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Innovation 2012
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Innovation 2012
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SECRETS OF THE TIP WORM
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FOREIGN INTEREST
CODLING APP
PUBLISHER'S VIEW | LISA OLSON
Innovation 2012
TREAD SOFTLY
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NEWS & EVENTS
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PRESERVING THE FUTURE
LEGAL LIBATIONS
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GADGETS FOR GROWE
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EDUCATION REDUX INNOVATION QUOTES
THINK FIRST
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IRRIGATION INNOVATION
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FRESH SQUEEZED
UITLET MINERAL ANALYSIS
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UNDERGROUND
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PUBLISHER’S VIEW | LISA OLSON
Pondering leads to Innovation
Vol. 53, No 4 Innovation 2012
I
Established in 1959
nnovation can happen anywhere and in any industry. Google has dedicated a 20 percent time allotment, which allows employees to work on whatever they want. Gmail was born during this innovative time. In the UK, a schoolteacher organized a school-wide ‘Innovation Day’ one day per week, when students were allowed to choose how they wanted to learn – no grades or marks, only a presentation at the end of the day. Students discovered they enjoyed planning, thinking and producing a better piece of work.
Publisher Lisa Olson Editor Karin Wilson Graphic Design Stephanie Symons Contributors Stephen Boles, Michael Botner, Devon Brooks, Kim Elsasser, Denese Espeut-Post, Elnora Larder, Kim Lawton, Pamela Lynch,
Watching someone ponder in their workshop or in a field at a crop or at a desk may look like they aren’t doing anything. Even when asked what they are doing, their reply might be, ‘nothing.’ That’s because it may not be anything yet. Down the road though, something cool may develop!
In this issue you’ll see night-powered irrigation, screw caps for sparkling wine, ways to harvest later and preserve freshness, new research on tip worms, how to enter insect data on your smart phone, improved fruitlet analysis and ways to use social media to engage with your customers.
Sales & Marketing Holly Thompson Circulation Photo by Kim Elsasser
The idea to develop this innovation issue came about because we want to try something new and find ways to make things better for our industry.
Darcy Nybo, Bill Wolk
Orchard & Vine Magazine 1576 West Kelowna Road West Kelowna, B.C., V1Z 3H5 E-mail:
So, next time you are standing still or staring off into space the outcome might just help you figure out how to fix your machinery, a more efficient way to run your operation or an invention that may change the world. When that happens we want to know too! Happy innovation and enjoy the magazine!
info@orchardandvine.net
info@orchardandvine.net www.orchardandvine.net Phone: 250-769-2123 Fax: 1-866-433-3349 Orchard & Vine Magazine is published six times a year and distributed by addressed direct mail to growers, suppliers and wineries in the Okanagan, Kootenays, Fraser Valley, Vancouver Island, Washington State and throughout Canada. Orchard & Vine is also available through independent B.C. bookstores and online. Publications Mail Agreement No. 40838008 Undeliverable copies should be sent to:
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INNOVATION | NEWS & EVENTS
GRAY MONK IS CELEBRATING 50 years of marriage – 40 years In their vineyard– 30 years since Gray Monk opened
In the courtyard, between the main building and Grapevine Patio Restaurant, key political and industry personalities offered George and Trudy words of congratulations, beginning with Lake Country mayor, James Baker. Returning from a marathon vote in Ottawa the previous day, MP Ron Cannan presented the couple with certificates signed by the Prime Minister for their wedding anniversary and winery business achievements. Representing industry, Harry McWatters handed them a handsome photograph showing George and Trudy walking in the vineyards in the early days of their journey. It was crammed with expressions of congratulations from industry colleagues. He praised them for their efforts as industry pioneers who continue to work toward the future. Among 120 guests, four generations of the Heiss clan were on hand, including Trudy’s 95 year old mother, Anna Liese Peter. The only remaining family winery of the original estate wineries licensed in the early 1980s, their three sons play key roles – George, Jr. as winemaker, while eldest son Robert is director of operations and Steve oversees sales and logistics. Of the many grandchil-
Photo by Michael Botner
On a perfect spring evening in June, Trudy and George Heiss, founders of Gray Monk Estate Winery, celebrated their manifold milestones in style, with family, friends and long time industry colleagues. The stars lined up for a trio of anniversaries – 50 years of marriage; 40 years since they started planting vines in their 20 acre vineyard in Okanagan Centre; and 30 years since Gray Monk opened in 1982. A modest operation in the beginning, it has evolved into an 80,000 case a year winery based in grand Rhine castle look-a-like digs.
Ron Cannan toasts Trudy and George Heiss on their anniversaries.
dren celebrating the occasion, Bob’s eldest son Kieran works in the vineyard as a qualified viticulturist. Highlighting the evening, the B.C. Culinary Team, young chefs competing at the World Culinary Olympics at Erfurt, Germany, prepared a sumptuous, five course dinner paired with Gray Monk’s best wines from the Odyssey series. “They are taking this opportunity to practice their skills and to thank us for supporting the team’s journey for gold,” Trudy says. After an incredible evening, guests left with a gift from their hosts - a bottle of 2009 Celebration Edition of Gray Monk Odyssey Traditional Brut.
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Innovation 2012
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BECOME A SUBSCRIBER! The Latest in Fruit and Wine Since 1959 Inside each issue you’ll find the latest news and views on fruit and wine… Expert Columnists who are passionate about the industry. Informative articles on fruit growing, winemaking, viticulture, government news and agricultural issues. Business growth – find guidance on marketing, packaging, business, labour, and safety. We feature an exclusive winery profile in each issue. Event Listings – find out about conferences, trade shows, seminars, fairs and festivals. Connect with people in the industry! Call 250-769-2123 or Email: info@orchardandvine.net Innovation 2012
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Grow With Us It’s time for some new ideas in the Okanagan. New ideas about growing, quality, packing, relationships and success for all. We’d love for you to join us. Join us in growing the best fruit the Okanagan has to offer. Join us for maximum returns on your fruit. Join us for access to national and international markets. Let’s talk.
JIND Fruit Company Inc. Osoyoos BC
10 Innovation 2012
250-495-2100 • summer@jindfruit.com
Innovation at Jind Orchards hold more appeal than hedges for JIND President and COO Twenty-five-year-old Jesse Sandhu of JIND Fruit Co. is leveraging his law and business education and experience to transform his family’s fruit orchards in Osoyoos into an international operation. Originally dreaming of hedge funds, Sandhu came home from law school in England when he realized he preferred orchards to hedges. He took the helm in 2010, becoming JIND’s president and COO.
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Naming the company after his nephew, this new business launched by building a $3 million packing facility that automates weighing, packaging and labeling. JIND has doubled capacity over last summer with the same number of employees, making it the largest independent fruit packer in B.C. This year’s upgrades include a new defect sorter, automated bagging and clamshell packaging and an outdoor hydro-cooler to chill fruit as it’s waiting to be sorted and packaged. The result is fruit that is “tree-tostore in 24,” said Sandhu. All fruit is packed in export-grade, modified-atmosphere packaging, extending fruit shelf life. Food safety has driven investment in extensive labeling and food safety systems. The number on a JIND package encodes who packed it and when, who grew it, even from what area in the orchard it came. JIND subsidized its growers to become CanadaGAP certified - the only packer in B.C. to do so. This requirement won’t be mandatory until 2013. But not all innovation is high-tech. “When it comes to cherries, I’m a believer in the old-school style of planting and training trees,” Sandhu explains. In 2011, he began traditional low-density planting to grow sweeter cherries than modern orchards produce.
Innovation 2012 11
GREAT GADGETS FOR GROWERS 12 Innovation 2012
By Darcy Nybo There’s nothing quite like having a few new gadgets around, and the number of goodies offering high-tech complexities at the click of something or other (or not), just keeps growing. Here are few that caught Orchard & Vine’s eye.
Screw Caps for Sparkling De Bortoli Wines has revolutionised the sparkling wine industry by partnering with two of Australia’s leading packaging suppliers to launch the country’s first screw-capped sparkling wines. The new innovative screw cap, dubbed Viiva™, was developed by Guala Closures in Australia in response to ongoing complaints from industry and consumers about traditional cork-closed sparkling wines including opening difficulties and loss of carbonation. Guala Closures Australia worked in collaboration with leading glass manufacturer O-I to develop a bottle specifically designed to fit the closure. The Viiva™ closure system provides greater convenience for consumers, is familiar and easy-toopen. As it can be resealed, it also minimises wastage and enhances consumer value. www.gualaclosures.com
TankWrap Albrigi Technology has a TankWrap system of modular, polypropylene heat exchanger bands that wrap around your wine storage tanks. The system can be quickly installed and removed by one person for easy tank washing and moving from tank to tank. It has excellent resistance to outdoor conditions and will last up to 20 years outside. The TankWrap was designed to connect to your chiller/heater unit for use with either water or glycol coolant solutions. With this system, there is very little condensation during cooling and none at all during warming. You can clean them with the same detergents and cleaners you regularly use on your tanks. Best of all - they are lightweight - only 700 grams/sq. meter. www.cellartek.com
Net With Ease Birds may sound lovely in the spring, but by the time the fruit begins to ripen, they are pests. YKK Snap Fasteners SNAD (snap adhesively attached) components offer an easy way to attach bird netting to locations where birds typically roost. The SNAD fasteners come in both a stud and a socket, are available in either UV plastic or silicone in black, white, or gray. They also contain a pad of 3M™, VHB™ acrylic conformable foam adhesive on their underside that enables them to stick to most surfaces including metal, plastic, painted block, masonry and wood. With the SNAD components, there is no need to drill holes. All you need is a clean, dry surface. Peel of the backing and press into place. Just snap in a plastic wire tie that comes with the fastener, and loop it through the netting. For more info go to www.ykksnap-america.com
Mulcher Dealing with forage crops between rows just got a lot easier. Niboli has come out with a specialised mulcher for mulched stubble in grassy vineyards and orchards. The BNE 150-180-210 SDS series is tractor-mounted and discharges mulched product into windrows under plantation trees. Double spiral versions have fixed central linkage whereas single spiral versions have hydraulic offset linkage to direct biomass under plantations more accurately. BNE SDS mulchers are equipped with roller or wheels - for adjusting the working height - and they have a hydraulic adjustment for spiral speed to balance biomass quantity as regards tractor speed and grass height. www.gerardsequipment.com/ Innovation 2012 13
Smaller orchards and hobbyists will love the Twister Fruit Picker®. It was designed to easily and correctly pick fruit with no fruit or tree damage. With the Twister Fruit Picker® you don’t need a ladder. Its slim lightweight design allows targeting of individual fruit because you can see what you are picking. Slip the Twister Fruit Picker® into the tree, select your piece of fruit, and with both hands, twist it off the tree. The twisting motion eliminates tree and fruit damage. www.twisterpicker.com
Pesticide Storage Storing pesticides has always been a problem, until now. Secure-Rite now has developed a Pesticide Storage container that is compliant with health and safety regulations. The pesticide storage containers are mobile, ventilated and pest proof. Check out www.secure-rite.com
Wine Stabilizers Laffort has come up with a product that allows winemakers to cold stabilize wine without refrigeration. No more high-energy costs, product loss or time commitment needed for cold stabilization and no more electro-dialysis. CeLstab® CMC, is a pure carboxymethyl-cellulose product for white and rose wine stabilization. It grabs on to the tartrates while in solution and inhibits microcrystal growth. Users found that wines treated with Celstab® retain more of their original character. www.laffort.com.
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14 Innovation 2012
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UPGRADES PAY OFF How to grow better quality grapes, use less energy and save money in the process. By Darcy Nybo
Photo contributed.
Pierre Hebting, who emigrated from the Alsace area of France in 1976, started farming in 1989. In 1993 he bought 25 acres near Oliver and in’97 he started his own vineyard – growing grapes, something that runs in his family. Now in 2012 he has set his target at four tons per acre. But that’s not the only reason he thinks he is lucky. Hebting has been working with FortisBC, and has found a way to grow better quality grapes, use less energy and save money in the process.
Innovation 2012 15
Irrigation Innovation “I told them I wanted to stay off grid during peak times and irrigate in the evenings. FortisBC has a special rate for night power. It’s easy to do with a drip line and we have the computer turn on the system at night.” In March, FortisBC’s Barry Bryant came out and installed Hebting’s Time-of -Use meter. Saving power isn’t the only reason Hebting has gone to night watering. He does it for the plants. “If you irrigate a grape vine in the daytime in the summer you automatically get diseases,” he explains. “The stoma of the plant reacts to heat and sunlight. When the stomata are open the carbon dioxide comes out. You put water on the leaf when they are open and disease gets in and you end up with powdery mildew. If you irrigate at night, the stomata are closed and you have very little problem with diseases. If we work with the natural cycle of the plant, we gain.” When Hebting purchased his farm it had an old irrigation system, using
five to seven gallons per minute. As that much water can leach the fertilizer out of the soil, he switched to a wind fighter sprinkler in 1999, which only takes 1.8 gallons per minute. Then he got some great advice from German Barahona of Nulton Irrigation. “He pointed out my pump was too big and had way too much power consumption. I went down to a 15 hp submersible eight-stage pump. It was amazing how I did all my irrigation in less time.” Barahona also advised Hebting to put in drip line irrigation, a fairly major expense. The total projected cost was $30,000. Hebting decided to do some of the work himself to cut costs. He laid conduit with electrical wiring with the pipe so he could eventually computerize his system. The Environmental Farm Plan helped him put in the drip line and in the end his total cost was $22,000 for 17 acres. A year later he was running the entire system on his computer.
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Pierre Hebting of Happy Vineyards on Black Sage Road near O
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Irrigation upgrades over the last 8 years have reduced Hebting’s electricity usage by more than half. 16 Innovation 2012
His next step is to install moisture sensors in the soil so he doesn’t water unless he has to. “That is my number one priority,” he said. “After that we will get the variable frequency drive (VFD) for the pump.” Hebting had PowerSense Energy Efficiency representative, Perry Feser, come out to discuss VFDs. “When you slow down the motor the energy used is drastically reduced,” explained Feser. “Most pumps are designed to pump a certain amount of water per minute. If you don’t need that much water, you benefit by at-
Photo contributed.
Oliver thinks he is one of the luckiest guys in the Valley.
taching a variable frequency drive to your pump. In theory, if you reduced the pump volume by 20 per cent you could save 40 per cent on energy costs.” For Hebting, all his hard work has paid off, having cut his electrical use in half since 2003. “I’ve saved about $10,000 over the past nine years so it paid for almost half of my drip line.” He’s also helping to protect the environment and, as he put it, “If we farmers don’t protect the environment who will?” ■
Energy savings are available through FortisBC for upgrading irrigation pumps and equipment with energy efficient features such as variable speed drives, energy efficient motors and digital control. The PowerSense program is connected to the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture’s Environmental Farm Plan. This is a no charge, confidential, voluntary process available to producers to identify both environmental strengths and potential risks on their farms. For a limited time, farmers will receive a rebate when they complete energy efficient upgrades to their irrigation pumps under the direction of a Certified Irrigation Planner. See FortisBC at their booth at the 13th Enology & Viticulture Conference & Tradeshow on July 16 and 17 at the Penticton Convention Centre. For more information on the PowerSense program go to fortisbc.com/farmpumps.
Innovation 2012 17
Cryptic Secrets of Tipworms Research unlocks mystery By Devon Brooks When two insects, such as the cranberry tipworm and the blueberry gall midge, look so alike that they can’t be distinguished visually, but are actually different insects, they are called cryptic species. This dry distinction is very important for British Columbia’s cranberry growers, who are suffering the onslaught of the cranberry tip worm. As cranberry plantings took off in this province during the ‘90s cranberry farmers believed the infestation on their plants came from nearby blueberry farms where the gall midge had been detected a decade earlier. Given that the insects are identical in appearance it is easy to understand why farmers made the obvious link. Even Dr. Sheila Fitzpatrick, an entomologist at the federal government’s Agassiz Research Centre, says that was her first thought. It has taken years of testing to prove the two species are distinct and cannot interbreed. Results from Fitzpatrick’s latest study show that neither male nor female tipworms will mate with gall midges of either sex. That means the infestation of tipworm was imported in with cranberry vines when the plantings were expanding. It was, she says, a politically touchy conclusion. Vine growers out of the United States, where the vines were purchased, didn’t want to accept responsibility and undoubtedly, farmers putting in the new vines didn’t want to be told their plantings were the ones that brought the problem to British Columbia. At this point, where the tip worm originated is academic.
Photos by Melissa Cook
“They’re here to stay,” she says. “But cranberry farmers don’t need to worry about what is happening on a neighbouring blueberry farm.” As the gall midge is not nearly as destructive, research is now focusing on the tipworm, starting with a look at some wasps that are parasites on the tipworm, but Fitzpatrick says they have a natural incursion rate of only about one in five (18 per cent). That helps, but it won’t be enough on its own. Tipworm populations expand most quickly during early growth of the plants. To encourage faster growth of young vines some growers will apply large amounts of 18 Innovation 2012
An adult tipworm under the microscope, and to provide perspective, sitting on a leaf tip in a field. Adult tipworms are approximately one tenth the size of an adult mosquito. Note the blurry finger in the background
Photos by Agassiz Research Station ( Dr. Sheila Fitzpatrick, an entomologist at the federal government’s Agassiz Research Centre.
fertilizer, but this fast, succulent growth provides the perfect feeding and breeding ground for the tipworm. Careful management of nitrogen application, suggests Fitzpatrick, is needed to balance growth and breeding opportunities for the pest. The two pesticides available are only licensed for use before berry production so once the plants are bearing fruit the pesticides cannot be used. Further, tipworm larvae reside inside the plant buds. These two pesticides are contact pesticides so the plant itself shields the insects. A new pesticide, known by its trade name of Movento (Spirotetramat), is undergoing studies, but won’t be available for use until 2013. Meanwhile Fitzpatrick is focusing her work on finding a relatively easy way for farmers to determine how large an infestation might be. Her past work identified four pheromones that attract the tipworm, making it easier to get good counts. Since the most effective pheromone probably can’t be manufactured at a reasonable cost she is working on developing a cost effective combination of the four pheromones. ■
Dr. Fitzpatrick’s research assistant and, at the time, graduate student, Melissa Cook, works in the greenhouse on the study to determine if blueberry gall midges were able to breed with the cryptic species, the cranberry tipworm Innovation 2012 19
Foiling The Perils Of Online Marketing By Michael Botner
T
he State of California has introduced tougher enforcement measures in reaction to three-years of problems involving the sale of alcoholic beverages through Groupon-type promotions and other third-party internet marketing services.
Sales transactions, including advertising, pricing, delivering wine and receiving payment, now must be limited to licensees. But California’s Department of Beverage has also allowed third party providers (like Groupon) to receive “reasonable compensation” as long as they do not engage “in activities for which a license is required”, such as decisions concerning the selection of alcoholic beverages to advertise the offer of sale, the pricing of the beverages, and the completion of the sale. The regulations are interesting, particularly for B.C. where recent legal changes thanks to the passage of the wine shipping law reform bill (C-311) could soon open the door to much greater use of online marketing. Unlike B.C., California does not operate government controlled distribution or retail channels. On the other hand, both jurisdictions have homegrown wine industries with wineries that rely on the internet to support their sales and marketing efforts. But could Third Party Providers provide a service to the industry – wineries and licensees as well as wine agents and potentially consumers – within B.C.’s existing legal framework, given the California saga? Kevin Blucke believes so. A wine industry professional based in Kelowna, Blucke spearheaded the development of onlineorderdesk.com, a web-based application which allows licensees to place orders with wineries. Even B.C.’s Liquor Control and Licensing Branch found no fault in the arrangement and provided written assurances to that effect back in 2007.
In B.C. recent legal changes, thanks to the passage of the wine shipping law reform bill (C-311), could soon open the door to much greater use of online marketing.
Company Director of Operations, Sean Rogers, explained how the system works, and the benefits for the industry. “All licensees are wired into the system,” he says. “But only wineries pay a transaction-based fee of $1 per order plus 10 cents a litre over a certain number of cases.” When a licensee (including private liquor stores and restaurants) places an order, the winery gets an online alert and a copy of the purchase order by email. Clicking the screen signals the system to convert the order into a Form 60 invoice, copies of which are sent to the licensee and to the winery to facilitate warehouse control and the BCLDB (B.C. Liquor Distribution Branch) reporting at the end of the month. This process provides wineries with a system of management reports for total sales in dollars and litres, plus sales for everything from product or brand to customer and region. 20 Innovation 2012
“Wineries can even tell which products are more or less profitable,” explains Rogers. “The system is even hooked into ContainerWorld in the Lower Mainland.” Licensed agents also save cumbersome paperwork and receive intelligence in the form of a monthly spreadsheet, as well as a copy of Form 60 invoices, when they utilize the system. Plans include eventually adding a portal for consumers. “The fact that this is a true cloud-based application which guarantees that it is up and running 100 per cent of the time and the users don’t have to worry about software storing back-up,” he adds. ■
PRESERVING THE FUTURE By Devon Brooks
Cherry Survival On Slow Boat To China Finding the balance between freshness and flavour. Innovation 2012 21
C
herries are a commodity so growers are always doing the intricate dance that balances cost against freshness and flavour. Air transport is the quickest way to get fresh fruit to overseas or longdistance consumers, but it is an expensive option getting more costly every year.
“A lot of times decay problems in the store can be traced back to problems in the field.” Dr. Peter Toivonen
The alternative, sending the fruit by sea, breaches the time limit meaning quality deteriorates, but Dr. Peter Toivonen, a researcher in postharvest physiology at the federal government’s Summerland Research Station is examining a possible solution. Toivonen believes Chilean cherry growers solve the problem by harvesting cherries when they are immature and “rock hard”, thereby sacrificing flavour for firmness and longer shipping life. In contrast, B.C. growers tend to harvest later, so the flavour is better, but the fruit is more sensitive in the handling process. Now Toivonen is working on a method he hopes will literally go the distance, delivering both freshness and flavour. The Challenges Sent by ship, cherries from the Okanagan can reach European markets in two to three weeks or China in four weeks. Chilean cherries reach Canada in about five weeks, which is why they are forced to send immature fruit. Under ideal test conditions fully ripened cherries, carefully picked, shaded from the sun, quickly hydro-cooled to 0.5ºC within a few minutes, stored in cooled labs and put in lined containers to help retain moisture, will last eight weeks. Such perfect conditions cannot be replicated in the field under commercial conditions.
Cherries packed into crates at that magical half degree will rise to 5ºC after 25 days because, even in a cooled room, cherries generate their own heat. 22 Innovation 2012
Photos by Devon Brooks
“If you’re doing a good job your hydro-cooled cherries are at 3ºC by the time you’ve finished packing,” Toivonen says.
Dr. Peter Toivonen stands next to a device used to measure cherry firmness. This older machine destroys the cherry so can only be used on a very small number of cherries in a batch.
DURATION OF OPTIMUM QUALITY BY STORAGE 8 WEEKS IDEAL LABORATORY 3-4 WEEKS INDUSTRY STANDARD HYDRO COOLED & SHADED 1 WEEK FRESH PICKED INTO A CRATE
1 WEEK 3-4 WEEKS 8 WEEKS Heat causes the cherries to dehydrate, which is easily observed in the stem because stems have a much greater surface area to volume ratio. “The stem is an extraordinarily important indicator of the state of the cherry,” he says, and if more than five per cent of cherries are stemless that’s a warning sign. The surface area-to-volume ratio is also why larger cherries travel better and longer. Dehydration can also cause a dimpling of the cherry skin, known as pebbling. Another key measurement is sugar content. The optimum sugar content for Sweethearts is around 20 per cent, but Toivonen estimates cherries leaving Chile are only at 17 or 18 per cent sugar.
The Solutions Toivonen wants to work on different parts of the processing chain to improve the quality of shipped fruit, starting with picking and handling, which can result in invisible damage. “A lot of times decay problems in the store can be traced back to problems in the field.” Toivonen says the use of a pulsed phase thermal imaging (PPTI) device can detect invisible damage by delivering a once-second blast of heat to the cherry. If damaged, the fruit can then be identified as unsuitable for
long distance. However, it’s still good enough to receive top dollar so long as it sells quickly. Toivonen believes packing lines would be the best place to install the device, offering up a good return on investment. As most fruit is tagged, this would also aid farmers in identifying which pickers have poor technique. Toivonen says there are other issues as well that need to be examined, including testing for firmness without squashing the fruit, time-sensitive ways of testing for acidity levels, plus improvements to storage by moving
“One of the biggest problems is the softness and we’ve learned with more mature fruit the sugar content is very important to firmness,” he says. While sugar content relates directly to fruit firmness it is only half of the story for taste. Good flavour comes from a balance of sugar content and the fruit’s acidity. As time passes sugar content drops slowly, but the acidity level goes down more quickly, resulting in declining flavour and unhappy buyers. In a pyramid stack there is one less box per layer as it goes up. In this modified version, i-bars of plywood support the end boxes in each row, allowing many more boxes in a particular area. Innovation 2012 23
60
Simulation of temperature change in a pallet of ‘Sweet-heart’ Cherries based on heat production of fruit, which varies according to fruit temperature 52.81ºC
FRUIT TEMPERATURE IN BOX ºC
50 0ºC at the time of palletizing 5ºC at the time of palletizing 40
10ºC at the time of palletizing
30
20 13.94ºC
10 4.29ºC
0
5
10
15
20
25
DAYS IN TRANSIT
SIMULATED TEMPERATURE CHANGE IN FRUIT DURING SHIPPING DEPENDING ON THE TEMPERATURE OF THE CHERRIES AFTER POST-PACK COOLING
to “pyramid stacking” using forced air cooling. “It’s like buying an insurance policy,” he says, because the system allows air flow between crates, which keeps the internal crate temperature lower for a longer period of time. Right now all the risk for a fruit shipment is borne by the grower, and Toivonen says growers would like to see that risk shared with buyers. If fruit could be tested and verified as being in optimum shape at the moment it leaves the packinghouse, damage for subsequent poor handling or storage might spread some losses to other players within the system. If these small changes allow the best tasting cherries to be shipped further it might also provide better returns to B.C. cherry growers. ■ 24 Innovation 2012
Think First, Type Second
Making Social Media Fruitful
By Darcy Nybo
U
sing social media can be highly effective or a total waste of time. To help growers figure out how what’s truly useful, Orchard & Vine connected with Allison Markin and Melonie Dodaro – two social media marketing mavens. Markin is a marketing consultant specializing in social media. She runs allshewrote.ca, and has become well known for a her eat.drink.tweet event. Dodaro (topdogsocialmedia.com) is a social media strategist specializing in profitable social media campaigns. FACEBOOK Markin: If you are not on Facebook you are missing out. If you are running a business where you need the public interested in you, you need a business page. It is ideal to post on Facebook once or twice a day with 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. being the peak times. If you are out in the field, just take a photo with your smart phone and post it on Facebook and say ‘this is how the chardonnay grapes are doing’ or ‘this is how the apples are doing.’ If you have a mascot for your farm, post photos. Visuals are very important on Facebook. They don’t need to look professional, as long as they show something that is happening right now.”
Dodaro: You need to follow the pages of the people who are your target market. Search them out and follow/like them. Go on at least once a day and like their posts and comment on them. TWITTER Another popular social media site is Twitter, which can connect to your target market, but you have to do it with only 140 characters. Markin: If you aren’t going to use Twitter regularly don’t set up an account and let it die. Once you start, you need to keep going. People want to hear from you if they follow you. You can automate your Facebook posts to post on Twitter too. Use hash tags (#) so people can find your tweets. The most common used is #bcwine and #bcfruit. I follow thousands of people on Twitter, and if I am looking for something particular, I will search under those hash tags. Twitter is like constant text messaging. People expect a much more immediate response.” Dodaro: One of the great things about Twitter is you can create lists. For example you can find all the restaurants you want to sell to on Twitter. You can tweet to them directly or retweet their stuff to get their attention. Anything you do that has their name in it will get their attention. People want to be talked about on Twitter. It’s reciprocity. You share
their stuff and they start sharing yours with their networks. HOOTSUITE For those of you who just don’t have the time or the patience to be scheduling your life around social networking sites there’s Hootsuite. Dodaro: It’s a social media dashboard. First you need a strategy, create tweets for your audience and then start engaging. You can actually schedule your tweet to come out every few hours. Your strategy should look something like this: ■ Create tweets for the day and schedule them. ■ Thank people for mentions and retweeting your stuff. ■ Engage with four or five of your target markets each day by either sharing their tweets or commenting on their tweets.” BLOGGING With more than 800 social media sites out there, there’s no need to belong to all, and depending on what you do, blogging may be all you require. Dodaro: Blogging should be your foundation. Like all social media you need an effective blogging strategy. WordPress is a blog you can integrate into your website. Your blog should have keywords in them that you want to be noted for. No matter what you are writing about, you need to ensure your keyword phrase Innovation 2012 25
PINTEREST And if all that wasn’t enough, there’s a new kid in town and that kid is called Pinterest, largely focused on sharing images and videos. Dodaro: People on Pinterest tend to spend about an hour and a half on average on the site. Users in North America are mostly women and the big categories are recipes, food,
wine, and travel. It is very much a lifestyle type of social network. Creating a buzz with Pinterest takes a little bit of computer graphic skill, but it’s not all that hard. You simply take your photograph and put information on it. For example, take a photo of your latest wine release then add words like “pairs great with chicken.” Whatever way you choose, know that social media is the next evolution in information sharing and marketing. May all your status updates be liked, your tweets memorable, your blogs followed and your Pinterests shared. ■
Photo by Kim Lawton
is included multiple times in that blog. Once you’ve blogged you can share it across all social media. You can also add sharing buttons so people who read it can also share it with their network. There are a tons of social share buttons through WordPress.
Share your photos with colleagues, friends and family. Snap a picture, choose a filter to transform its look and feel, then post to Instagram. Share to Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.
Google’s Social Media and Your Local Listing
LinkedIn FOR B2B
Pamela Lynch from Hot Entrepreur.com has this to say about, Google+ and Google+ Local and Linked In
LinkedIn is an excellent B2B social media network. Use it to build strategic relationships within your industry, or to attract ideal clients or venture partners. It’s a great tool to find qualified employees. LinkedIn allows you to connect with your suppliers and people you collaborate with in your business.
Google’s position as a powerhouse made them an instant candidate in the social media arena. Their entry may be based solely on who they are and not on user engagement, which is what social media is all about, but they will gain popularity simply because they are Google. As in all industries, including fruit and wine, impeccable timing is everything. Google is no exception. First, there was Google+ and now Google+ Local. As the single largest search engine, they impact where a company ranks in the search results. Google will continue to reward their loyal customers who use their products. Savvy companies who claim their local listing on Google+ Local, deliberately and strategically, will position themselves, just as Google intended, to dominate their industry’s first page as a powerhouse.
Your LinkedIn profile presents your resume to your connections highlighting your skills, strengths, and specialties. You can also provide valuable content to your audience through joining or creating a “Group” for your industry or passion. Commenting informs, educates, or inspires your audience. Ask questions to further engage them with you, and become LinkedIn to build your B2B network. Pamela Lynch www.hotentrepreneur.com 250-707-3499
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26 Innovation 2012
FRESH SQUEEZED Innovation Council assists battered cherry growers By Devon Brooks
Back in the early 1990s a long established farming family in Creston could see trouble looming on the horizon with apples.
Two decades later the Snows not only see trouble coming for the cherry market, they’re hip deep in it. For the last five to six years, there’s been a steady decline in cherry prices, increased competition from Washington State, and poor weather, which resulted in their entire 2009 crop being reduced to cull status. “Culls used to be two or three per cent, but now it’s 20 to 30 per cent because the fruit has to be absolutely perfect or it’s kicked back.” It isn’t just the Snows of course – the entire farming community is feeling the pressure. “At one time there were five [fruit] brokers but now it’s down to three because of a poor market. At lot of farms changed hands this year,” says Gary. In the short term to survive they remortgaged, but what they really needed to do was innovate with what they had - 21 acres of Lapin, Sweetheart, Kootenay and Skeena cherries.
Photo contributed by Gary & Susan Snow
“Sue’s brother and father were the first to rip out their apples and replant with cherries, which were the next best thing,” says Gary Snow, whose wife Susan was a member of that family.
market shelves because it is difficult to make. “The pit was an issue because it has cyanide in it,” Susan says. Another is the appearance. The bright red cherry juice that drips down your chin when you bite into a plump piece of fruit will, if left out, turn an unappetizing brown colour as it oxidizes.
good enough to land them a total of $160,000 if they could raise matching funds on their own for most of that sum. With money in hand the Snows set about tackling the technical challenges.
Getting the money together to finance such a project was another obvious challenge.
The pair relate the story of how, after producing a few bottles they arranged to meet Dr. Tom Beverage, a retired Summerland Station researcher, who specialized in making fruit juices.
The money issue was partially surmounted by successfully competing in the BC Innovation Council’s (BCIC) Commercialization of Agricultural Program, CAT for short.
Beverage met them at a café where he carefully studied their bottle. Gary says Beverage stared at it for so long they were both sure he was about to tell them of a terrible flaw.
“It was actually like Dragons’ Den on a huge scale,” Susan says.
What Beverage was doing was holding the bottle up to the light to study the refraction between the boundary of juice and air in the bottle neck. This is where the telltale hint of brown would be revealed, which means the producers have failed in their efforts to prevent oxidation of the cherry juice.
Susan says the decision was to make and sell cherry juice under the Tabletree name. “We went into the juice business to go up one rung on the ladder.”
Their initial proposal was rewarded with a $10,000 grant to produce an in-depth business plan and pitch it to a panel of business representatives, academics and investment experts.
Cherry juice is not often seen on the
In the end they came in second place among all competitors, which was
Innovation 2012 27
“With all due modesty our marketing department sucks. We’re farmers, not marketers,” Gary says.
What the Snows didn’t know, as Beverage’s study of the juice drew agonizingly on, is that he wasn’t able to find the expected telltale brown colour. In the end, he congratulated the pair on their success.
They began locally, getting the juice into four Creston establishments. Gary says response has been very good. “We sell incredibly well at farmers markets, partly to get the name out.”
The cyanide in the pit is a problem because most commercial juicing processes crush a certain percentage of pits, releasing the cyanide into the juice. The Snows won’t say exactly how they overcame the problem, stressing it is part of their proprietary process, but Gary will say they have developed a machine that works. Whether the same process can be used on a large scale, remains to be seen.
While they are also selling in Trail, Penticton, Rossland and Nelson (a complete list of stores is available on the website: www.tabletreejuice. com) they have picked up some supermarket chains in Calgary and Toronto. Gary laments it has been harder to persuade B.C. stores to pick it up than in other provinces.
Susan is convinced their preservative-free product is a winner, based on health attributes and flavour. “We wanted to make sure the juice was all healthy – it’s all juice with a touch of cinnamon and honey. The cinnamon and honey was to give the juice a nice finish.”
Every food entrepreneur knows making a good product is only the first hurdle. Next is getting people to try it.
The couple is also exploring Washington markets because of easy access to the eastern part of the state from Creston. If the Snows succeed they believe their fortune should help other Creston growers, from whom they hope to purchase cherries in the future. ■
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FOREIGN INTERESTS By Devon Brooks
At the B.C. Fruit Growers Association 2012 annual general meeting, the group called for Canada to adopt the 1991 convention. This would allow growers to bring in foreign breeds that are currently unavailable.
B
ack in 1961 a number of countries came together and signed the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, better known by the acronym of UPOV, which comes from the convention’s name in French.
Jones, who works as manager of the potato industry coordination for the Council, says Canadian breeders want other countries to give extended protection to their plant breedings Signatories give equivalent protection to other signatories under the convention, while foreign breeders who have popular new breeds won’t sell to Canadian farmers because they lose their royalty rights five to seven years sooner.
Canada did not join until after the 1972 and 1978 revisions were in place, but in 1991 another major revision of the convention was introduced. Canada however did not see the update as a legislative priority at the time. “Canada is one of the few wealthy countries that never signed on,” says David Jones, with the Canadian Horticultural Council, one of the key players in advocating for the 1991 revisions. Even Jones is not clear why Canada didn’t sign up when other countries signed on to the update in 1991. At issue was the time span for a breeder’s protected rights. The 1978 convention provided protection for 15 or 18 years (the latter for vines and trees), but in the 1991 revision, that time frame was extended to 20 or 25 years.
“Other countries don’t want to sign on to the registration process in Canada without the benefit of the longer time.”
Canada never signed the 1991 UPOV convention, which makes foreign producers of new plant breeds reluctant to sell innovative, popular products to Canadian growers because of shortened protection periods.
Protect the grape, protect the
Missing out on popular new varieties can be the difference between success and bankruptcy when farmers compete with imported crops from other countries. Another change under the newer treaty, says Jones, is seed saving. “It would also extend the breeder’s right to save seed; right now it’s implied,
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but not explicit.” The change specifies that a farmer who saves the seed, but doesn’t pay for it, would find his crop belongs to the breeder or his agent. Jones says there was an effort to sign on in 1999, but the bill died on the order table in the lead up to the 2000 elections. In 2004 the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) conducted a consultation to gauge whether the public and the industry was in favour of signing on. “The bottom line is that there is general support for updating. It’s a pretty unified front as far as agriculture goes.” Despite that, the convention was not a priority under the succession of minority governments. Ron Cannan is the federal Conservative MP for the district of Kelowna-Lake Country. Given the 13 year lapse since the last attempt to have Canada sign on to the ’91 update, he had, unsurprisingly, never heard of UPOV. Cannan reports the CFIA is preparing some options for the minister’s consideration, one of which is looking at the 1991 convention. If they recommend the adoption, Cannan says, “our government will then look into amending the Plant Breeder’s Act in order to make it compliant with UPOV ‘91.” So far the CFIA, he says, has not put that proposal forward. If it does, and the amendment was carried out, then Canada could sign on. Jones believes it would be at least a couple of years before Canada could become a signatory and he only hopes it is not sidelined by the federal election that will be looming by then. In the meantime, for farmers it is status quo. Foreign breeders will be reluctant to sell their stock to Canadian farmers and varietals developed in Canada retain royalty rights for a lesser period of time in foreign jurisdictions. There is no way to account for exactly how much money Canadian farmers lose under the current situation, but it was enough to prompt calls for Canada to go back and sign up for 1991. ■ 30 Innovation 2012
CODLING MOTH
There’s An App For That By Elnora Larder
T
here seems to be a cell phone “app”(application) for almost everything these days, so how about an app that assesses the degree of the codling moth infestation in your area? This is just part of one of the interconnected systems that Pacific Agri-Food Research scientist Gary Judd is hoping to share with the public this summer. People will be able to enter insect data on their smart phones, and through a public website, access the calculations made by cloud computing. They can obtain the results plotted on maps from a geographic information (GIS) system. Weather stations, located in every 50 acres of orchard, will collect and add weather data. A pheromone dispensing system will coordinate with the other systems. Judd calls this equipment a “wireless sensor network.” Other systems could be added later, such as the ability for soil scientists to collect useful soil moisture data that farmers could access, and the measurements of factors such leaf moisture and spore count could indicate disease potential. Judd says the idea arrived while working on insect control. He was looking for a good way to deliver pheromone aerosols, and then pondered how to measure the results.
“It started with my work on pheromones and just sort of snowballed from there,” he said. Currently Judd is working with a small Vancouver research company called SemiosBio. The company approached him to undertake some trials of the orchard-based equipment after finding him through the Agriculture and Agri-food Canada website. Most of the big orchards Judd is working with for this project are in the Similkameen Valley, but he will also be running smaller trials at the Pacific Agri-Food Research Centre in Summerland so that the public can see the high-tech equipment in action. “It’s important for the systems to be fairly robust,” he says, noting everything will go through trial runs. Michael Gilbert, president and chief scientific officer of the SemiosBio, says the systems, for example the pheromone dispensing, insect detecting, and the weather systems, naturally work together. “It’s pretty easy to coordinate the systems because of the way they’re all developing,” he says. According to Gilbert, he and Judd worked together to design the trials of the new equipment. The company supplies the equip-
“Siri , find codling moth.” iPhone 4S ment and connections for farmers who wish to run the detecting and dispensing systems. Gilbert says the company’s pheromone dispensing system is safer than conventional systems for humans and the environment because it is species-specific. It can’t affect other insects, such as bees.
Innovation 2012 31
Advantages to growers for using the computer-coordinated systems include more accurate monitoring and metered delivery of pheromones. The systems are more responsive than conventional methods when conditions are right for the potential of extra damage. There is better coordination of the systems, and customers can buy and add systems at their own pace.
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Education Redux Innovation Targets Young Ag Students By Elnora Larder The current crop of innovative new programs at agricultural colleges and universities across Canada give students a chance to do something different with their education. Traditional agricultural education usually focused on plant, animal, food, or soil science. In other words, students learned how to apply science to a variety of agricultural situations and problems. But times have changed, particularly over the last few years when Canada has been criticized for its lackluster performance, particularly in the area of innovation. And it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. In June, the OECD released its Economic Survey of Canada 2012, and while it praised the nation for its forward efforts in post-secondary education, the 120-page report continued to ring the refrain that innovation remained weak. Various post-secondary institutions are doing their part to inject new energy, particularly in areas such as sustainability, urban farming, and integrated pest management, to name a few.
University of Saskatchewan conducts programs in: Sustainable Resource Management (similar to reclamation) and Applied Plant Ecology. Explore.usask.ca/programs/ag
Here then, is a summary of the some of the more innovative programs being offered around the country.
University of Guelph offers programs in urban agriculture including organic farming, environmental science, rural community life, and agricultural research. www.oac.uoguelph.ca/about
Sustainability With the world facing a myriad of environmental problems, sustainability is a concern for all projects, especially those based on agriculture. University of British Columbia offers Bachelor’s degrees in Applied Biology (Animal, Plant, or Soil Science), all in the context of sustainability. www.landfood.ubc.ca/ undergraduate
Urban farming Bringing food production into the cities is making it more obvious where our food comes from. Students can study it at several places: Kwantlen Polytechnic University, through its Institute for Sustainable Horticulture, offers students a chance to study Urban
Agriculture. The Institute aims to make horticulture, silviculture, forestry and urban landscapes more sustainable. www.kwantlen.ca/ish/about.html University of Guelph offers courses in urban agriculture including organic farming, and agricultural research. www.oac.uoguelph.ca/about Integrated Pest Management Reducing pesticide use by employing “good bugs” and other alternative methods is now popular. Students can get qualifications at several institutions. University of the Fraser Valley trains students to become ‘pest scouts’ by completing the one-year Horticulture Crop Protection and Production certificate. www.ufv.ca/agriculture Innovation 2012 33
Kwantlen Polytechnic University offers an Integrated Pest Management program through its Institute for Sustainable Horticulture, while apprenticeships are available in Arborist Technician, or Landscape Horticulture. www.kwantlen.ca/ish/about.html
University of Lethbridge offers degrees in Agricultural Biotechnology (focuses on research in biochemistry and biotechnology) or a two-year postdiploma program for holders of two-year certificates from agricultural college programs. www.uleth.ca/artsci/agricultural-studies
Food Security
University of Alberta offers a concentration in its Faculty of Agricultural, Life and Environmental Sciences on bio-resource innovation. www.ales.ualberta.ca
Food availability for all has become another hot topic recently. University of British Columbia offers Bachelor degrees in Food, Nutrition, and Health or Global Resource Systems (choose the resource system and part of the world that you want to study). www.landfood.ubc.ca/undergraduate University of Alberta takes a multi-disciplinary approach to solving global agricultural problems, using applied science, the humanities, and the arts. Issues the university tries to address include food security and safety, food’s relationship to health and the environment, individual and community well-being. www.ales.ualberta.ca Bio-resource Innovations Some programs focus on making new products from natural resources
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University of Saskatchewan conducts programs in: Sustainable Resource Management (similar to reclamation), Applied Plant Ecology and Food and Bio-product Sciences as well as the more traditional agriculture courses. explore.usask.ca/programs/ag Organics Organic produce has been selling well, despite the extra costs involved in growing it. Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada offers online courses leading to the Certificate of Specialization in Organic Agriculture. oacc.info University of Guelph includes programs in organic farming, environmental science, rural community life,
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Berries Popularly considered nutritious, berries have been selling particularly well. University of the Fraser Valley recently opened the Pacific Berry Resource Centre. The university also offers a Berry Production Essentials Certificate. www.ufv.ca/agriculture Beverages: beer and wine A variety of courses is available to help students qualify for the expanding wine and beer industries. The International Culinary School at the Art Institute of Vancouver provides courses for the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) diploma for sommeliers and others who wish to undertake wine studies. Offers internationally recognized Wine Studies and Sommelier courses. www.winecollege.ca Okanagan College offers pre-apprenticeship courses in horticulture, as well as viticulture, wine sales, and winery assistant. The college puts on short courses too, in viticulture and wine studies. It will offer the course “Living off the Land” on Oct. 13. www.okanagan.bc.ca UBC Continuing Education, in association with the Wine Research Centre (Faculty of Land and Food Systems) offers courses in wine education with wine appreciation and wine science activities to engage and educate adult learners of various levels of wine knowledge. cstudies.ubc.ca/understanding-wine Brock University, located in the heart of Ontario’s Niagara viticulture area, contains the Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI), Canada’s only university-level program for training in oenology (winemaking) and viticulture (grape growing). www.brocku.ca/ccovi
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Olds College, in Calgary Alberta, offers a program where students can qualify to become brewmasters. oldscollege.ca/ Water With water quality concerns rising all the time, why not become qualified to manage water? Thompson Rivers University offers a diploma in water and waste water utilities. www.tru.ca/trades/degrees/waterwaste.html Okanagan College offers an environmental speciality in water as part of its Water Engineering Technology program. www.okanagan.bc.ca/wet ■
Innovation 2012 35
EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN
Fruitlet Mineral Analysis
By Bill Wolk “Innovate or Die!” wrote Tom Peters in 1982 in his spectacularly popular book on business management, In Search of Excellence. Since then, his cry has been repeated countless times in speeches and articles by the famous and not-so-famous, used as the title of seminars and names of websites and is generally seen as the banner waving above the high tech age in which we live. Yet, Peters’ dictum doesn’t apply exclusively to our time or to highly visible sectors like electronics and medicine. Its push has been present for centuries and its reach goes into every corner of human endeavor. Innovation often triggers a period of rapid development when, over a few years, a particular area of research generates more new information 36 Innovation 2012
than it has in the previous several decades. This can occur when the introduction of a new technology makes it possible to do something for the first time or turns a time consuming, expensive process into one that is much easier and less costly. In the last 25 years, for example, the world has seen a veritable explosion of information in the field of molecular biology. This was initiated by a rather simple advancement in the technology used to sequence DNA. Mineral analysis, something we in agriculture often take for granted, had its day in the sun almost a century ago. By 1850, every important plant nutrient could be measured with a reasonable degree of accuracy. However, many of the methods needed to determine mineral concentrations in plant tissues were
extremely slow and laborious. The introduction of new technologies in the first half of the 20th century changed all that. The two decade span of the 1930s and 40s was a kind of Golden Age for mineral analysis and made plant tissue analysis a very hot research area in horticulture and crop science. Mineral Nutrition of Fruit Crops, edited by Norman Childers in 1954, is a bookend to that era. It described the nutritional requirements and basic relationships between minerals, plant health and fruit quality for almost all commercially important temperate and several subtropical fruit and nut crops. Except for a few historical references, the papers cited were all published between 1925 and 1952. From about 1960 until the early
1980s, additional research fine-tuned our understanding of the relationships between mineral concentrations in apples and fruit quality. Many people made contributions to the effort during this period but none more so than Michael Perring at the East Malling Research Station in the U.K. who published more than 75 articles and reports on the subject. Practical application of this information began almost as soon as it became available. In 1975 in Belgium, R.D. Marcelle used fruitlet mineral analysis to predict the storability of apples. Six years later in the U.K., Eric Gunn founded Farm Advisory Services Team (FAST), a horticultural advisory company. One of FAST’s main services was to predict storage potential of apples based on fruitlet mineral analysis for cooperative packinghouses. Packinghouses used the predictions as a factor in determining returns to growers. Growers who shipped fruit with long term storage potential were paid more than those who shipped fruit with shorter term storage potential. Through the 1980s, the use of fruitlet analysis as a tool to predict fruit storage potential spread quickly through Europe, South Africa, New Zealand and South America. The one region of the world where its use was notably absent was North America. In the mid-1980s, Duane Holder at the BC Fruit Packers Cooperative began to push the idea of fruitlet analysis for the B.C. industry. Dr. Sam Lau of the Okanagan Federated Shippers Association (OFSA) and Dr. Bill McPhee of the Okanagan Similkameen Cooperative visited Michael Perring and Eric Gunn in the U.K. and R.D. Marcelle in Belgium in 1987 for a firsthand look at commercial fruitlet mineral programs.
IMPORTANT MINERAL RATIOS FOR APPLES ■ N/Ca Low for all around fruit quality ■ P/Ca High = bitter Pit P= firmness Need balance ■ K/Ca Too high = bitter pot, breakdown Need balance ■ Mg/Ca Bitter pit when high < 1.0 ■ N/K Want low for red colour Lower N before raising K ■ P/N Firmness
program in 1994. Since its inception, the program has established sampling protocols and mineral recommendations for most major apple varieties grown in the province.
The two returned to B.C. convinced of the value of the practice. A Fruitlet Mineral Project was initiated by OFSA in 1989 in conjunction with Dr. Gerry Neilsen at Agriculture Canada in Summerland.
Because of the small size of most B.C. orchards and the inherent difficulty in trying to segregate so many lots of fruit into CA rooms of similar storage potential, fruitlet analysis has proven to be more useful here as feedback to growers in their nutrition programs, guiding them toward the production of higher quality fruit. Compiled results from a number of analyses are used by the industry to gain a general idea of the overall storability of the crop before it is harvested and to identify lots of especially poor storage potential.
The Fruitlet Mineral Project evolved into a commercial
Over the years, fruitlet analysis has been used to greater
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or lesser degrees by different parts of the B.C. industry. At times, analyses and recommendations have been provided to growers as part of a packinghouse program and at other times, they have been offered as a separate fee for service.
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As with any technology, there are growers for whom fruitlet mineral analysis has become an important tool in managing their orchards and others who have yet to fully appreciate how valuable it can be to their operation. When in a position of having to pay for mineral analyses out of pocket, most apple growers will get a leaf analysis when trees have visible symptoms of health problems, but many are still reluctant to get an annual fruitlet analysis to help assure they are producing fruit of the highest internal quality. The Washington State apple industry showed an interest in fruitlet analysis as soon as it was introduced in B.C. but, in general, did not adopt it as a commercial practice until more recently. The number of fruitlet mineral programs south of the border has been increasing rapidly in the last few years. Unlike B.C., where most apples are produced by cooperative growers, the majority of apples grown in Washington are directly owned by the producer through storage up until the time they are sold. Growers there are realizing the value of fruitlet analysis as one more piece of information that can be used to estimate the storability of different lots of their fruit. Mineral analysis was the last century’s innovation and fruitlet analysis was the last generation’s innovation. One of the many challenges we face in the fruit industry today is to innovate ways to use these intellectual tools we have inherited, to exploit knowledge handed down to us to our economic advantage. To not do so would be to stare down the gun barrel of the alternative to Innovate or …!, in Peter’s battle cry. That’s a place none of us wants to go. ■
UNDERGROUND | KARIN WILSON
Bill C311 Marks only the Beginning
O
ne of my real heroes in life is Ralph Waldo Emerson.
He’s known as one of the most often-quoted people in literature, but for me he is important because of his seminal essay called SelfReliance. I mention this because in so many ways it is the anthem to entrepreneurship. It calls upon each and ev-
ery one of us to dig deep into who we really are, so that we can not just take out the “sweet stuff” as he says in another essay Compensation, but so that we can reach so much deeper into the soul of who we are to make life all the richer. To my mind, this is the true calling of the entrepreneur. This is the true calling of the farmer, the orchardists, the vintner. It is knowing with confidence that place within ourselves that recognizes the soil that has been given to us, respects that soil, and so plants in it only the best, and then nourishes it so that it reaches its highest potential.
As with life, so it is with farming. There truly are no places to cut corners. Which doesn’t mean at all that there isn’t room for improvement. There is always room for growth. It is what makes evolution so compelling. It’s what drives us, it’s what compels us to be more of who we already are. So I say these words now because I see that the industries that Orchard & Vine covers are at a crossroads, as they so often are. The recent, and potential Senate approval, of Okanagan-Coquihalla MP Dan Albas’ private members Bill, C-311, to end the pro-
hibition on the transport of liquor from one province to another, represents a turning point. Should the Senate choose to pass this bill, and I have no doubt that it will, the industry is poised on the verge of new vistas. Who knows what could happen now to the flourishing wine industries of both B.C. and Ontario? The passage of this Bill could mark a race to the top in terms of pricing of Canadian wine, or it could spell the beginning of a new level competition that inspires the industry to expand its understanding of what is possible. That
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could mean larger vineyards. That could mean more production. That could mean increased wealth within the agriculture sector. We simply don’t know. This is what innovation is all about. It’s taking that spark of an idea, and carrying it through with conviction. And with Emerson as a guide, it also means remaining true to oneself. If industry tries to inflate itself with false hopes and then attempts to sell that image to the masses, it will fail.
That is not true self-reliance. That is ego. And in the real game of life, there is no place for it. The same is true for the fruit industry. There are battles of opinion underway as we speak about what constitutes “real” fruit, and what constitutes the fruit of our future. The truth, as so often is the case, lies somewhere in the middle. The orchard industry needs to be open to new ideas, and new ways of doing things, all while holding on to the past.
So often the industry has been lured by the siren song of technology, only to find that some things come at a price few are willing to pay. The challenge lies in being able to see the future in the present. In being able to take the risk at the right time. And the funny thing is, every one of us knows when that happens. There is something in us that quietly whispers: this is right. The real challenge is to ignore the loud voice that says: ‘Don’t do that, no one thinks that, that’s just crazy.’ But we all know that what we plant doesn’t lie. Sure, the winds of change may rain upon us, and some things may take far longer than we ever imagined, but somehow we all recognize when our farming practices are in balance. We know because it’s demonstrated with flourishing vines, and abundant fruit.
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And so I believe this innovation is everywhere. If you don’t think you have a product you can “innovate”, maybe it’s a perspective that you choose to have and nourish. And if it’s still in that form of the tender leaf and bud, don’t give it away just yet. Nourish it. Water it. Give it warmth, and care. Our ideas are the most precious commodity we have. Give them free reign, and they will return back to us ten-fold.
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TREAD SOFTLY | STEPHEN BOLES
Innovation as a Key Component of Sustainability development and introduction of new products or services. However, innovation can also apply to improvements in the manufacture or performance of existing products or services.
C
orporate sustainability is the principle that businesses with the greatest potential for future prosperity are those that are managed with a consideration of ‘the three pillars’: strong economic returns, positive social values, and responsible environmental stewardship. Corporate sustainability has emerged as a mega-trend in today’s business world, and is now an expected part of responsible business management. Businesses that plan for and invest in sustainability will position themselves with a competitive advantage through increased operational efficiencies and improved relationships with customers, their community, their supply chain, and major distribution channels. So how does innovation relate to corporate sustainability? MerriamWebster defines innovation as “the introduction of something new”. From a business standpoint, this broad definition of innovation can have multiple applications. Innovation is often thought of as the
Innovation is a key component of an effective corporate sustainability strategy that can greatly enhance a business’ economic health and environmental management. New product or service innovation allows a company to stay relevant and timely, maintain or expand its market share, and often identify new market opportunities. Innovation within existing facilities or products can greatly reduce the environmental footprint of the business through improved operational efficiencies, which can provide positive economic returns and a low payback period. The wine and tender fruit sector has a long list of examples of innovation to be proud of, a few of which are provided below. Orchard and Vine readers are encouraged to think outside the box about opportunities for innovation in their own operations. Innovation might just be the ingredient that is needed to transform you from a good business into a great business that is sustainable over the long term. Energy From Pomace Several years ago the majority of leftover grape skin, seeds, and pulp (known as pomace) from Vincor’s
Niagara wineries was sent to landfills. This disposal process was problematic in numerous ways. Economically, the transport costs and tipping fees to dispose of the pomace in landfills was an expense of tens of thousands of dollars per year. Environmentally, because of its organic content the pomace would decompose over time and emit methane, a harmful greenhouse gas. Vincor partnered with a local company Vandermeer Greenhouses and developed a solution to this problem. Vincor is supplying pomace from its Niagara operations as a fuel source for Vandermeer’s anaerobic digester. The digester is a piece of equipment that captures the methane from decomposing organic matter and uses it as a fuel source to generate electricity. The electricity generated from Vandermeer’s digester has drastically reduced one of the greenhouse company’s major expense items (electricity), while also reducing the pomace disposal costs for Vincor – an innovative solution that is a win-win for both companies. Bottle Weight and Packaging The environmental and economic opportunities available to wineries for converting to lighter-weight bottles are significant. Two years ago Fetzer Wineries acted on a company-wide commitment to lighter wine bottles. Fetzer’s lighter bottles reduce glass usage by 16% (more
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than 2100 tons per year) which reduces supply chain greenhouse gas emissions associated with glass bottles by 14 per cent. The lighter bottles are a result of technological innovations in bottle design, reducing the glass thickness and eliminating the punt. These changes result in multiple environmental and economic impacts through the wine bottle lifecycle as it not only reduces the glass used, but also the energy necessary to produce the glass, and the energy required to transport the wine to consumers. Wastewater Treatment A B.C.-based winery with a strong commitment to sustainability and environmental stewardship invested in an innovative sequencing batch reactor wastewater treatment plant. Ontario-based engineering firm Enviro-Stewards designed the system and helped commission process (clean) water treatment, wastewater treatment and reuse, and an air treatment biofilter to avoid odours at the winery. Prior to the design of the wastewater treatment plant, the winery underwent a comprehensive water assessment to reduce upstream organic loading and water consumption. The reduction in organic loading and water usage resulting from the assessment allowed for a much smaller treatment plant to be constructed, which realized over $50,000 in capital cost savings for the winery. ■ Stephen Boles is the President of Kuzuka (www.kuzuka.com), a leading corporate sustainability services consulting firm with extensive experience in the agriculture and food and beverage sectors. Contact Steve at 519-2356250 or sboles@kuzuka.com.
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Innovation 2012 43
LEGAL LIBATIONS | DENESE ESPEUT-POST
Even Innovation needs Protection and developed by a few, will be valuable for many.
B
rilliant. Visionary. Cutting edge. All of these can be used to describe the talented innovators at work in our agricultural industries. Thinking outside of the box, creating new projects and tackling challenges with fresh outlooks often result in increased sustainability and industry growth. Innovative solutions, researched
I think most, if not all, people would agree that innovators deserve to be recognized for and associated with their innovation and its resulting benefits. But, surely, the innovators should not have to rely on the good nature of people to make sure that they are recognized and associated with their work. And that is where my good friend, the law, comes into play. Innovation is all around us. Much of it has become so commonplace, it is hard to think of it as innovation, but rather an everyday item taken for granted.
When I’m in our orchard and thinking that I need to learn how to drive our Kubota® tractor, I don’t really think about the fact that KUBOTA is a registered trade-mark protected in the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. When I read an article in this magazine and reflect on how useful the information I learned was, I don’t really think about the copyright protection the author has for their article. When I drink a glass of wine packaged in a really unique bottle, I admire the shape of the bottle, but I don’t really think about whether the shape
is actually registered by its owner as a “distinguishing guise” and subject to legal protection. I often see orchardists spraying, but don’t turn my mind to whether the inner workings of that sprayer, the parts that make it tick, are protected by patents. Trade-marks, copyrights and patents are all considered intellectual property (“IP”). IP is a type of property that a person can own, but cannot be seen. And when it comes to innovation, IP rights are one of an innovator’s best friends. Protection of innovation by advancing your IP rights is not only a good business
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move; it can provide a competitive advantage. This is true even if IP is acquired from someone else, whether an employee, a contractor or through a business transaction. After spending your time, hard work and expertise on your innovation, actively protecting your work will help ensure it remains yours and is not duplicated by others. Let’s talk about protection. If you are an inventor, a patent will provide you with exclusive protection for your invention.
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Patents are designed to encourage and reward inventions and innovations. When patent protection is obtained, the inventor is granted the exclusive right to make, use or sell their invention for 20 years. After 20 years, the invention can be used by anyone. This is a major protection for inventors that should be discussed further with your legal advisor. Pretend for a moment that you have obtained patent protection for a new widget that has revolutionized temperature controlled storage units. Now you alone can manufacture your widget, sell it to others or have others pay you for a license to make your widget for 20 years. As part of your marketing strategy, you have decided that it is important to brand your widget so others identify your widget with you and no one else. You name your widget a unique name, “MY COOL WIDGET” and your legal advisor has advised you to trade-mark the name “MY COOL WIDGET.”
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While we have briefly discussed patents and trade-marks, the information provided is just an overview and only scratches the surface of this area of law. There are several forms of IP capable of protection and perhaps one of the forms not addressed in my column may apply to your situation, whether you are an innovator or not.
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A trade-mark is a mark used to differentiate the goods or services of the owner of the trade-mark from the goods or services of others. Words, logos, phrases, labels, pictures, sounds and product packaging can be trademarked. A registered trade-mark gives the owner of the trademark exclusive right to use the mark in Canada for the goods or services the mark relates to for 15 years; the trade-mark can be renewed for further 15 year periods indefinitely. Like patents, trade-marks provide key protection for innovators.
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IP should be an important part of your business and your strategic plan because these rights will help you protect and maintain a significant competitive advantage. Contact your legal advisor and obtain advice regarding your IP rights and how to protect them. ■ Denese Espeut-Post is an Okanagan-based lawyer and owns Avery Law Office. Her primary areas of practice include wine and business law. She also teaches the wine law courses at Okanagan College.
Innovation 2012 45
INNOVATION IS… If at first the idea is not absurd, then there will be no hope for it. Albert Einstein - Genius
Innovation is not about saying ‘yes’ to everything. It’s about saying ‘NO’ to all but the most crucial features. Ultimately all innovation and technology brings to the table is a new tool. It comes down to the quality of the grapes and the knowledge of the winemaker.
Steve Jobs, Apple
We can help poor farmers sustainably increase their productivity so they can feed themselves and their families… But that will happen only if we prioritize agricultural innovation.
Eric Von Krosigk Winemaker, Summerhill Pyramid Winery
Bill Gates, 2012 Annual Letter Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Throughout history, people with new ideas—who think differently and try to change things—have always been called troublemakers.” Richelle Mead, Author Investing in agriculture brings one of the highest returns you can have. Paul Polman CEO of Unilever I am continuously learning how best to maximize my resources. As I learn, I realize we’ve come full circle. Things like mulching and composting are old farming practices, and yet the way we do it now is innovative. We use our own trees and recycle them back into the soil that grew them. Sometimes in life, the simplest things are the best things. Greg Norton Farmer/Orchardist - Oliver
46 Innovation 2012
The technologies which have had the most profound effects on human life are usually simple. Freeman Dyson - English Physicist
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