April 25, 2006

To recap activities in the past couple of weeks, GCI Life Sciences is meeting with key personnel from the Ontario Institute of Agrology (OIA) and Flowers Canada (Ontario). The agenda items include representation at conferences including both the Canadian Greenhouse Conference and the ETech conference among other items.

We have also developed several case studies that demonstrate what we've done in the past, which will be included on this site soon. We will also be including links to key industry groups involved in Ontario agriculture, including the two mentioned above. To supplement our discussion groups (links and registrations for each are located in the side panel to the right), we are contemplating including links to interesting or offbeat postings related to agriculture or environment from other discussion groups.

Easter Weekend

GCI Life Sciences wishes everyone a Happy Easter!

Easter lilies are seasonal and traditional flowering plants. 95% of the bulbs for the Easter lily market are produced by 10 farms along the California-Oregon border.

More information on these unique flowers can be found at this site. The plants are under special controlled conditions and nutritional requirements to bloom specifically for the Easter Holiday.

Some issues specific to Easter Lilies include fungus gnats, Pythium root rot (on which my M.Sc. and Ph.D dissertations are on) as well as Rhizoctonia. Graeme Murphy, a colleague from OMAF outlines these issues quite well in his article titled "Fungus Lilies And Easter Gnats (or something similar)".

Many of the issues surrounding Easter lilies can be combated with a little bit of foresight and planning. Producers familiar with the crop know many of the tricks of the trade that surrounds the management of these issues, but new problems arise almost on a yearly basis, and so do solutions. There are a few biologicals on the market, but it's hard to pick just one and say it'll do the trick. Experimentation with several biologicals is time consuming and yields ambiguous results if not done properly.

But why experiment in the first place? Well, one greenhouse can differ from others - research greenhouses in which the tests are done in originally are rigidly controlled, meaning that the natural fluctuations in temperature, light or even nutrition are absent or minimized to such a degree that it would be almost uneconomical in a commercial facility. The results should then be approached with a degree of salt-taking!

Secondly, it's not a good idea to rely on one or even two methods of preventation and/or control - something that many experimental trials fail to cover. Think of your strategy as being comparable to a rocket launch. In case the primary system (your first choice of biological control) fails, you want to ensure there's a back-up in place at the same time the primary is working. What, then, if the back-up fails too? The rocket (your crop), if no third or fourth fail-safe is in place, crashes. This is a bit of a hard-case example which illustrates the worst-case scenario, as a 100% loss is clearly not an acceptable solution.... but it's a scenario that can be preventable with a plan and some hindsight.

Clean Water Act: more info

More information on how the proposed Clean Water Act impacts agricultural producers can be found in the February 2006 publication of The Eastern Ontario Farmers Forum which also includes a list of areas with ground water aquifiers (Almonte, Carp, Munster Hamlet, Kings Park, Kemptville, Merrickville and Westport) and surface waters (Smiths Falls, Perth, Carleton Place, as well as two areas on the Ottawa River near the city of Ottawa).

Agricultural Legislation in Ontario: Part 1

The Nutrient Management Act of 2002 (NMA) is a key landmark legislation in Ontario that helps to consolidate and simplify previous legislation (both federal and provincial) and directs activities relating to the environmental safety of waterways as well as surface and ground waters. (important changes to the assistantship programme can be found here, and more information can be found at the website for the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association)

The overlying principle of the NMA was to control agricultural runoff, which included manure, pesticides/herbicides, fertilizer (including hydroponic nutrient solutions), and other materials that potentially contribute to environmental pollution. The NMA is based on solid scientific research that demonstrates the harmful effects of agricultural runoff on fish and other aquatic life, land/aquatic plants and microbial diversity. In fact, by adhering to the NMA, farmers potentially reduce problems in their crops. Changes in microbial diversity is a key contributor to increasing disease and reducing crop productivity in the long term.

Although the NMA is solidly in place, Ontario has proposed a Clean Water Act (CWA) in 2005. Already, some issues have been identified by Ontario Pork which can be read in their report here. These valid concerns can be broadly applied to other agricultural operations including fields and greenhouses.

April 3, 2006

Today, in order to put emphasis on the agricultural aspect of the Life Sciences Division, we have re-done our business cards to read "Agricultural Consulting and Life Sciences" - it may seem inconsequential, but often business is lost because of vague or unclear titles. For example, Life Sciences could mean health care, microbiology, and so on - it may not be immediately clear that agriculture also falls under this heading.

We will be beginning a letter-writing campaign to key industry personnel, groups, and associations in Ontario to describe our services and develop additional contacts.