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October 28, 2016 CapitalPress.com 19 USDA clears new GMO potato variety By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press A new potato variety that’s genetically modified to withstand bruising has been cleared for commercialization without undergoing USDA’s deregulatory pro- cess for biotech crops. The agency has advised the potato’s developer, Calyxt, the cultivar is not a “regulated article” under federal law be- cause it doesn’t contain genes from plant pests. Because most commercial biotech crops incorporate genes from plant pests, they were subject to environmental analysis and a risk assessment from USDA before they were deregulated. In the case of Calyxt’s “PPO_KO” po- tato, the variety was created through the “knockout” of an unwanted gene that caus- es bruising without leaving plant pest genes in the crop. The cultivar will reduce browning in fresh potatoes as well as bruising “to min- imize crop rejection and waste in process- ing lines,” said Federico Tripodi, Calyxt’s CEO, in an email. Up to 5 percent of fries and chips are rejected because of discolor- ation. With the USDA’s recent approval, the company plans to work with “third party researchers” to plant the variety in U.S. fields, he said. The PPO_KO variety is the second genetically modified potato developed by Calyxt that USDA has cleared for commer- cialization without undergoing the deregu- latory process. An earlier variety, which inactivates a gene associated with the cancer-causing compound acrylamide, was approved in 2014 and is currently in field trials. The J.R. Simplot Co. has obtained USDA approval for potatoes with similar traits in recent years, but these were initial- ly regulated as possible plant pests by the agency. The Center for Food Safety, a promi- nent critic of genetically engineered crops, is skeptical of the PPO_KO potato’s ben- efits. Calyxt has eliminated the gene re- sponsible for producing the enzyme poly- phenol oxidase, or PPO, which performs functions other than causing bruises, said Bill Freese, science policy analyst with the group. For example, the enzyme is associated with greater pest and disease resistance, he said. “One question is, by knocking out these genes, are you making the plant weaker and more susceptible to disease?” Such modification could also have oth- er unforeseen consequences, he said. “You could be knocking out genes you didn’t in- tend to knock out.” It’s possible potatoes lacking the PPO gene may harbor disease in fields aban- doned due to low prices or crop damage, which should have been analyzed by USDA, Freese said. “This is a plant pest risk. We’re not say- ing it is for certain, but they should be look- ing at it and they’re not,” he said. Calyxt acknowledged that PPO is as- sociated with disease resistance, but said the company has only eliminated one of at least six genes associated with the en- zyme. “Therefore, the other PPO genes will still be functional to help protect the po- tato plants from disease, insects and other stresses,” the company said in an email. The company also said it has created multiple lines of the PPO_KO variety and will field test them to select those “with the best agronomic characteristics, including desired levels of disease resis- tance.” Sean Ellis/Capital Press Idaho rangeland fire protection association members Darcy Helmick and Charlie Lyons discuss the state’s eight RFPAs Oct. 20 during a Western Governors’ Association meeting in Boise. Steve Acarregui, fire operations manager for the BLM’s Boise district, said he would like to increase their capabilities. Rangeland fire associations improve Idaho ranchers’ relationship with BLM By SEAN ELLIS California winegrape growers wrap up quick, smooth harvest By TIM HEARDEN Capital Press SONOMA, Calif. — Growers in California’s prime wine country say their har- vest of a slightly larger grape crop this year was quick and smooth. Relatively cool weather in August aided grape quality, said Anthony Beckman, wine- maker at Balletto Vineyards in Santa Rosa, Calif. “I got awesome flavors without having huge sugars,” he said. “Instead of having an early harvest like 2015 ... we let the grapes hang a little longer.” Other area vintners say this year’s wines will end up being among the best. “We’re all looking forward to these wines going in bot- tles,” said Steve Sangiacomo of Sangiacomo Family Vine- yards in Sonoma. Beckman and Sangiaco- mo were taking part in a live Facebook news conference on this year’s crop, hosted by Sonoma County Winegrow- ers. The Oct. 25 event was part of the organization’s ef- fort to help consumers as well as reporters get to know local growers, organizers said. Growers throughout Cal- ifornia have mostly wrapped up their harvest of an antici- pated 3.9 million ton wine- grape crop, up 5 percent from Courtesy of Sonoma County Winegrowers Workers remove debris from winegrapes during the harvest in Sonoma County, Calif. Growers say this year’s harvest was quick and went smoothly. 2015, according to the Nation- al Agricultural Statistics Ser- vice. Wine represents 57 per- cent of the state’s total grape crop. After three straight years of record-high crushes, from 2011 to 2013, production in 2014 and 2015 was lighter, mainly because of drought-re- lated water shortages. Last year, alternating warm and cool weather during the growing season led to an early bud break, a long flowering and fruit set period and an early harvest. This year’s harvest started later but was quicker, growers said. “This is the first year I can remember when we were picking Chardonnay at the same time as Cabernet Sau- vignon,” said Duff Bevill, founder and partner at Bev- ill Vineyard Management in Healdsburg, Calif. “That’s re- ally unique.” Meanwhile, a lack of rain during the harvest led to “clean” fruit, with very little rot or mold, growers said. The good-quality crop comes as the prices of grapes from the state’s most famous region were already trending upward. They rose 6 percent in Napa County last year to $4,336 per ton and by 5 percent in Sonoma and Marin counties to $2,443, NASS reported. U.S. wine exports, 90 percent of which are from California, reached a record $1.61 billion in 2015 and the volume of shipments was up 4.1 percent from the previous year to 51.2 million cases, according to the San Francis- co-based Wine Institute. Oregon company ready to license its biomass technology By ERIC MORTENSON Capital Press TROUTDALE, ORE. — An Oregon company showed off a demonstration fa- cility where it converts forest slash into biomass briquettes, and said it is pre- pared to license the technology and sell it worldwide. Hiroshi Morihara, an Oregon devel- oper and engineer who is CEO of HM3 Energy Inc., also announced the com- pany has found a “big fish” investor: a Japanese energy company that wants to use the briquettes to fire electrical power plants in Japan and replace coal and nu- clear facilities. New Energy Development Co. has Photos by Eric Mortenson/Capital Press invested $2 million in HM3 and plans HM3 CEO Hiroshi Morihara, left, and Sen. Ron Wyden spoke at a biomass briquette news to build a briquette production plant at conference Oct. 18 in Troutdale, Ore. an undisclosed location in Oregon. The briquettes would then be exported to quettes made from juniper trees. Japan. Portland General Electric is interested in converting its coal-fired power plant in Using logging debris or agricultural Boardman, Ore., to operate on biomass. crop residue to make biomass pellets is Later this year, a company called Ore- an idea that has had numerous starts and gon Torrefaction will supply PGE with stops over the years, as developers and enough briquettes to operate the power investors have struggled to make the pro- plant for a day, considered a key test of cess pencil out. the technology. The upside has always been appealing Oregon BEST, an arm of the state from a rural economic development per- Biomass briquettes made from logging business department that provides fund- spective. Using forest slash to produce slash can be burned like coal to power ing and university research expertise for biomass energy reduces wildfire risk, electrical plants. An Oregon company says a variety of energy projects, estimates restores forest health and puts people to it has perfected the technology to produce Oregon, Washington and British Co- work in the woods and in production fa- the briquettes. lumbia could provide 35 million tons a cilities, backers say. An economical tech- nical solution, however, has been slow in The company, and others working year of biomass material to torrefaction coming. along the same line, use a process called plants. The event at HM3 included an appear- HM3 believes it has refined the pro- torrefaction. They essentially roast wood cess to the point it can license and sell the debris in a controlled environment and ance by U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, Oregon’s temperature range, which removes senior senator. He said HM3’s progress technology. “We were able to say, hey, we can do moisture and volatile compounds. The demonstrates that politicians don’t gener- this,” Morihara said during a news con- finished product is a lightweight, brittle ate jobs themselves but can best help by ference and media tour of the company’s cube that can be pulverized and burned creating a good business climate through $4 million demonstration plant in Trout- like coal, but much cleaner. At the news such things as research and development dale, east of Portland. conference, Morihara displayed bri- tax credits. Capital Press BOISE — A once rocky relationship between Bu- reau of Land Manage- ment firefighters and Ida- ho ranchers has improved markedly since the creation of rangeland fire protection associations in 2013. Ranchers, who once had a contentious relationship with BLM firefighting of- ficials, have come to re- spect them, Mountain Home RFPA Chairman Charlie Lyons said Oct. 20 during a Western Governors’ Associ- ation meeting in Boise. Lyons, a rancher, said that after a “very conten- tious meeting” several years ago between ranchers and BLM officials, “we started thinking about solutions.” After discussions with county commissioners and others, “Things started clicking,” he said. “It was like a huge window opened up.” The RFPA idea was pitched to Gov. Butch Ot- ter, who is also a rancher. At Otter’s request, the Ida- ho Legislature has provided $455,000 since fiscal year 2014 to help the RFPAs pur- chase personal protective gear, radios and other basic equipment. While being trained by BLM officials to meet fed- eral firefighting require- ments, a camaraderie de- veloped, Lyons said, and ranchers became willing to rely on their leadership. “The training ... is where we learned to respect the BLM,” he said. “It was a huge shift.” There are now eight RFPAs in Southern Idaho and their 300-plus members are qual- ified to help BLM and the Idaho Department of Lands fight wildfires. The RFPAs, which con- sist mostly of ranchers and are voluntary, purchase their insurance and use most of their firefighting equip- ment. BLM officials have come to view the ranchers as valu- able assets in fighting wild- fires, said Steve Acarregui, the fire operations manager for BLM’s Boise district. They provide prima- ry protection for 1.4 mil- lion privately owned acres and 6.3 million govern- ment-owned acres. The associations have helped BLM and the state battle 103 blazes since 2013. “They have added in- credible capacity to the (wildland firefighting abil- ity) in the state of Idaho,” said Julia Sullens, the IDL’s liaison to the RFPAs. The ranching communi- ty has a “can-do” attitude, Acarregui said, and when the idea of forming RFPAs was being discussed, BLM officials recognized they could create a valuable force multiplier if they could har- ness that energy. Besides providing a quick, initial response to many fires, the ranchers have also been used to do other things such as rehab work and create fuel breaks. “It’s grown way bigger than we first envisioned,” Acarregui said. He said the BLM would like to increase the capabil- ities of the current RFPAs as well as create new ones where possible. If someone wants to start a new one, “I’ll be right there to help you get it off the ground,” he said. An effort is underway to change BLM policy to al- low the agency to directly transfer surplus firefighting equipment to RFPAs, Acar- regui said. “We do have a lot of con- gressional support on that and I hope to see some leg- islation soon,” he said. The BLM this year changed its policy manual to allow RFPA members to assist the agency through the duration of a fire instead of just assisting in initial re- sponse. Food security group will offer advice to next president By ERIC MORTENSON Capital Press Online A Chicago think tank that often comments on agricul- tural issues has formed a task force to inform the winner of this year’s presidential election on steps the U.S. government and private sec- tor can take to reduce world hunger. The Presidential Transition Plan Task Force will be led by former Secretary of Agricul- ture Dan Glickman and for- mer Rep. Douglas Bereuter. They were appointed by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. The council considers in- ternational food security to be a matter of U.S. national secu- rity, and in April 2015 issued a report on that topic. With the world population projected to exceed 9 billion by 2050, “Investing in food security and improved health and nutrition for the world’s people is not simply a human- itarian matter. It is squarely in the interests of the United Previous Capital Press cover- age of the issue http://www.capitalpress. com/Nation_World/Na- tion/20150618/food-nation- al-security-intertwined-ex- perts-say Also, www.thechicagocouncil. org States,” the report’s authors concluded. The council recommended the U.S. use its agricultural research and education in- frastructure to train the next generation of leaders in Afri- ca, Asia and Latin America. Land-grant universities such as Oregon State University, Washington State Universi- ty, the University of Idaho and the University of Cali- fornia-Davis “should be at the center of a cooperative international effort to re- duce hunger and malnutrition around the world,” the study said.