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In
Prosser, you'll find weed scientist Marty Williams researching methods
of reducing weed problems among rotated crops, and biological weed
control techniques to decrease crop loss to weeds. Decreasing crop
loss by only 2 percent would increase Washington's irrigated crop
yields by as much as $40 million yearly.
In Mt. Vernon, vegetable
pathologist Lindsey duToit is developing programs to control diseases
in vegetable and seed crops in northwest Washington where three counties
produce more than $200 million worth of these crops.
Dryland cropping
specialist Dennis Tonks, based in Davenport, is helping farmers implement
and improve direct seeding techniques, significantly reducing soil
erosion and potentially reducing costly applications of chemical fertilizers
and herbicides. A direct seeding conference in Spokane recently drew
900 attendees.
In Puyallup, food and farming systems specialist (WHO??)
is working with small and urban area farmers to improve their production
and profitability, and to develop local markets for organic and fresh
locally grown crops.
Down the hall, Joe Harrison, dairy specialist/scientist,
is busily working to help livestock farmers reduce the leachable nitrogen
and phosphorus in manure. By adjusting the diets of dairy cattle,
nitrates in manure could be reduced by 25 percent, improving the quality
of groundwater, streams and rivers.
And, around the WSU Pullman campus
you'll find-among others-microbiologist Dong-Hyun Kang developing
new and faster methods of detecting microbial contamination in such
products as milk and apple juice, rangeland specialist Jim Dobrowolski
advancing watershed management techniques to protect water quality,
and molecular epidemiologist Doug Call researching the impacts of
microbial resistance to antibiotics used in agriculture.
Even though
they are spread across the state and work in a variety of disciplines,
these and several other scientists-20 in all-are a part of a team
brought on at WSU to improve the safety of our food supply and improve
productivity for the people who produce it.
The effort is funded by
a $7.5 million appropriation from the state legislature approved in
1999 as the Safe Food Initiative (SFI). College of Agriculture and
Home Economics Dean Jim Zuiches explains that the multidisciplinary
approach of the initiative is designed to address issues related to
food safety in three major areas: food quality and safety, safe production
and natural resources protection.
"Assuring food safety involves more
than just looking at the microbiology, it's looking at the entire
process from production to processing to the consumer," Zuiches said.
"Our objective is to address food safety at all levels, essentially
from the farmer's field to the consumer's table."
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In the category
of protecting resources, five SFI faculty members are working to address
critical issues associated with animal agriculture with strategies
to reduce the potential for surface and groundwater contamination
from animal wastes.
The work of eight faculty members is helping growers
produce foods more safely by improving strategies for dealing with
insects, weeds, plant diseases and soil fertility.
Another seven new faculty are addressing food quality and safety with their work on new and improved techniques for detecting and eliminating foodborne pathogens, reducing crop loss in production and handling, and informing the public about food safety issues.
Members of the SFI "team" have integrated their efforts into those of existing research and extension teams across the state to accelerate as well as add new dimensions to work already under way to improve food safety.
According to Zuiches, the work being done on food safety is critical to Washington's leading industry, agriculture, which is grappling with increasingly competitive world markets and increasing challenges in protecting environmental quality. The federal Food Quality Protection Act, for example, could ultimately remove up to 40 percent of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides traditionally used in growing more than 200 crops in Washington State.
"We need to be at the forefront of finding alternatives to these chemicals that are disappearing from availability," Zuiches said. "The Safe Food Initiative is helping WSU provide growers and processors with new tools for improving productivity and for cost-effectively complying with tougher environmental standards."
The efforts of the SFI "team" will also give consumers greater confidence in Washington-grown foods, which in turn will help preserve and expand markets, Zuiches said.
"We've assembled an excellent team, and we're off to a good start," he said.
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