Why IR-4’s Executive Director Is Excited About the Future
Jerry Baron reflects on the value IR-4 has brought to the specialty crop industry, and how it will continue to evolve to meet new challenges and opportunities.
Greenhouse Grower: As the needs of specialty crop growers evolve, particularly when it comes to the emergence of biologicals, how is IR-4 evolving to help growers address those needs?
Jerry Baron: We’re right in middle of what’s going on in the pest management world. Because we’re so closely intertwined with so many parties, we’re seeing how crop protection companies both big and small are expanding into newer technologies and different areas for products. In some cases, the bigger companies like Bayer, Syngenta, and BASF are purchasing smaller companies that are coming up with some innovative solutions.
What we’re trying to focus on is what it’s going to take to be part of the transition from pest management as we knew it to pest management for the future.
At the same time, a lot of the products that have become the standard-bearers are under increased scrutiny both by the government and the public. We’re seeing products become basically unusable. Europe may put a restriction on it, which means U.S. growers can’t export it into Europe because they don’t have a good system to segregate what’s going into domestic markets and what’s going into international markets. The easiest thing for them to do is not to use that product. So we’re seeing that there’s unprecedented challenges occurring here. What we’re trying to focus on is what it’s going to take to be part of the transition from pest management as we knew it to pest management for the future.
There’s a lot of innovative technologies and products that are being developed from the pharma industry that may have some capacity. We’re trying to adjust our research infrastructure to be able to match up with some of these new products that are coming out. We’re also seeing that there’s probably more need for IR-4 to do more performance testing than we’ve had in the past, when we were doing chemical residue testing. So much more of our focus is going into that particular area in the future.
That means that down the line, IR-4 may need the capacity to do microbial testing. We’re trying to be on the cutting edge, and we’re also trying to monitor what’s going on in the world around us, making sure that we’re relevant 60 years into the future.
There’s a lot of work being done by IR-4 on behalf of the industry that growers may not know a lot about. What are some of the most important things that growers should know about what IR-4 does?
Jerry Baron: I think the most important thing the growers need to know is we are here for them. There may be cases where a grower has a pest management problem, and all of a sudden a few years later, a new product registration shows up. I don’t think growers always have a good understanding of what goes into getting that new use.
I think we as an organization probably need to share more with the growers that we are a national research program that is looking out for the voids in pest management, and trying to develop solutions and move them through the regulatory process.
When it comes to the regulatory process, there’s education for growers, and there’s also educating those decision makers on the regulatory side. Do you see more opportunities to continuously educate regulatory decision makers?
Jerry Baron: That education is certainly important. Some EPA reviewers don’t have a farm background. Whenever we can, we try to give them an understanding of some of the challenges that the growers face and that growers aren’t out there just spraying for the fun of it. Spraying is a very expensive and very timely process that requires a lot of resources, and you have to make the best use of those resources.
Funding is certainly a constant concern for IR-4. What kind of things do you as an organization to address this?
Jerry Baron: We’ve really taken a multi-pronged approach to this whole funding dilemma that we’ve been involved with. We try to be as efficient as possible and make sure we’re being the best stewards as possible of our government funding. We’re also consistently looking for new funding opportunities to help us accomplish our goals.
With some of the innovative technologies, there may be grants beyond our normal processes out there that may be helpful. For example, one of the things we’ve been doing over the last couple of years is trying to integrate biopesticides in with conventional chemical products, to solve some of the harder-to-control problems, from new pests to resistance management to export issues.
But probably the most important way that this perennial issue about funding has been handled is through our Commodity Liaison Committee. This group of commodity group representatives, made up of both small growers and large growers as well as grower associations, serve as advocates for IR-4 with Congress.
When you’re trying to gain traction going into Congressional offices, it can be a challenge because after you meet with a lawmaker, you may be happy with the conversation. But then another group comes in to meet with them, and then another, and by the time they make their decisions, they may have forgotten about us. One of the things the Commodity Liaison Committee did was establish the “Friends of IR-4.”
This is not directly connected to IR-4, but it’s made of people and groups that support us. Friends of IR-4 has funded the hiring of an advocacy group in Washington that can facilitate the transfer information from our commodity groups at the appropriate time to the appropriate people. They’ve done a great job of making sure IR-4’s funding needs are clearly articulated to Congress.
How do you see the mission and vision of IR-4 evolving moving forward?
Jerry Baron: I think the products we work with are changing. The traditional chemical pesticides will always have a place, but the proportion of chemical pesticides going into the future crop production practices may be at a lower rate. We’ll see more biopesticides and other emerging technologies such as CRISPR that are changing crops as we know it, and changing the genetics of the pest as we know it.
I think we’ll also see a whole gamut of smart sprayers, and we’ll be able to utilize not only chemical pesticides in smart applications, but utilize some of these new technologies and smart applications to minimize risk, while still providing the growers with the tools they need. Indoor agriculture is one area that is so much different now than it was just five years ago. The pest problems don’t go away, but they’re significantly reduced.
As these things evolve, we as an organization are evolving. We’re there to be relevant in the future to give the growers the tools they need, and maybe totally different tools. But we’ll be there one way or another to give them these tools.
What excites you the most about you the future of this industry?
Jerry Baron: It’s an excitement and a fear at the same time. By 2050, we’ll be talking about 10 billion people living on Earth. What can we do to make sure we all have enough food to eat? There’s a lot of food that’s wasted today that can be repurposed. You’ve heard of ugly fruit that used to go into seconds. Now it’s becoming a specialty in many areas, and sometimes it’s even bred to be tiny. This new market could be utilized to help solve this problem going forth in the future. Our collective contributions can all lead to help make things better.
