April 8, 2016
CapitalPress.com
9
Analysis: Organic market shows gaps, promise
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
Courtesy of USDA
Scientists and industry representatives walk through a curly top screening nursery at USDA’s Agricul-
tural Research Service in Kimberly, Idaho. A doubled-haploid line developed in Kimberly has demon-
strated the best curly top tolerance ever in the testing.
Exceptional curly top resistance
confirmed in Kimberly breeding beet
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
KIMBERLY, Idaho — Sci-
entists say a new USDA sugar
beet line developed for breed-
ing programs to use as a parent
in crosses has demonstrated
the best curly top virus resis-
tance ever recorded in repeat-
ed trials.
Molecular biologist Imad
Eujayl, who developed the
breeding line, KDHL13, at
USDA’s Agricultural Research
Service in Kimberly, said it
has also provided researchers
a better understanding of the
genetics behind curly top re-
sistance.
Eujayl said scientists com-
piled a “gene expression li-
brary” by studying KDHL13’s
genetic response to curly top
infection. He anticipates his
station will publish on curly
top resistance molecular mark-
ers — which help crop breed-
ers quickly screen progeny for
desirable traits — from the
broader “library” by October.
Carl Strausbaugh, a local
USDA plant pathologist who
tested KDHL13 in screening
nurseries, said curly top can
be especially bad when high
heat forces the sugar beet leaf
hoppers that harbor the virus to
abandon desert plants early for
new beet growth, sometimes
causing yield losses above 30
percent. During the past de-
cade, however, he said new
seed treatments and resistant
varieties have helped producers
better control curly top.
“From a historical perspec-
tive, curly top has been one of
the primary yield-limiting dis-
eases sugar beet growers have
had to deal with since sugar
beets were grown in Idaho,”
Strausbaugh said.
Eujayl said KDHL13 was
USDA’s first sugar beet line de-
veloped with doubled-haploid
technology — an advanced
breeding method not classified
as genetic modification yield-
ing plants with two identical
sets of chromosomes, thereby
eliminating variability in prog-
eny so crosses fully retain de-
sirable traits.
His process exposes unfer-
tilized plant ovules to a growth
medium in a petri dish. As a
plant develops, its cells spon-
taneously duplicate the single
set of chromosomes. Any mu-
tations are removed.
Courtesy of USDA
A sugar beet plant shows
symptoms of curly top virus. A
doubled-haploid line devel-
oped in Kimberly, Idaho, has
demonstrated the best curly top
tolerance ever in testing.
the ARS facility’s curly top re-
search efforts.
Cody Bingham, chairman
of the Snake River Sugarbeet
Research and Seed Alliance,
said Amalgamated Sugar plans
to slightly relax its curly top re-
sistance standards for approved
varieties within its growing
area in the near future in or-
der to introduce some options
with higher sugar potential,
though no additional beet va-
rieties have been added to the
approved list for the current
growing season.
Oregon farmers who want
to crack the organic market
might think about growing
strawberries. Raspberries and
dry bean varieties such as gar-
banzos, pintos and black beans
wouldn’t be a bad bet, either.
But a new analysis from
Oregon Tilth, which certifies
organic operations, makes it
clear that figuring out what to
grow is only part of puzzle.
The report, online at https://
tilth.org/resources/organ-
ic-market-in-oregon/,
says
supply gaps, infrastructure
problems and technical issues
hamper what is otherwise a
strong segment.
Make no mistake, organic
sales aren’t hurting. Nation-
ally, sales expanded 12 to 21
percent annually between 1997
and 2008, slowed during the re-
cession and picked up again in
2012, according to the analysis.
By 2014, organic sales hit near-
ly $36 billion, an 11.4 percent
increase over the previous year.
But a closer look at Or-
egon’s organic scene shows
producers will have to step it
up, according to Oregon Tilth.
Several issues snag production,
processing and distribution, the
report showed.
“A look at trends in the
mainstream grocery industry
suggests that even if Oregon
farmers are meeting the ma-
jority of market needs now,
continued expansion of gro-
cery chains’ organic offerings
will necessitate a crop supply
increase to keep up with de-
mand,” report author Tanya
Murray wrote.
Generally, buyers want
more organic berries and stone
fruit and more of the less com-
mon vegetable crops, baby veg-
etables, heirloom varieties and
varieties that have exceptional
flavor, according to the report.
Some also want a certain lev-
el of processing — items that
are cut a certain way, peeled or
roasted, for example.
Other gaps persist. Buyers
want producers trained on food
safety regulations and grading
standards. Farmers are some-
times stymied by the organic
certification process, includ-
ing the need to develop new
record-keeping systems, pay
certification fees and wait out
the three years it takes to certify
a field. Appropriate crop rota-
tions, necessary for field health,
have to be planned as well.
Farmers also need assurance
that the market will still exist
after the three-year transition
period, during which “yields
might be down, costs might
be up and the premium prices
that certified organic crops earn
aren’t accessible,” the report
concludes.
The analysis suggests one-
on-one relationships between
buyers and farmers are im-
portant. Such relationships can
protect confidential company
information while shielding
farmers from downward price
pressure that comes with a glut.
To help solve those prob-
lems, Oregon Tilth created the
Transition to Organic Network,
or TON, an online service di-
rectly connecting farmers, pro-
cessors, handlers, buyers and
other service providers and
stakeholders. Members can ask
questions, share information
and stay informed about edu-
cational opportunities. The list-
serv is at http://goo.gl/forms/
iTPJTpeiSa.
In compiling the analysis,
Oregon Tilth considered re-
sponses from 31 processors
and manufacturers, three nat-
ural food grocery buyers and
four wholesale distributors.
The report was funded by a
USDA Specialty Crop Block
Grant administered by the
Oregon Department of Agri-
culture.
“This (method) is now be-
coming the bread and butter for
us,” Eujayl said.
The lack of variability also
makes doubled-haploids ide-
al for genetic analysis. Since
KDHL13 was first released
for breeding programs to eval-
uate in 2012, Eujayl said his
facility has developed 140 dou-
bled-haploid sugar beet lines
with a host of different desir-
able traits. None are ready for
release yet, but he anticipates
at least a dozen more dou-
bled-haploids will come out of
his program by 2019.
Based on three years of test-
ing, KDHL13 was accepted
by the Journal of Plant Regis-
trations as the top performing
sugar beet line for curly top re-
sistance in January, and it was
featured in this month’s edition
of the USDA-ARS publication.
Amalgamated Sugar Co.
contributed funding toward
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scholarship
Capital Press
WASHINGTON, D.C. —
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