2
CapitalPress.com
August 25, 2017
People & Places
New way to keep produce fresh
James Rogers uses
natural substances
to increase shelf life
of fruits, vegetables
Western
Innovator
Capital Press
James Rogers
Age: 32
Residence: Santa Barbara,
Calif.
Occupation: Apeel Scienc-
es owner and chief executive
officer
Honor: Received the 2012
Frank J. Padden Jr. Award
for polymer physics, the
premier polymer physics
prize in the U.S.
Courtesy of Apeel Sciences
James Rogers invented a substance that extends the shelf life of fruits and vegetables.
ers explained.
The product is designated
by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration as generally
safe to eat, and the Organic
Materials Review Institute has
approved it for use on organic
fruits and vegetables.
Apeel says the spray can
effectively double the shelf life
of produce and reduce the need
for refrigeration.
Rogers worked on Edipeel
with Jay Ruskey, an organic
grower of caviar limes — a
rare citrus fruit that only lasts
about a week after picking.
“He was a local guy who
had a unique challenge related
to perishability on his crop,”
Rogers said. “We were able to
develop a product for him that
he now uses commercially.”
Natural curiosity
A native of Michigan, Rog-
ers spent his early childhood
in a suburb of Detroit, where
his father was an engineer for
a company that made brakes
for large trucks and his mother
was a substitute teacher. The
family later lived near Van-
couver, Wash., where Rogers
finished high school.
“I was the kid who always
wanted to know what every-
thing was made out of and how
it worked,” Rogers said.
Rogers earned dual under-
graduate degrees in material
science and engineering and
biomedical engineering from
Carnegie Mellon University in
Pittsburgh before advancing to
UC-Santa Barbara, where he
earned his master’s degree in
economics and his doctorate in
materials.
Since Apeel was founded
in 2012, the company has re-
ceived $40 million in funding
for developing its products,
including grants from the Bill
and Melinda Gates Founda-
tion, the Rockefeller Founda-
tion, Powerplant Ventures and
other philanthropic and pri-
vate investors.
Ending waste
The company’s stated mis-
sion is to end food waste and
help growers reduce reliance
on chemical pesticides, refrig-
eration and other techniques
used for food preservation in
favor of more natural solu-
tions.
For Rogers, the effort re-
quired what he described as a
“crash course” in agriculture.
“I was never directly on
the farm,” Rogers said. “In
fact, when I called my mom
and told her about my idea to
help reduce perishability on
the planet, she said, ‘Sweet-
ie, that’s really nice, but you
don’t know anything about
fruit.’
“We don’t make the fruit
any better, we just slow it
down from getting worse,” he
said.
One of the first things he
learned is Americans throw
away one-third to half of what
is grown, and the developing
world discards as much as
two-thirds of what is grown,
he said.
“I thought, Gee, it doesn’t
sound like the problem is on
the production side. It sounds
like the problem is with the
storage ... after it’s harvest-
ed,” he said.
Rogers discovered that the
leading causes of perishabili-
ty in fruits and vegetables are
water loss and oxidation.
“This started to ring a bell
from my undergraduate days
at Carnegie Mellon when I
studied steel,” he said. In re-
fining metals, a micro-thin
oxide or nitride layer acts as
a shield against deeper corro-
sion....
“If people are going hun-
gry not because of lack of
production but because of
perishability of fresh produce,
what’s causing the produce to
perish is water loss and oxida-
tion,” Rogers said. “It’s a sim-
Website: http://apeelscienc-
es.com/
ilar problem that steel had that
was solved by a thin barrier
around the outside.
“We thought, What if we
could take food, find materi-
als we need to create a barrier
in food and then reapply it to
food?” he said. “How could
you argue with that philo-
sophically?”
Rogers believes Edipeel
could be particularly useful
in some developing nations
where access to refrigeration
is limited. The company is
now researching use of the
spray before harvest as an
alternative to chemical fungi-
cides and pesticides.
Since fungi and insects use
molecular recognition on the
surface of the fruit, Rogers
and his colleagues are testing
whether they can “camou-
flage” the fruit to avert attack
by pests.
Rogers said he doesn’t
plan to sell his invention to a
major company and do some-
thing else.
“There’s no get-rich-quick
scheme on our part,” he said.
“We’re really committed to
sticking around and making
this thing happen.”
Farm Bureau awards scholarships to Oregon college students
By ALIYA HALL
Capital Press
The Oregon Farm Bureau
Foundation for Education has
announced the 12 students
who have received the Me-
morial Scholarship and the
one student who received the
Associate Award.
Calendar
Friday, Aug. 25-
Monday, Sept. 4
Oregon State Fair. 10 a.m.-10
p.m. Oregon State Fair & Expo-
sition Center, 2330 17th St. NE,
Salem, Ore. Website: https://ore-
gonstatefair.org/
Through Sunday,
Aug. 27
Western Idaho Fair, noon-11
p.m. Western Idaho Fairgrounds,
5610 Glenwood St., Garden City,
Idaho. Website: http://www.idaho-
fair.com/
Saturday, Aug. 26
Oregon Aglink Barn Dance.
6-10 p.m. Victor Point Farms,
13166 Riches Road SE, Silver-
ton, Ore. Ben Rue will be the fea-
tured performer. Over 21, please.
Tickets are $75 and available
online only. Website: www.Aglink.
org
Saturday-Sunday
Aug. 26-27
Students Jessica Carter
of Grant County and Ryan
Holmes of Klamath County
each received a $1,500 OFB
Memorial Scholarship.
The students who received
$1,000 OFB Memorial schol-
arships were: Sarah Michaels,
Douglas County; Jacob
White, Harney County; Emily
Sponsored by:
To submit an event go to the
Community Events calendar on
the home page of our website at
www.capitalpress.com and click
on “Submit an Event.” Calendar
items can also be mailed to Cap-
ital Press, 1400 Broadway St. NE,
Salem, OR 97301 or emailed to
newsroom@capitalpress.com.
Importer Safety Training. 8
a.m.-5 p.m. Monarch Hotel, 12566
SW 93rd St., Clackamas, Ore.
Food Safety Modernization Act
training for the safe importation
of human or animal food. Two-day
course with Food and Drug Admin-
istration standardized curriculum.
Certificates awarded upon comple-
tion. Cost: $850. Website: http://
www.feedpctraining.com/fsvp.
html
Established 1928
Board of directors
Mike Forrester
Steve Forrester
Kathryn Brown
Susan Rana
Mike Omeg
Corporate Officer
Heidi Wright
Chief Operating Officer
By TIM HEARDEN
SANTA BARBARA, Ca-
lif. — James Rogers was driv-
ing through the iconic Salinas
Valley and listening to a lec-
ture on world hunger when he
got an idea.
He was working on his
doctorate in material scienc-
es at the University of Cali-
fornia-Santa Barbara, and his
research involved preserving
such materials as steel. His
studies led to frequent trips
up the coast to the Lawrence
Berkeley National Laborato-
ry.
“I was cruising up (High-
way) 101 ... and listening to
an article on world hunger,”
Rogers said. “I just happened
to be driving through the Sa-
linas Valley at the time and I
saw these lush, green fields.
“The question was on my
mind, ‘If we’ve got these mag-
ical seeds that we can grow
in the ground ... how is it still
possible that people are going
hungry?’” he said. “It seems in
theory that we should be able
to feed more people.”
That thought led Rogers,
32, and several of his fellow
doctoral students to start a
company called Apeel Scienc-
es and invent a product called
Edipeel, a natural preservative
made from food compounds
that shippers or retailers can
spray on produce to increase
its shelf life.
Edipeel is a powdered mix-
ture of different food mole-
cules from unused or discarded
plant materials, such as grape
pressings from making wine,
that are dissolved in water and
sprayed on produce.
When it dries, the resulting
thin barrier — which is edi-
ble and tasteless — slows the
rate at which water can get out
and oxygen can get in, which
keeps the produce fresh, Rog-
Capital Press
Sunday, Aug. 27
Summer Farm Day. Noon-
4 p.m. Ruby & Amber’s Farm,
Dorena, Ore. Sponsored by the
Willamette Farm & Food Coalition.
Website: willamettefarmandfood.
org
Wednesday, Aug. 30
Grazing Lease Workshop. 9:30
a.m.-noon. Stanislaus County
Farm Bureau, 1201 L St., Modesto,
Calif. Speakers will include cer-
tified rangeland managers Tim
and Clayton Koopmann, who will
discuss identifying land and pre-
paring lease proposals. The Cal-
ifornia Cattlemen’s Association is
the sponsor. Cost: Free. Website:
calcattlemen.org
Rice Experiment Station Field
Day. 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Rice Experi-
ment Station, 955 Butte City High-
way, Biggs, Calif. Website: http://
cesutter.ucanr.edu/
Wednesday-Friday
Aug. 30-Sept. 1
Idaho Grower Shippers As-
sociation 89th Annual Meeting.
Sun Valley Resort, 1 Sun Valley
Road, Sun Valley. On behalf
of the board of directors and
convention committee chair-
man Weston Crapo, members
are cordially invited to join the
IGSA for education, fun and
business at its 89th Annual Con-
vention in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Website: http://bit.ly/2wkjkQU
Friday, Sept. 1-
Saturday, Sept. 9
Eastern Idaho State Fair. 8
a.m.-10 p.m. Eastern Idaho State
Fairgrounds, 97 Park St., Black-
foot, Idaho. Website: https://funat-
thefair.com/
Iverson, Clackamas County;
Maria Grossen, Washing-
ton County; Amy Swenson,
Umatilla County; Conor Mc-
Cabe, Clackamas County;
Claire Hammond, Harney
County; Stormy Scharzen-
berger, Multnomah County;
Elizabeth Brentano, Marion
County; and Carlee Morton,
Malheur County.
Kelley Duggan of De-
schutes County received the
OFB Associate Scholarship
funded by Country Financial.
The scholarship amount was
not disclosed.
Applicants for the OFB
Memorial Scholarship must
be preparing for a career in
agriculture or forestry, but the
Associate Scholarship is open
to any major.
The scholarship program
is open to new and continu-
ing full-time students. Appli-
cants must be an Oregon high
school graduate or a home
school graduate, the OFB
press release said.
GASES / WELDING / SAFETY / FIRE
www.oxarc.com
Friday, Sept. 1-
Sunday, Sept. 24
Washington State Fair. 10
a.m.-10 p.m. Fairground in Puy-
allup, 110 9th Ave. SW, Puyallup,
Wash. The Washington State Fair,
commonly referred to as the Puy-
allup Fair, is the largest single at-
traction held annually in the state
of Washington. Closed Tuesdays
and Sept. 6. Website: www.the-
fair.com/
Tuesday-Friday
Sept. 5-8
Western Apicultural Society’s
40th annual conference. Univer-
sity of California-Davis Harry H.
Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research
Facility, Davis, Calif. Bee Culture
magazine editor Kim Flotton will
address “The Rapidly Changing
Bee Scene;” beekeeper and au-
thor Les Crowder will discuss man-
aging honeybees in top bar hives;
and bee expert Larry Connor will
cover “Keeping Your Bees Alive
and Growing.” Cost: $225. Web-
site: www.westernapiculturalsoci-
ety.org/
Tuesday-Thursday
Sept. 5-7
The National Heirloom Expo.
Sonoma County Fairgrounds, 1350
Bennett Valley Road, Santa Rosa,
Calif. The 6th Annual National Heir-
loom Exposition will feature a wide ar-
ray of natural vendors and speakers
from across the country and beyond.
Website: www.theheirloom.com
Wednesday, Sept. 13
FSPCA Preventive Controls for
Human Food — One-Day Blended
Course. 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Hilton Gar-
den Inn, 1741 Harrison St., Twin
Falls, Idaho. The new Food Safe-
ty Modernization Act regulation
20 Northwest Locations
requires every processing facility
to have a trained resource person
or “Preventive Controls Qualified
Individual” who has completed a
specialized training course (such
as this one) that was developed
by the Food Safety Preventive
Controls Alliance and is recog-
nized by the FDA. This person
will oversee the implementation of
the facility’s food safety plan and
other key tasks. Jeff Kronenberg,
an assistant professor at the Uni-
versity of Idaho and Food Safety
Specialist at TechHelp, will offer
this One-Day FSPCA Blended
Course as an alternative to the
traditional 2.5-day course. Cost:
$330. Website: www.techhelp.org
Thursday, Sept. 14
Food Safety Internal Auditor
Workshop. 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Hilton
Garden Inn, 1741 Harrison St.,
Twin Falls, Idaho. A comprehen-
sive audit system is essential
to a company’s food safety and
product quality. It provides con-
firmation that systems and pro-
cedures are operating effectively
and identifies areas that require
improvement. The Internal Inter-
nal Auditor Workshop will teach
you how to conduct internal au-
dits in your facility against one of
the GFSI Audit Schemes, which
are becoming a standard for the
food industry as a tool for assur-
ing food safety and regulatory
compliance and have become a
customer requirement for many
processors. Many of the schemes
require formal, documented train-
ing for personnel who conduct
internal auditing. This one-day
course will provide attendees
with a full understanding of audit
requirements as well as promote
personal professional develop-
ment. Cost: $330. Website: www.
techhelp.org
1-800-765-9055
Friday, Sept. 15
2nd Annual Rice Weed Course.
8 a.m.-4:25 p.m. Rice Experiment
Station, 955 Butte City Highway,
Biggs, Calif. Website: http://cesutter.
ucanr.edu/
Saturday, Sept. 23
Goat Education Day. 8:30 a.m.-
4 p.m. OSU Southern Oregon Re-
search and Extension Center Audi-
torium, 569 Hanley Road, Central
Point, Ore. Choose four classes
from a selection of 11, two in the
morning and two in the afternoon,
for $35. Or choose two morning
classes and cheesemaking in the
afternoon for $50. Class topics are
geared to both beginner and ad-
vanced goat owners from Getting
Ready for Kidding Season and Ho-
listic Goat Care to the foundations
of Nutrition and Feed and the Mak-
ing of Goat Milk Soaps and Lotions.
Presenters include Dr. Charles
Estill, OSU veterinarian; Gianac-
lis Caldwell, author; and Christina
Strickland and others from the
Rogue Valley Dairy Goat Associ-
ation. Register online at http://bit.
ly/JacksonGoatEdDay2017 or call
541-776-7371. Ask about a youth
discount. Cost: $35 to $50. Web-
site: http://extension.oregonstate.
edu/sorec/SF-classes
Friday, Sept. 29
Fall Forestry Educational
Seminar. 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Cowlitz
Regional
Conference
Cen-
ter, 1900 Seventh Ave. SW,
Longview, Wash. Sponsored by
the Washington Tree Farm Pro-
gram, this seminar includes in-
formation on managing and main-
taining tree farms. ATFS certified
tree Farmers are $70 ($105 with
spouse), others are $80 ($120
with spouse). Register by Sept. 8.
Website: watreefarm.org
Capital Press Managers
Joe Beach ..................Editor & Publisher
Elizabeth Yutzie Sell .... Advertising Director
Carl Sampson ................Managing Editor
Jessica Boone ........ Production Manager
Samantha McLaren .... Circulation Manager
Entire contents copyright © 2017
EO Media Group
dba Capital Press
An independent newspaper
published every Friday.
Capital Press (ISSN 0740-3704) is
published weekly by EO Media Group,
1400 Broadway St. NE, Salem OR 97301.
Periodicals postage paid at Portland, OR,
and at additional mailing offices.
POSTMASTER: send address changes to
Capital Press, P.O. Box 2048 Salem, OR
97308-2048.
To Reach Us
Circulation ......................... 800-882-6789
Email ........ Circulation@capitalpress.com
Main line ........................... 503-364-4431
Fax ................................... 503-370-4383
Advertising Fax ................ 503-364-2692
News Staff
N. California
Tim Hearden .................... 530-605-3072
E Idaho
John O’Connell ................. 208-421-4347
Idaho
Carol Ryan Dumas .......... 208-860-3898
Boise
Sean Ellis .......................... 208-914-8264
Central Washington
Dan Wheat ........................ 509-699-9099
Western Washington
Don Jenkins ...................... 360-722-6975
E Washington
Matthew Weaver .............. 509-688-9923
Oregon
Eric Mortenson ................ 503-412-8846
Mateusz Perkowski .......... 800-882-6789
Graphic artist
Alan Kenaga ..................... 800-882-6789
To Place Classified Ads
Ad fax .............................. 503-364-2692
or ...................................... 503-370-4383
Telephone (toll free) .......... 800-882-6789
Online ......www.capitalpress.com/classifieds
Subscriptions
Mail rates paid in advance
Easy Pay U.S. $3.75/month (direct with-
drawal from bank or credit card account)
1 year U.S. ...................................$49.99
2 years U.S. .................................$89.99
1 year Canada .................................$275
1 year other countries ......... call for quote
1 year Internet only .......................$49.99
1 year 4-H, FFA students and teachers ....$30
9 months 4-H, FFA students & teachers .....$25
Visa and Mastercard accepted
To get information published
Mailing address:
Capital Press
P.O. Box 2048
Salem, OR 97308-2048
News: Contact the main office or news
staff member closest to you, send the in-
formation to newsroom@capitalpress.com
or mail it to “Newsroom,” c/o Capital Press.
Include a contact telephone number.
Letters to the Editor: Send your
comments on agriculture-related public
issues to opinions@capitalpress.com, or
mail your letter to “Opinion,” c/o Capital
Press. Letters should be limited to
300 words. Deadline: Noon Monday.
Capital Press ag media
www.capitalpress.com
www.FarmSeller.com
marketplace.capitalpress.com
www.facebook.com/capitalpress
www.facebook.com/farmseller
twitter.com/capitalpress
www.youtube.com/capitalpressvideo
Index
California ...............................11
Dairy .................................... 14
Idaho .................................... 10
Livestock ............................. 14
Markets ............................... 13
Opinion .................................. 6
Oregon .................................. 9
Washington ........................... 8
Correction
In a story on Page 10 of the July
28 edition, the name of Idaho
Fish and Game Department Di-
rector Virgil Moore was incorrect.
In a story on Page 9 of the Aug.
18 Nursery special section, the
name of Pacific NW Natives was
incorrect.
The Capital Press regrets the
errors.
Correction policy
Accuracy is important to Capital
Press staff and to our readers.
If you see a misstatement,
omission or factual error in a
headline, story or photo caption,
please call the Capital Press
news department at
503-364-4431, or send email to
newsroom@capitalpress.com.
We want to publish corrections to
set the record straight.