Moscow, Idaho
October 29, 2004
University of Idaho
researchers believe a new research project can help a hot
new product spice up the Northwest's agricultural economy:
mustard.
Matt Morra, a UI soil
biochemist, will lead a team focused on finding ways to help
mustard fulfill its promise of boosting rural fortunes. He
brings to the project 16 years of research on mustard's
chemical properties and its promise as a natural pesticide.
Morra has immense faith in the
tiny mustard seed best known as an essential companion for
hotdogs and ingredient in potato salad.
If mustard seeds were grapes,
Morra would see wine as a byproduct and the pulp left after
crushing, as the prize.
UI soil scientist Jodi
Johnson-Maynard, agricultural economist Larry Makus,
entomologist Joe McCaffrey and weed scientist Donn Thill
joined Morra to win a $613,000 U.S. Department of
Agriculture National Research Initiative grant for the
project.
Their project was among the
eight funded nationwide of 240 submitted through the
initiative's managed ecosystems program.
The UI project seeks data
necessary to win federal registration of mustard meal as an
herbicide and insecticide. The oil would become an
inexpensive raw material to produce biodiesel. The crop
itself would cut reliance on synthetic herbicides because
mustard can protect itself. And farmers would benefit
because wheat and barley that follow mustard in crop
rotations typically yield more abundantly.
Two condiment mustards,
Pacific Gold and IdaGold, developed by UI plant breeder Jack
Brown are now grown commercially on thousands of acres and
demonstrate the crop's potential.
Pacific Gold, an
Oriental-type, hot mustard, is being considered by EPA as a
biopesticide. Mustard's pungent bite comes from the presence
of glucosinolates, a class of chemical compounds that has
long held the attention of the UI biochemist.
"I've been working in this
area since 1988," Morra said, "We started by looking at just
the fundamental chemistry. We knew an application was a long
way off and now it's here."
The UI team's project focuses
on managing more sustainable agricultural ecosystems using
mustard and its byproducts.
One focus will include
rigorous testing of mustard's use in crop rotations with
wheat and barley. Crops are alternated to control the
buildup of pests and to improve soil fertility.
The study will test the
agricultural, ecological and economic benefits of mustard
seed meal in organic strawberry and carrot production as a
fertilizer because of the nitrogen it contains and as a
pesticide.
The project's goal of developing recommendations to promote
sustainable agricultural ecosystems by encouraging use of
mustard as a crop and its meal as a byproduct promises
another payback, rural prosperity.
Agricultural cooperatives in
the region already contemplate new ventures that could
capitalize on mustard's potential economic benefits to their
bottom lines, Morra said.
"You have to make money or
it's never going to happen. But if you can help rural
economies and reduce environmental impacts, I think that's
what we have to strive for," Morra added.
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