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I learned early on in my career and on my own farm how important it is to use the right adjuvants in a spray tank. Not using an adjuvant (in most cases) can mean control or not control depending on the product you are using. Also, a good adjuvant can mean the difference between being able to spray or not if the weather is almost too bad to spray.

So, what is an adjuvant. The website I have in the picture from eOrganic is full of information and says, “It is a relatively broad term referring to substances that are added to pesticides or nutrient solutions for the purpose of improving their mixing, application, or effectiveness. Some product formulations already contain one or multiple adjuvants, while other adjuvants can be purchased to add into tank mixes before application.” I encourage you to click on this link and check out the article.

Recently I participated in a great webinar put on by Momentive who make the Silwet L-77 Organosilicon Surfactant used for many years and one that has been approved organic. They are developing some new products that are especially adapted to organic agriculture and have OMRI approval. They are also developing adjuvants that work in drones and help lower the total spray volume down and help to use less actual product per acre. Here is a slide deck from a webinar put on by Momentive. I took screenshots of the presentation, and you can go to the end and see QR codes to see more presentations. Or I think this link will work but it is on their own website. Link to Presentation. I was particularly impressed with how much better these new adjuvants can both spread across the leaf but also penetrate the leaf, slides 6-8, and resistance to wash off slide 9.  I also think they provide protection to the live organism just sprayed on the leaf by coating the organism.

The next question, is it compatible with a living organism?  In slide 10 you see the tests they did with different fungi and bacteria to determine if they are compatible, and you can see the red squares, some are not! In slide 11 you see a treatments that include a control, a Bacillus amyloliquefaciens (example-Double Nickel, Certis Bio) used alone, and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens used with Silwet Optim.

         I am not showing you this so will buy Momentive products, there are many good companies and adjuvants out there. But I am showing you this to get you interested in buying and using quality adjuvants to make sure these expensive organic products you buy to grow organic do the job they are designed to do.

Here is a brochure for Momentive highlighting their products for both organic and conventional agriculture. Exciting new science! Click this link to download: Momentive Brochure

GOTS is a certification standard that is beyond certified organic and is an international or Global standard designed to ensure that organic cotton growers are “following the rules.”  This standard has mainly been about preventing any GMOs in cotton and doing the testing to make sure there wasn’t a problem.  Over time they have expanded their reach to include social issues, ecological issues and now pesticide residue testing.  As I write this, we are having to hold up all organic cotton processing waiting to find out about the particular pesticide residue tests GOTS may want.  It is an interesting problem – being certified organic but unfortunately certified organic just isn’t enough!

Needless to say, growers are not happy about the change, the problem or the delay in getting paid. When someone is not happy it is usually because something is not happening, and we are trying to make something happen.

So, we have scheduled an Organic Cotton Webinar to be held next Tuesday, December 5th at 1 pm CST and lasting to 1:45 pm. We will have Elizabeth Tigen, the Fiber and Textile Specialist with Oregon Tilth. Elizabeth works with most if not all the cotton gins who process organic cotton and she is working through this issue with GOTS. Almost all organic cotton buyers want GOTS certification, or they won’t buy the cotton. So, Elizabeth walks a fine line between GOTS, Buyers, Gins and even Growers.

If you would like to be a part of the Organic Cotton Webinar, we would love to have you join us. Just click on this link: Organic Cotton Webinar December 5th and you will go to a registration page to enter your name and email address. After signing up you will get an email that will let you join the webinar. Let me know if you have any problems.

Certified organic agriculture is a system of farming that follows certain principles and standards that aim to protect the environment, animal welfare, and human health¹. Organic has resisted and fought against any genetically modified organism (GMO) being approved or used in any organic system. Gene editing (GE) and new genomic techniques (NGTs) are methods that can alter the genetic material of an organism, either by inserting, deleting, or modifying specific genes². This type of alteration is essentially impossible to identify in the newly produced plant and so once the lab experiments are over and the plants are in the field, a GE or NGT produced carrot is not noticeably different or genetically different from an organic carrot. This “dilemma” could mean more rules for organic, or more rules for breeders to be honest or a combination of both. It is definitely causing concern for certified organic agriculture.

Below are some different opinions and perspectives on how organic agriculture should relate to gene editing and NGTs that I downloaded using Bing Chat to explore this topic. Some of the main points are:

• Some organic farmers and advocates are opposed to gene editing and NGTs, as they consider them as forms of genetic modification (GM) that are incompatible with the organic principles and values. They argue that gene editing and NGTs pose potential risks to the environment, biodiversity, food safety, and consumer choice, and that they undermine the integrity and trust of the organic label^{3 4}.
• Some organic breeders and researchers are open to exploring the possibilities of gene editing and NGTs, as they believe they can offer benefits for organic agriculture, such as improving crop traits, enhancing resilience, and reducing inputs. They claim that gene editing and NGTs are different from GMO, as they can produce changes that are similar to those that occur naturally or by conventional breeding, and that they can be used in a responsible and transparent way that respects the organic standards and regulations^{4 5}.
• Some organic stakeholders and policymakers are calling for a dialogue and a consensus on how to address the challenges and opportunities of gene editing and NGTs for organic agriculture. They suggest that there is a need for more research, education, and communication on the scientific, ethical, and social aspects of gene editing and NGTs, and that there should be a participatory and inclusive process that involves all the actors in the organic sector and beyond^{4 5}.

As you can see, the response of organic agriculture to gene editing and NGTs is not uniform or simple, but rather complex and diverse. There are tensions and debates at the boundary of organic and biotechnology, and some claim that there may be opportunities and collaborations for innovation and sustainability. Right now, organic organizations in the US are united against NGT’s and are pushing hard to keep them out of organic. What most breeders point to is the ability to quickly make changes to plants versus the time-consuming techniques in conventional breeding. Of course, they forget that in the process of pursuing certain traits the longer process of conventional breeding has produced many traits that were not anticipated, most to the better. Also, this slow process can help us avoid unwanted traits or never even get those traits expressed. Lastly, there has been problems with NGT produced varieties that when introduced into our current varieties would be hard to erase.

If you haven’t heard or just didn’t know, we have a new podcast rolled out and ready to enjoy. My coworker, Timber has worked very hard to first learn how to create a podcast, how to get them uploaded somewhere (I don’t have a clue where or how) and to line up interviews of great organic farmers, industry people and more. I really like it because she just tells me when we are creating a podcast, who we are interviewing, and where to sit!!!

The first podcast we did was mostly for us to learn how, but she interviewed me about my organic journey, and I will have to say it was fun just getting to talk. Timber takes the interviews and “cleans” them up so that all the pauses and “ah” or “and” or “like” is taken out and it sounds really smooth. Our second interview was with Rob Warren from Seminole. Rob is a wealth of information, and he loves organic farming making him a lot of fun to talk to. He told us about his grapes and how he is moving all his production to organic – something that is not common in grapes.

I won’t tell you about the upcoming podcasts just yet, but I will encourage you to subscribe so you get all the new ones as they come out. Here is the link below or you can subscribe through Apple or Google or the many other ways you listen to podcasts. Just click here: On TOPP of Organic Or click the picture below.

Collaboration is not really defined as a willingness to give, or is it? Here is the definition of collaboration that I asked Bing Chat to generate…..

Collaboration is the act or process of working together or cooperating with others to achieve a common goal or create something new.

Bing Chat

John Kemp with Advancing Eco Agriculture was interviewing a farmer, Austin Allred on his podcast and at the end John asked Austin what he believed most limits farmers from being able to take the next steps forward. Almost instantly Austin said, “COLLABORATION.” The conversation then talked about collaboration really being a way to share with each other, give to each other, to better both.

This comes at a time when I am rereading, “Give and Take – Why Helping Others Drives Our Success” written by Adam Grant years ago but selling millions of copies and being translated into 30 languages. Dr. Grant makes a point to tell many stories of people who are extremely successful while spending lots of time giving away both talent and treasure.

Why am I writing this blog post at this time? First it is Thanksgiving, and I am very thankful for my family, my friends, my coworkers, my colleagues and the many farmers who let me have the privilege of working with them. I am blessed by my God and the huge number of people I interact with on a daily basis. Second, it is the time of year when you think about the past many months and plan for the next many months! This means I am thinking about organic agriculture and the many organic farm families in Texas. I want to see us all do more collaboration to make us all better together. And I want to do more to “give” myself away in this collaboration so that we will all together be able to “cooperate with others to achieve a common goal or create something new.”

I pray you will have a very Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy all you have with all those who love you very much.