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.