June 2001

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Apple Box Markings From WSDA (WA State Department of Agriculture) Marking the harvest year on all apple containers and adopting an annual release date for marketing Golden Delicious and Granny Smith apples are proposed. Public comment was be taken in Yakima and Wenatchee on May 16 and 17, 2001. The Washington State Horticultural Association is recommending that apple cartons be marked with the harvest year. Mandatory marking would begin Oct. 1 of each year and be applied only to apples harvested in the previous year. The marking provision would be effective Oct. 1, 2001 on the crop harvested in the fall of 2000. The proposal would assist shippers with inventory controls and aid traffic associations with compiling marketing data. The proposal also establishes Sept. 20 as the permanent harvest release date for Golden Delicious varieties. Oct. 10 would be the permanent harvest release date for Granny Smith varieties. "The Horticultural Association proposes these dates as being sufficient for apples to reach maturity for marketability," said Jim Quigley, program manager for the Department of Agriculture's Fruit and Vegetable Inspection Program. Growers could ship prior to these dates by passing sugar-content (soluble solids) tests for Golden Delicious apples and a starch-iodine rating test for Granny Smith varieties. The tests are conducted by staff in the Fruit and Vegetable Inspection Program. For a copy of the proposed rules, contact Jim Quigley, program manager, Fruit and Vegetable Inspection Program, Commodity Inspection Division, Washington State Department of Agriculture, PO Box 42560, Olympia, WA 98504-2560, or FAX to (360) 902-2085. Deadline for comments was May 16. Eastern Washington Focus Of Apple Maggot Trapping From WSDA (WA State Department of Agriculture) The state Department of Agriculture is conducting an important insect survey beginning in mid-June that includes a special focus on Ellensburg, Yakima and Wenatchee. Trappers last year caught 12 apple maggots, a serious fruit pest, in Ellensburg, prompting increased trapping there this summer, according to entomologists at the state Department of Agriculture. An established population of apple maggot can result in a serious economic impact on the fruit industry. This year's survey will determine whether the apple maggot fly has established in Ellensburg, Yakima, Wenatchee or elsewhere. Such surveys have been conducted for nearly 20 years. The 1996 survey in Yakima yielded five apple maggot flies and prompted a more intensive trapping and control program conducted in 1997-2000. The 1998 survey yielded two apple maggot flies in Yakima and two flies in Ellensburg. The 1998 catches prompted extra Department of Agriculture trapping efforts and local pest board control efforts in those communities. There was one catch in Ellensburg in 1999, so trapping increased in 2000 and resulted in 12 apple maggot flies being caught at 11 sites, a troubling trend. One apple maggot was found in Wenatchee last year. "Survey and control efforts will increase in Ellensburg this year," said Mike Klaus, project entomologist at the Department of Agriculture's Yakima office. Control efforts, ranging from spraying to fruit or tree removal, have been carried out by horticultural pest and disease boards in Yakima, Kittitas, and Chelan/Douglas counties in recent years. Significantly, fruit inspections at all Eastern Washington catch sites revealed no infested fruit. Ellensburg residents have been invited to an open house for an explanation of trapping efforts and officials will ask residents for help in identifying hard-to-find host trees on their property. WSU Master Gardeners will provide information regarding backyard fruit trees and tips on keeping trees pest free. The meeting will take place from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. June 6 at the Hal Holmes Community Center, 201 N Ruby, Ellensburg. "Apple maggot larvae burrow throughout infested fruit turning it brown and mushy," said Klaus, noting the trapping and control efforts are necessary to protect one of Washington's major agricultural crops. If an infested piece of fruit is tossed out of a car or carried to an uninfected area, the insect can reproduce in the new location. Most Western Washington counties and Klickitat and Spokane counties are quarantined to prevent the spread of the insect to the state's commercial apple-growing regions. Major apple producing districts of Washington remain free of apple maggot. Eastern Washington residents, as well as persons in Whatcom and Skagit counties, who have apple, crabapple or hawthorn trees are encouraged to participate in this year's survey. Insect traps will be set and checked by trained trappers using a special yellow panel sticky trap to detect apple maggot flies in host trees in people's yards and monitoring in trees growing wild along roadsides. Workers will hang an estimated 6,000 traps statewide for this year's program. Traps will be removed in September. Call Mike Klaus at (509) 225-2609 for more information. Choose Disease- Resistant Varieties By Carol Savonen, Oregon State University When choosing plants for your yard and veggie garden, you'll save yourself a lot of heartache as well as money if you choose disease-resistant varieties, advised Jay Pscheidt, plant pathologist with the OSU Extension Service. "Planting resistant varieties is the easiest means of disease control," explained Pscheidt. "Roses, fruit trees and many vegetables such as tomatoes are susceptible to a variety of diseases caused by fungi and viruses. Try and choose those marked 'disease resistant' or 'certified virus-free' whenever possible." For example, tomato seed packages and start tags often are marked with the letters V, N, T, or F. V signifies resistance to Verticillium, a fungal disease causing premature wilt and reduced production. N stands for a nematode-resistant variety. Nematodes are small, wormlike pests that puncture root cells. T indicates resistance to tobacco mosaic virus, which causes mottled leaves. An F means the variety is resistant to Fusarium, a fungal disease that also causes wilt. Tomato varieties known to be resistant to all of these diseases include Carmen, Carnival, Casino Royal, Cavalier, Celebrity, First Lady, Milagro and President. Other vegetables have disease resistant or disease tolerant varieties as well, including green beans, peas, cucumbers, peppers and spinach. The fungal diseases rust, powdery mildew and blackspot are common in rose gardens in the Pacific Northwest. Roses known to be resistant to these diseases include the hybrid teas Electron, Keepsake and Las Vegas; the floribundas Europeana, Liverpool Echo and Play Girl; and climbers Dortmund and Dublin Bay. Apples are susceptible to a number of diseases including apple scab, fire blight and powdery mildew. Varieties that grow well, have shown good scab resistance and are of good quality include Akane (Tokyo Rose), Chehalis, Liberty, Prima and Tydeman Red. Crab apples have the same problems, so Pscheidt recommends planting disease-resistant crab apple cultivars David, Indian Summer, Red Jewel or White Angel. Consult catalogs and local nurseries for other disease-resistant varieties as well, as new ones come out each year and some of the old ones get discontinued. For more information about disease resistance call your local Master Gardener Program at your county office of the OSU Extension Service. New Competition... Or New Feedstock? By Pete Fretwell, Far West Agribusiness Association A Swedish researcher reports human corpses can be recycled into organic soil. The new "green" method turns the human body into organic matter in just a few weeks by immersing the body in liquid nitrogen, producing up to 30 kilograms of pure organic matter. The Church of Sweden has given its blessing to the new burial method. Can A Potato A Day Keep The Doctor Away? By Marlene Fritz, University of Idaho The French call them "apples of the earth." Maybe they should have called them oranges. As it turns out, potatoes offer consumers several times as much vitamin C as apples&emdash;and a couple of potato varieties are squeezing in on oranges. According to Steve Love, UI coordinator of the Tri-State Potato Variety Development Program at Aberdeen, Ranger Russet and Yukon Gold weigh in at 27 to 43 milligrams of vitamin C for every 100 grams, or 3.5 ounces, of potato. Even at a more modest 15-25 milligrams, Russet Burbank contributes healthy amounts of the health-promoting antioxidant. Per 100 grams, apples average about 6 milligrams of vitamin C and oranges about 53 milligrams, says Martha Raidl, UI Extension nutrition specialist. That makes potatoes no small potatoes when it comes to vitamin C. For the past two years, scientists involved with the Tri-State program have been evaluating potato varieties for vitamin C content. Their findings: the highest-ranking potatoes put five times more vitamin C on consumer's plates than the lowest-ranking ones. "That's a huge range," says Love. "It gives us some indication that it's probably worthwhile to try to find out how high potatoes can go." Boosting vitamin C levels in potatoes is likely to boost interest by consumers, says Tri-State cooperator Dennis Corsini, a member of the USDA Agricultural Research Service's breeding team at Aberdeen. "Even now, potatoes are a major contributor of vitamin C," Corsini says. "If we could double it, potatoes would have a real marketing advantage." Vitamin C helps the body to heal, absorb iron and strengthen tissues, bones and blood vessels. Perhaps even more importantly, it can inactivate the "free-radical" particles that attack protein, fat and DNA. Scientists believe these harmful free-radicals may contribute to cancer, heart disease, cataracts and even the aging process and that antioxidant vitamins&emdash;such as vitamin C&emdash;can neutralize them, thereby reducing or even preventing some of their damage. "We're doing this work because vitamin C is an important nutrient in the human diet and because it's one of the major antioxidants that's been identified in food products," says Love. According to the National Potato Promotion Board, a medium-sized, 5.3-ounce potato provides nearly half of the 60 milligrams of vitamin C adults should consume each day. It also includes a generous helping of glutathione&emdash;another antioxidant&emdash;and more potassium than one banana. This year, Love, Corsini and ARS potato breeder Rich Novy, also at Aberdeen, will cross potatoes with high and low levels of vitamin C. That should lead to a better understanding of how potatoes inherit the healthful vitamin. Next, they plan to cross the outstanding performers with each other in hopes of developing offspring that outperform their parents. "Potatoes are already a good source of vitamin C, even though we've never deliberately selected breeding material for that quality," says Al Mosley, Oregon State University potato specialist and a cooperator in the Tri-State project. "If we start crossing parents that are high in vitamin C, we should be able to raise the vitamin C level even more&emdash;and potatoes could become quite an important source." Bob Thornton, Washington State University extension horticulturist for vegetable crops and another cooperator, doubts that most consumers are aware of the potato's nutritional assets. "Potatoes themselves are highly nutritious, low-fat foods, but the problem is that we tend to think of them as something else," he says. Should their research result in even more nutritious potatoes, the breeders say the public will be the beneficiary. "We want to provide even more good, cheap food," says Mosley. "We want to make something that's good for you even better for you." Japan's New Destination Testing, Labeling Requirements Reprinted from WAWG's Green Sheet The Japanese government will begin enforcing their requirement for safety assessment of foods and food additives produced using recombinant DNA technology. Any regulated products that have not undergone safety assessment cannot be imported or sold after April 1, 2001. USDA and trade leaders expressed their concern that these new regulations jeopardize U.S. exports of corn to Japan for food processing. New labeling guidelines, also in effect as of April 1, allow up to a 5% tolerance for presence of GMO (genetically modified organisms) ingredients in products qualifying as "non-GMO," and exempt a number of processed ingredients where the GMO protein is not easily detectable. These guidelines are considered less onerous than many proposed labeling schemes. Grow Tomatillos For Green Salsa By Carol Savonen, Oregon State University Though they seem exotically tropical, tomatillos can be easily grown in Oregon wherever tomatoes can be grown, according to crop scientists at Oregon State University Extension Service. A member of the tomato family, tomatillos have sticky green or purple-skinned fruit with a papery outer husk. Close relatives include the Chinese lantern plant and the ground cherry or strawberry tomato. Tomatillos are annual bushy plants, usually not more than two to four feet tall. They are somewhat drought tolerant. They are grown like tomatoes, either started from seed or transplanted from starts. Tomatillo plants are indeterminate - they keep flowering and bearing fruit until the frost knocks them out. They are ready to harvest when the fruit begins to break through the papery husk, an average of 55 to 75 growing days until harvest. They will last up to three weeks in the refrigerator. Planted in the spring and harvested in the fall, tomatillos are the mainstay of "salsa verde," or tangy green sauce, which is eaten as a mild "hot" sauce, or in recipes including enchilada verde (green enchiladas), chile verde (pork in green sauce), and to enliven rice, chicken or egg dishes. The ripe fruits are tangy sweet, with fine, edible seeds and greenish white flesh. They freeze or can well. Starts can also be purchased from garden centers around the state. Want to know how to use all those tomatillos once you grow them? The Oregon State University Extension Service offers a booklet full of carefully tested salsa recipes, including salsas that contain tomatillos and red and green tomatoes. For more information on "Salsa Recipes for Canning," PNW 395, visit our on-line catalog. Our publications and video catalog at: http://eesc.orst.edu/agcomwebfile/edmat/ shows which publications are available on the Web and which can be ordered as printed publications. Biotech Wheat Advisory Group By Pete Fretwell, Far West Agribusiness Association Monsanto has created a wheat industry advisory group to provide advice and counsel to the company on how to bring its biotech wheat to the marketplace. The committee represents a cross section of the industry, from seed trade and farming to grain handling and exports to flour milling and baking. Sugar Sales The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently announced the sale of government-owned sugar to ethanol producers and others to improve the domestic sugar market, to manage the government-owned sugar inventory, and to help meet the nation's energy needs. USDA will sell up to 100,000 tons of refined sugar to ethanol producers with a 10,000-ton-per-purchaser limit, which could produce a minimum of 15 million gallons of additional fuel. Ethanol producers can absorb this sugar without negative impacts on the domestic corn market. Reducing USDA's inventory also will alleviate a shortage of storage for refined sugar that exists in some areas. USDA also will tender 20,000 tons of raw cane sugar for direct sale whenever the #14 contract price equals or exceeds 22 cents per pound, and 20,000 tons of refined sugar whenever the market price equals or exceeds 25.25 cents per pound, Midwest. USDA expects eventually to market a portion of the inventory at prices that maximize returns while not oversupplying the domestic sugar market. These sales will assist in the refined sugar price discovery process. USDA spends about $16.5 million annually to store surplus sugar. Currently, USDA holds 746,814 tons of sugar -equivalent to 9 percent of annual sugar production. USDA implemented a PIK Diversion Program in fiscal year 2000, which gave farmers the option of diverting part of their sugar beet acreage from production in exchange for USDA-held sugar. Last year's PIK program diverted about 102,000 acres from beet production and reduced USDA's refined sugar inventory by 277,678 tons.

Potato Irrigators Will Need To "Make the Best of a Bad Situation" By Marlene Fritz, University of Idaho In what is expected to be a year of extreme irrigation shortages, many Idaho potato growers will be faced with the challenge of producing a moisture-sensitive crop with reduced water supplies. "Unfortunately, the goal for many potato growers who rely exclusively on canal water will be to make the best of a bad situation," says Jeff Stark, University of Idaho agronomist. "Any time your irrigation is cut off two to four weeks early, you are going to have to make substantial changes in your management program." One of the primary adjustments should be reducing early-season nitrogen applications in an effort to promote early tuber bulking. "Growers faced with early irrigation cut-offs should minimize top-dressed nitrogen applications until the end of tuber initiation to try to get the crop to start bulking earlier," Stark says. He notes that excessive early-season nitrogen can delay tuber bulking in Russet Burbank by two to three weeks. "With average bulking rates of six to eight sacks per acre per day, that can make a big difference in the yield and size of the crop in early August." Losing two to four weeks of irrigation at the end of the growing season will also move up the date to cut off top-dressed or water-run nitrogen applications, says Stark. "Rather than cutting off nitrogen during the first or second week of August, growers should move up the nitrogen cut-off date to correspond with the earlier vinekill date," he says. In some areas, this may be as early as mid-July. He advises growers who are facing early irrigation cut-off to try to hold petiole nitrate concentrations&emdash;the standard for determining potato nitrogen&emdash;at about 15,000 to 18,000 parts per million until three to four weeks before vinekill. Then they should cut back their nitrogen applications, with a goal of bringing petiole nitrate concentrations under 10,000 ppm at vinekill. However, Stark cautions that once this process of early nitrogen cutbacks begins, the effects cannot be easily reversed if the irrigation period is extended. Consequently, growers should make changes in their nitrogen management very carefully and in accordance with their projected irrigation cut-off date. Another major management challenge this year will be dealing with soil moisture management during vinekill and tuber maturation. To minimize blackspot bruise damage, available soil moisture at vinekill should be no less than 60 percent, Stark says. "If growers will not have irrigation water to condition the soil and rehydrate the tubers prior to harvest, then they will need to have adequate soil moisture going into vinekill to keep the tubers from becoming excessively dehydrated." With important management factors beyond their control this year, Stark says it's crucial that growers identify the factors they can control and direct their attention to them. "We haven't seen anything quite like this&emdash;even back in 1987 and 1988," he says. "The key point for growers irrigating with canal water is that they will have to reduce their yield target and adjust nitrogen and water management accordingly." During the warm days typical of earlier harvests, it will also be critical for growers to monitor potato pulp temperatures, says Gale Kleinkopf, UI potato physiologist at Kimberly. Potatoes that go into storage at pulp temperatures over 65 degrees Fahrenheit are more prone to bacterial and fungal diseases and consequently more likely to decay in storage. "That may mean harvesting earlier in the morning and stopping sooner," says Kleinkopf. "Keep checking the pulp temperatures, and when they're above 65, stop the harvest operation." Growers will also need to check their early-harvested potatoes for sprout development sooner than they would later-harvested spuds. Water-stressed potatoes tend to have shorter dormancy periods, necessitating earlier sprout control during long-term storage, Kleinkopf says. Montana To Get Emergency Farm Loans The USDA has announced that Montana is eligible for USDA emergency farm loans due to losses caused by drought that occurred in January, 2001. This designation makes all qualified farm operators in both primary and contiguous disaster counties eligible for low-interest EM loans from USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA). Farmers in eligible counties have eight months from the date of this declaration to apply for the loans to help cover part of their actual losses. FSA will consider each loan application on its own merits, taking into account the extent of losses, security available, and repayment ability. USDA has a variety of programs available, in addition to the emergency loan program, to help eligible farmers recover from adversity. Interested farmers may contact their local FSA offices for further information on eligibility requirements and application procedures. Additional information is also available online at: http://www.fsa.usda.gov/pas/disaster/assistance1.htm Beware Of Telephone And Internet Pesticide Sales From WSDA (WA State Department of Agriculture) It can't be said too many times, "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." Telephone and Internet marketers offering pesticides may make false claims and could be selling illegal products. Protect yourself. Know what you're buying. If you are not sure, contact a local pesticide distributor to compare prices and get information on the concentration of active ingredients. If you suspect bogus claims, call the state Department of Agriculture toll-free at (877) 301-4555. "We've already heard from a few concerned consumers," said Scott Nielsen, a pesticide specialist at Department of Agriculture. Most often, the pesticides offered are weed control products. The telephone sales pitch will often claim longer periods of effectiveness than the chemical can realistically provide. Usually, the concentration of chemical is much lower than what is available from a local pesticide distributor. The products will be sold at a higher price; and, the sales pitch will claim the difference is offset by its longer, sometimes several years', performance. Worse, once a credit card number is obtained, additional products and charges may continue to arrive monthly. Also of concern are pesticides offered for sale via the Internet. The products being sold often are state restricted-use pesticides, which means both the seller and the buyer must be licensed by the state Department of Agriculture. A seller must be licensed as a pesticide dealer and must keep sales records. The buyer must hold an appropriate pesticide applicator's license and, depending on the amount purchased and shipped, may be required to meet other state regulations. Products shipped from other regions of the U.S. may have the same brand name or EPA registration number a buyer would expect to find in Washington, but they may not be labeled for use on Washington crops. Products sold through in-state manufacturing and distribution channels are properly packaged and labeled for use on crops in Washington. It is up to the purchaser to make sure they are receiving the properly labeled products. The state Dept. of Agriculture is collecting information on telephone and Internet pesticide sales to ensure that the products offered are properly registered. If you suspect a sales pitch is too good to be true, please get as much information as possible on the product and the company and then call (877) 301-4555. State Officials Pledge Help In Klamath Aftermath By Pete Fretwell, Far West Agribusiness Association Oregon's governor and state legislators met in Klamath Falls yesterday to look at the aftermath of the cutoff of irrigation water to 200,000 acres of farmland. What they found was tragic. Klamath Falls food bank visits are up more than 15 percent in the last month. Mental health officials report a 60 percent increase in the number of calls for help to the Klamath County Mental Health Department. hundreds of growers have applied for unemployment benefits and the Oregon Health Plan , but they don't qualify because they own land assets. State officials discussed extending Oregon Health Plan benefits to cover residents who normally wouldn't qualify, providing growers loans for well-drilling and helping growers meet their mortgage payments. How Long Do Weed Seeds Survive In The Soil? By Carol Savonen, Oregon State University Weed seeds can survive in the soil for years before they germinate and grow, according to Jed Colquhoun, weed specialist with the Oregon State University Extension Service. Why should home gardeners care? "If you combine the longevity of seeds in the soil with the fact that weeds such as common lambsquarters can produce over 500,000 seeds per plant, the incentive to hand weed your garden becomes much greater," said Colquhoun. "Prevention is the most effective form of weed control," he said. Here are some basics on weed seed biology: * Undisturbed weed seeds tend to persist longer than seeds subjected to periodic tillage. * Weed seeds in deeply worked soil tend to last longer than seeds in shallowly worked soil. * Seeds deep in the soil are "stored" below the germination zone. * Grass seeds tend to be less persistent than broadleaf weed seeds. * The number of surviving seeds of most weed species declines rapidly the first year. But thereafter the rate of weed seed decline slows. Some seeds can persist for decades. * As many as 130 million seeds per plow acre were found in a Minnesota study. Different species of weeds have seeds that last varying numbers of years in the soil. The scientific literature provides some information about seed longevity, including: Brome grass seed&emdash;seldom lasts more than two years. Annual ryegrass&emdash;up to nine years. Perennial ryegrass&emdash;up to three years. Annual bluegrass&emdash;up to about five years. Wild oats&emdash;three to six years, but longer in deep soil. Jointed goatgrass&emdash;three to five-and-a-half years. Barnyardgrass&emdash;up to 13 years. Quackgrass&emdash;up to four years. Common velvetgrass&emdash;10 years or more. Mustards&emdash;are long lived. Seeds excavated from a monastery in Denmark were dated to be 600 years old and 11 of them germinated. More commonly, mustard seeds last for decades. Lambsquarters&emdash;may last up to four decades. Russian thistle (tumbleweed)&emdash;short lived, most live only a year. Wild carrot&emdash;several years. Curly dock&emdash;more than a decade. Canada thistle&emdash;more than two decades. Field bindweed&emdash;more than 50 years. Leafy spurge&emdash;at least a few years. Common groundsel&emdash;most die within a year. Scientists found lotus seeds in Manchuria that germinated after over 1,000 years, said Colquhoun. State Must Protect Agriculture From Brunt Of Drought Reprinted from WAWG's Green Sheet Information From Washington State Rep. Gary Chandler, Co-chairman of the House Agriculture and Ecology Committee (360-786-7932). Now that a drought emergency has been declared in Washington, state government must do all it can to keep its drought response from cutting into the irrigation water supplies so badly needed by the already struggling food producers. The drought declaration is appropriate, but I'm very concerned that fish may be put ahead of farmers as the state tries to respond to this. The objective here can't be salmon preservation at the expense of the state's second-largest industry. We want the governor to understand that the needs of farmers and people are as important as the needs of fish, and we're working toward that with him. Putting fish before farmers is not the order that is best for our state economy, and it's not the way to manage one of our most precious resources. The state simply cannot allow the drought to be the last straw for food producers in Washington. Our agriculture community has struggled with a down-turn in the market for several years. Global competition has kept commodity prices flat, yet production costs have increased an average of 19% because our farmers have to comply with labor and environmental standards that don't apply to their competition. Of the roughly 40,000 farmers in our state, 25% have not been able to gain approval for financing for the 2001 growing season. Many farmers are continuing to lose equity in their land as they continue to borrow against it. More of our orchards are being abandoned each year. If our farmers have to pay more money to irrigate their crop&emdash;if irrigation water is even available&emdash;I'm sure we'll lose at least some of them. I know Governor Locke can't control the fact that this has been a dry winter, but the seeds for this emergency were sown some time ago, just like they were for the energy crisis we still face. Washington should have more off-stream water storage than it does. The state agency that manages our water resources shouldn't have let its management approach become a snarled mess of permitting backlogs that we still must deal with, drought or no drought. The same lack of snow and rain that exposed the flaws in the state's energy policies has now done the same for its water policies. The governor tries to blame the problem on the state's water law by calling it archaic, when the real weakness is in how water is being managed under that law. The House of Representatives has passed changes and updates to state water laws before, only to have them dry up in the state senate or governor's office. This year the dialogue on water issues has been better. We are working closely with the governor's office and the House Democrats on this, and we have put together a compromise package of legislation that should help address a number of the concerns related to this drought. We're working to enlist support for it from the Senate Republicans, but to make it happen, we'll also need support from some Senate Democrats. Farmers Harvest The Wind Reprinted from WAWG's Green Sheet The Nov.-Dec. 2000 edition of The Futurist (forecasts, trends and ideas about the future), published bi-monthly by the World Future Society (www.wfs.org), included an interesting article, introduced by the above headlines. The article opens: "Some farmers and ranchers in the U.S. are raising a new cash crop: electricity. They have discovered that they own not only land but also the wind right that go with that land. A farmer in Iowa who leases a quarter acre of cropland to the local utility as a site for a wind turbine can typically earn $2000 a year in royalties from the electricity produced. In a good year, the same plot can produce $100 worth of corn. Wind turbines strung across the farm at appropriate intervals can provide a welcome boost to farm income, yielding a year-round cash flow. Harnessing the wind has become increasingly profitable." The article goes on to say that, contrary to public perceptions, the potential of wind power is enormous, and that a U.S. Dept. of Energy wind resource inventory found that 3 states&emdash;North Dakota, Kansas and Texas&emdash;have enough harnessable wind energy to meet the electricity needs of the whole country. Also, according to the article, "Agricultural land values may soon reflect this new source of income. The wind meteorologist who identifies the best sites for turbines is playing a role in the emerging new energy economy comparable to that of the petroleum geologist in the old energy economy. The mere sight of a wind meteorologist installing wind measuring instruments in a community could raise land prices." The article closes with these comments: "U.S. 'wind farmers' are part of a fast growing global trend in the use of wind energy. Worldwide, wind electric generation in 1999 expanded by a staggering 39%. Wind already supplies 10% of Denmark's electricity. In Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands, individual farmers, or organized groups of farmers, are investing in the turbines themselves and selling the electricity to the local utilities, thus boosting the farmers' share of income from wind power."

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