In recent weeks, the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets has been fumigating several farm fields in Sagaponack with pesticide gases in hopes of killing a tiny, durable bug known as a golden nematode, a rare species discovered in the fields in 1990.
The fields were fumigated by hand with methyl bromide and covered in white plastic tarps for 48 to 96 hours to keep the gas, which was injected 10 inches into the ground at a concentration of 435 pounds per acre, in the soil. According to state officials, methyl bromide is a commonly used pesticide, and the fumigation process offers no threat of it spreading into the surrounding environment. The workers injecting the gas do not even wear protective gear.
The fumigation program concluded late last month, according to one of the farm’s owners, though the state has said it may need to return for a second round on some of the fields later in the summer.
Dean Foster, who farms 270 acres of potato fields in Sagaponack, including 27 of the 50 acres infected with the new nematode species, said the aggressive approach to killing the nematodes is a burden on his farming operation that he is not even convinced is necessary.
“I harvested 650 hundred-pound bags of potatoes per acre off that field last year,” Mr. Foster said. “If there is such a problem, then why am I getting such a good yield. Nobody can give me a straight answer on that.”
Bob Mungari, the director of plant industry for the state, acknowledged that farmers may not see the eradication of the bugs as a necessity since, if they rotate crops consistently, they may not see much impact on the production in the fields. But, he said, the bug is a black mark for American exports on the global market.
“It’s a pest of significance globally,” he said. “It’s a big stick that is used against you in trade agreements.”
Golden nematodes, also known as stink bugs, have plagued potato fields in Europe for generations. The bugs feed on the roots of potato, eggplant and tomato plants and then die, forming a cyst that implants itself in the stems of plants and eventually hatches hundreds of eggs. Infected fields suffer from wilted plants and poor production.
The Sagaponack plots are the only place in the country that the golden nematode, known as RO-2, has ever been found, but a close relative was discovered in some Idaho fields in 2006, setting off an economic clamor that has now spurred the federal Department of Agriculture to sponsor an aggressive program to eradicate the bugs nationwide.
“Everything went haywire when they were found in Idaho,” Mr. Mungari said. “We’d done a pretty good job containing it and the quarantine regulations in Idaho were similar to what we had in New York at the time, but because of the importance of Idaho potatoes, [U.S. Department of Agriculture] took on a mission to eradicate the nematodes from the fields it exists in.”
Mr. Mungari said the Commodity Credit Corporation, a federal fund dedicated solely to the eradication of agricultural pests, has dedicated $24 million to the nematode elimination effort.
Nematodes were first discovered in the United States in 1941 in a potato field in Hicksville and in several Sagaponack fields shortly thereafter. Strict quarantine regulations were put in place, restricting transfers of plant seeds, soils and farm equipment that could transport the bug elsewhere. The only recorded movement of the microscopic bugs off Long Island was in 1967 when they were found in two fields upstate.
Though killing the bugs has proved nearly impossible—the indestructible cysts can lay dormant for nearly 30 years—agriculture scientists were able to develop strains of potatoes that were resistant to the bugs and by rotating crops between potatoes and other vegetables, farmers have largely been able to avoid the ill-effects of the bugs. But in 1990, the new RO-2 strain of the bug was discovered in the Sagaponack fields and was found to be attacking the genetically engineered plants that had been developed to resist the earlier strain, now called RO-1.
New York State is the 13th largest producer of potatoes in the U.S. Mr. Mungari said that the methyl bromide treatments are the only option for New York, as a second chemical that is being used against the bugs extensively in Idaho is banned in New York State.
While exposure to methyl bromide, which is absorbed by soil and breaks down quickly so there is no lasting impact on the fields in which it is used, has been shown to carry limited health effects on humans, it has been shown to be an ozone depleting chemical.
Mr. Foster said he fears the efforts to combat the original nematode through genetic engineering may have led to the emergence of the new, resistant bug that is now the target of the fumigation.
“The way I see it, the government USDA have made their own problem,” he said. “They’re breeding a super resistant strain, they’re going to create a super-bug that we can’t deal with at all.”
on Jun 25, 2009