products (with Editor commentary)
Endangered Species Act: What will soon change for pesticide labelling and uses?
Endangered Species Act and Pesticides: How will pesticide labels change to protect endangered species?
Wednesday, March 20 at 11 a.m – Webinar
Enacted in 1973, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) requires all federal agencies to consider the impact to threatened and endangered species and their critical habitat when making decisions. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has faced numerous lawsuits for its failure to consider the Act when issuing pesticide registrations—resulting in a 2023 commitment from the Agency’s Office of Pesticide Programs that puts the ESA at the forefront of all future registrations and some registration renewals.
The NYS IPM program at Cornell will be hosting Dr. Bill Chism, Chair of the Endangered Species Act Committee for the Weed Science Society of America (WSSA), to give a webinar on March 20th (at 11 a.m.) with the following objectives:
- • Inform us about the history of Endangered Species Act (ESA),
- Discuss the requirements of all Federal agencies to comply with the ESA,
- Describe the EPA’s current workplan (including the proposed Herbicide Strategy) to meet their statutory obligations,
- Explains what this might mean for future pesticide labeling efforts.
Registration: Endangered Species Act and Pesticides: An Example | CALS (cornell.edu)
About the Speaker
Bill Chism is the chair of the Endangered Species Act Committee of the Weed Science Society of America (WSSA). He retired after more than two decades with the EPA, where he conducted assessments on the benefits of pesticides to farmers as part of the registration review process. Bill grew up working on a vegetable farm in the Salinas Valley of California. He worked in extension researching weed control research on vegetable crops before earning his PhD in Weed Science from Virginia Tech and spent 10 years working for a pesticide registrant.
Four Water Samples Required for Harvest and Post-Harvest Water Under Food Safety Modernization Act Produce Safety Rule
Growers that have been testing their wells for years have been asking us if that historical data would meet the four-sample requirement for FSMA for the first year and the answer we got from the FDA is NO.
What that means for you:
For harvest and post-harvest water, you are required to test each well for non-detectable generic E. coli four times in the first year. If all initial results meet the numerical requirements of 112.44(a) (no detectable generic E. coli per 100 ml) then you are only required to test those harvest and post-harvest water wells once a year moving forward.
The four-sampling requirement is now in effect for operations over $250,000 and smaller operations ($25,000-250,000) will be required starting in January 2025. Remember not all wells need to be tested four times. It is only water from wells used in harvesting or in the packing area which come in direct contact with the produce or the harvesting and packing equipment during cleaning and sanitizing.
Here is the answer we got from the FDA:
“As farms come into compliance with harvest and post-harvest agricultural water requirements, those growers who are using untreated ground water for the purposes of 112.44(a) must test the water 4x per year initially. If all initial results meet the numerical requirements of 112.44(a) (no detectable generic E. coli per 100 ml), then the grower may reduce the testing frequency to one sample year, as long as the agricultural water continues to be reflective of use. FDA may consider guidance on what growers might be able to do with historical data as compliance and implementation guidance is developed.”
Free webinar: Tools for Weed Identification and Management – March 14
Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Cape May County will host a free, virtual presentation for farmers:
Tools for Weed Identification and Management
Thursday, March 14, 2024
6:00 to 7:00 p.m
The presenter will be Thierry E. Besançon, PhD, Associate Professor and Extension Weed Science Specialist for Specialty Crops, Rutgers University, Philip E. Marucci Center for Blueberry and Cranberry Research and Extension.
The informational talk, geared to local farmers, will review some of the available tools (books, apps, etc.) for helping with identification of weeds, cover nonchemical and chemical strategies for controlling weeds, and talk about what the future of weed management looks like.
Advanced registration for this presentation is required. To register, go to: https://go.rutgers.edu/xsvkelyg. You will receive the zoom meeting invitation with your registration confirmation.
For more information, please call 609-465-5115, ext. 3615 or email capemayag@njaes.rutgers.edu.
USDA just released the new Harmonized GAP Standard and Harmonized Plus+ Standard Audits.
The standards go into effect May 1, 2024.
There are several changes related to section numbers and deleted numbers so if you have your audit plan setup by section number check to make sure they have not changed. Also, eight questions have been added.
Following is a summary of those questions:
- G 2.4 – Approved service provider list required (the grower approves the list)
- G 7.2 – A designated recall team is required
- G 7.3 – Must perform a mock recall exercise annually
- G 11.5 – Must have labels and instructions for any water treatment chemical used
- G 11.8 – Compressed air or other gases contacting food or food contact surfaces must be maintained
- F 6.3 – Must have a procedure for storing and handling growing media (e.g., perlite, peat, rock wool, etc.)
- F 9.4 – Re-used water must be treated with a labeled product
- P 5.2 – A master cleaning schedule with standard operating procedures (SOP) must be established ·
There are two documents for each audit: Harmonized GAP Standard (v 3.0) or Harmonized GAP Plus+ standard (v 5.0). Each also have a summary of changes document will be help finding the changes.
Go to: Harmonized GAP | Agricultural Marketing Service (usda.gov) to download a copy of each standard.
