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Agribusiness Committee Visits USDA AG Research Service

By: Kathleen Abdallah

On Friday, February 25, 2011, members of the California State Bar Agribusiness Committee attended a seminar on various subjects at the USDA Agricultural Research Service located in Albany, California. Howard Zhang, the Pacific West Area Center Director welcomed us and provided us with an overview of this research center. The research center is one of 8 in the country. The goals of the research center include finding solutions to agricultural problems, ensure safer and high quality food, assess nutritional needs for our country and assist in sustaining a healthy agricultural economy. It also provides opportunities for research for farmers, food producers and those involved in the food industry.  

We heard from Dr. Maria Brandl, a microbiologist, who discussed product safety and post-harvest research on produce. Produce is the most common agriculture item that causes food borne illness. Pre-harvest contamination with salmonella, e.coli or the norovirus are not easy to detect due to the various factors that may be involved, such as pathogens in soil, water, or wild life and human involvement. The science of tracing the contaminates includes genomics and proteomics, the science of proteins. Post-harvest research is performed to find methods of mitigation. For example, raw almonds were under a decontamination mandate. Traditional methods of decontamination were inappropriate because of the nature of the product; harvested almonds could not undergo a liquid decontamination process because they would rot; instead, the center devised an infrared heat to decontaminate the nuts.  

The center performs research on and for processed foods. Dr. Rebecca Milczarek is part of that team. The goal is to help produce new, valued-added products that benefit the consumer, producer, the economy and the environment. Fruit growers of the San Joaquin Valley met with the center to help create a fruit puree product for the consumer and to help them sell their crops. The processed food research team developed a technology that produces an edible fruit film from puree of the farmer’s crops; it also created an infrared technology to loosen the packaging of the dried puree while it decontaminates the product.  Fresh mushrooms grown outside treated with UD provide the RDA Vitamin D recommendation. The processed food team also in involved in the recent issues of authenticating California olive oil as extra virgin and finding use or benefits of the olive waste products.  

Dr. Roger Thilmony instructed us on the Crop Improvement and Utilization Unit and its projects that include the production of wheat germplasm with an enhanced baking quality that makes bread dough rise without all the yeast and kneading. He also discussed the molecular tools that minimize the risk in genetically engineered crops and molecular genetic tools for potato and fruit tree improvements. The unit is also working on the molecular analysis of the environmental effects on wheat flour quality and allergenic potential and the unit is enthusiastic about the production of industrial crops such as natural rubber and castor oil with minimal environmental issues.  

David Nicholson is an attorney for the Office of Technology Transfer.  ARS is the scientific research arm of the USDA and while it develops and transfers solutions, it also  works in collaboration with those in the private sector. Protecting the research of the ARS is vital to its role. His attorney staff works on collaborative research agreements, Federal Technology Transfer Laws (knows as the Green Book), joint venture agreements to patent research, invention, refinements and adaptations to inventions. There is a pilot plant production whereby a private company can seek regulatory approval, make the product and market it; the center may assist in the creation of the product but not the marketing but they have contacts with venture capitalists.  The ARS actively seeks private stakeholders with whom to collaborate in the tech transfer process.  

We closed the event with a lunch of salads and sandwiches and numerous of questions of the quality, safety, testing and science behind each ingredient of our meal.  

Thank you to Chris Carter of the USDA ARS for his assistance in organizing the event and many thanks to Agbiz Committee member Marybelle Ang for organizing an educational and very interesting seminar.  

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