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As biological technologies continue to advance, many growers are exploring how best to integrate them into their farming operations. Nevada Smith, Head of Marketing North America, and Robert Blundell, Research Plant Pathologist, both with Pro Farm Group, highlight the role of biological pesticides and biofertilizers in sustainable winegrowing. Biological pesticides, derived from microbial sources or natural products such as plants, fungi, bacteria, or nematodes, play a crucial role in pest management by inhibiting or delaying growth or directly causing pest mortality. Understanding which biological products to use and when to apply them within an integrated pest management system is essential for maximizing their effectiveness. Biofertilizers, which enhance plant health and resilience to abiotic stresses, are another key tool for sustainable viticulture. Nevada and Robert discuss the growing importance of these technologies in improving soil health and supporting long-term agricultural productivity. Resources:         REGISTER: 5/9/25 Biochar Field Day 117: Grapevine Mildew Control with UV Light 123: What is Happening in Biologicals for Pest Management and Plant Health 266: Soft Pesticide Trial: Powdery Mildew, Downy Mildew, Botrytis, and Sour Rot Healthy Soils Playlist Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Principles ProFarm What are Biopesticides? Vineyard Team Programs: Juan Nevarez Memorial Scholarship - Donate SIP Certified – Show your care for the people and planet   Sustainable Ag Expo – The premiere winegrowing event of the year Vineyard Team – Become a Member Get More Subscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org.   Transcript [00:00:00] Beth Vukmanic: As biological technologies continue to advance, many growers are exploring how to best integrate them into their farming operations. [00:00:13] Welcome to Sustainable Wine, growing with Vineyard Team, where we bring you the latest in science and research for the wine industry. I'm Beth Vukmanic, executive director. [00:00:23] In today's podcast, Craig McMillan, critical resource Manager at Niner Wine Estates. With Longtime SIP certified Vineyard in the first ever SIP certified winery speaks with Nevada Smith Head of Marketing North America and Robert Blundell research plant pathologist, both with Pro Farm Group. Together, they highlight the role of biological pesticides and bio fertilizers in sustainable wine. Growing [00:00:49] biological pesticides are derived from microbial sources or natural products such as plants, fungi, bacteria, or nematodes. They play a crucial role in pest management by inhibiting or delaying growth or directly causing pest mortality [00:01:04] Understanding which biological products to use and when to apply them within an integrated pest management system is essential for maximizing their effectiveness. [00:01:13] Bio fertilizers, which enhance plant health and resilience to abiotic stresses are another key tool for sustainable viticulture, Nevada and Robert discussed the growing importance of these technologies and improving soil health and supporting long-term agricultural productivity. [00:01:30] If you're gonna be in Paso Robles, California on May 9th, 2025. Join us at Niner Wine Estates for a Biochar Field day. This interactive morning features live demonstrations and expert discussions on the benefits of biochar for soil health and sustainable farming. Learn how to integrate biochar into your farming operations through practical insights and hands-on experiences. Go to vineyard team.org/events or look for the link in the show notes to get registered. [00:02:00] Now let's listen in.   [00:02:05] Craig Macmillan: My guest today are Nevada Smith. He is Head of Marketing North America and Robert Blundell, who's a research plant pathologist, both with Pro Farm Group. Thank you for being on the podcast [00:02:15] Rob Blundell: Thank you, Craig. [00:02:16] Nevada Smith: Thank you. [00:02:18] Craig Macmillan: Today we're gonna be talking about bio pesticides and we might as well start with the the basics. What is a biological pesticide? Robert, why don't you start? [00:02:26] Rob Blundell: Yeah, that's a good question, Craig. And and you know, honestly, it's. So when I first was kind of thinking about this, it's not as simple explanation as you might think. It's a constantly kind of evolving term and depending on who you are asking, you can get a, a very different answer. And it's, it's really kind of this large umbrella term. [00:02:42] . It's kind of a microbially based product or natural product typically derived from a plant, fungi, bacteria, nematode, you know. That pretty much has the ability to inhibit or delay the growth or, you know, cause the death of a pest. [00:02:56] And you know, with the term biological pesticide, pesticide being extremely broad whether it's, you know, insect, fungi, even rodent, you know, rodent sides, things like that. So yeah, again, it's a very broad term and different, different grooves, different commodities are gonna kind of have their own explanation. [00:03:09] Even the EU has a different, I think definition versus the EPA as well. So it's an evolving, evolving term. [00:03:15] Craig Macmillan: What about you, Nevada? Do you have anything to add to that? [00:03:17] Nevada Smith: I'm kind of with Robert, it's almost like sustainability. What does that mean? It means to me, I get to keep farming every year. But I think for everyone else it might have different definitions. And I think basically the, the premise is, is it's biologically based. It's based on a living organism, something that we can repeat, regrow, and, you know, the societal part of it, bio pesticide, it means it's acting or killing or helping mitigate pest. For proform have a biologically based strategy. And so we, that's what we deliver is those type of tools. [00:03:50] Craig Macmillan: One of the major pets on grapes is powdery mildew. Around the globe. Probably the major pest overall, I would say fungal disease. I have been seeing a lot of increase in the use of bio pesticides specifically for powdery mildew, some in organic systems, some in more traditional sustainability oriented systems. [00:04:09] What kind of mechanisms are there out there in the biological world for managing powdery mildew and how does that, how do they work? Nevada, do you wanna start? [00:04:18] Nevada Smith: Yeah, so for biological pesticides, there's sort of different categories and I'll even. Even throwing some sort of organic pesticides as well into this whole mix. I think as a grower or a wine processor, you have a choice and it's like, either I'm going conventional, I'm looking to maximize my value proposition on my vineyard or my process my wines. And so one of the ways we really think about this is how do you integrate bio pesticides into the overall spray for bio mildew, like our winemaker at our place they always say, Hey, if it's more than 3% power mildew it's a no go. It's a bad day for us. And so for us to take the risk on our farm. For a biologicial pesticide, we had to have some data to really get us excited about it. [00:05:02] Overall, we wanna see performance. We need to see at least seven to 10 days. And I think that's maybe the biggest challenge a powerdy mildew issue is depending on what sort of climate and what variety of grapes you're growing is how long does it take me to get across the vineyard? [00:05:17] It's really what it comes down to. [00:05:18] And you know, maybe from a pathology point of view, Robert has some perspective. [00:05:24] Rob Blundell: The way we want to kind of think about powdery mildew is it's, you know, it's, it's always gonna be there. It's gonna be present. And biologicals, when used in the right way, can be a fantastic you know, tool in the arsenal. For, for growers or farmers against a deadly pathogen like this. [00:05:38] Growers really need to kind of consider the goal of using a biological, because there's so many different mechanisms of action of a biological, I mean, it can be live, it can be live, it can be the, you know, the spent fermentation product of a biological, which is gonna work very differently versus an actual liable organism you're gonna put in your field. [00:05:53] So kind of having a clear mindset from the, from the start is gonna be crucial to knowing. What kind of biological do you use? And also importantly, kind of when to use it as well. Because you can have drastically different outcomes based on like the time of your, you know, the time of venue production and then, and then the time of the season as well. [00:06:09] But yes yeah, ultimately there's broad, broad mechanism of actions. So if we're putting something on there live you know, you know, with something like powder mildew, this, pathogen functions because it attaches onto leaves. So we have these overwintering structures called cassia. [00:06:24] So these are basically the dormant structures that are gonna help powerdy mildew, survive. That's why it's been around for so long. That's why it's, it comes back every year. So it basically shuts down, it's fungal mycelium into these dormant hard structures. And then every year it basically reawakens around spring when we get the rainfall. [00:06:39] So we're gonna get ASCO spores. These are specialized spore structures within that kind of dormant structure. They get released out. So, you know, with the, with the weather coming in this week, that's gonna be, huge out there right now. So we're gonna get the release of those spores. [00:06:51] They're gonna land on that leaf. So really that's kind of our prime target of having protection is when they're gonna be landing and then adhesing to that leaf. So with something like a biological, if we can get that onto that leaf and then, you know, that's kind of our line of defense really. We want to be setting like a line of defense early in the season. [00:07:08] Know we have a product regalia. So that gets on there. It has these antimicrobial compounds, which the first point of contact is gonna. Prevent you know, it's gonna help mitigate that interaction between the leaf and the pathogen acts as kind of that medium layer. And then it's also gonna boost the plant's natural defense. [00:07:24] So how powdery mildew you kind of functions it. Once it gets on that leaf, it has a very specialized structure. Call it, they would call it a whole story or an appium, depending on where you are in the world and specialized structure that will kind of get through that cell wall, under that cell membrane and then sucks out the nutrients from the leaf so we can get a biological on the early to boost that plant defense, boost those, you know, defense fight hormone pathways. [00:07:46] We're gonna kind of mitigate that as a an initial point of contact. And then hopefully that's gonna set us off for a you know, a good season after that. But the time, yeah, the timing is definitely crucial. [00:07:55] Nevada Smith: I think to add to Robert's point is really to start your season off right and clean. So that's why as growers or as winemakers, you choose to use some sulfur to kind of mitigate, which is not necessarily a bio pesticide, but it could be organic, you know, depending on what your source of there. But those tools to me, are foundational for getting a clean start if you start bad, and it's gonna be a hell of a year all year long. [00:08:20] And I think that's the biggest challenge of bio pesticide uses overall is. Where do they fit, what growers they fit in? And it's not a solution for all, for sure. I mean, if you're growing Chardonnay or Pinot Noir on the Sonoma Coast in a foggy bank off of Bodega Bay, tough times, you know? But if you're in Pastor Robles, maybe in the Napa Valley in the valley where it's a little bit drier, you go in cab. Issue. You probably can integrate a nice bio pesticide program into it, and I think that's the secret. [00:08:58] Craig Macmillan: You mentioned regalia. What is the actual ingredient in regalia? What does it come from? [00:09:03] Rob Blundell: Yeah, so for Regalia the active ingredient comes from giant knotweed, so Ray Nectria. So that's a giant knotweed extract essentially that's been procured and then optimized in r and d and then applied typically as a folia spray for, for grape vines. [00:09:17] Craig Macmillan: And then the plant reacts to that, and that's what increases the plant defense mechanism. [00:09:22] Rob Blundell: Yeah, yeah, pretty much. There's kind of a few, few tiers of how, you know, Regilia kind of functions. So yeah, so we do that kind of initial application pretty much as soon as you, you have any green tissue, you know, really that's a great time to kind of get that on there. And then so the plant is gonna respond to that so typically a plant, defence pathway. [00:09:39] We have salicylic acid, so that is a key phyto hormones. So phyto hormones are kind of the driving force behind the plant defense. And this is very, you know, this is typical for all kind of pathogens, all kind of crops really. So you're gonna have a pathogen interact and we'll have its initial interaction with a plant. [00:09:55] And then you're gonna get this initial, like, response straight away from a plan. It's gonna be, Hey, I, my defenses are up. I, I sense this as a foreign agent. Basically I need to, you know, protect myself. So you get this upregulation of fighter hormones. They're very regulated. Pathways that then have these cascading effects to ultimately kind of therefore have longer term defense. [00:10:14] So you have an upregulation of fighter hormones. This is gonna signal to the plant that, Hey, I need to strengthen my cell walls, for example. So I'm gonna send more liening cell lignin being a crucial component a cell. wall . That's something we see upregulated as a result of regalia. So we get that increase in phyto hormones, we'll get lignin sent to the cell wall. [00:10:32] We get an increase in antioxidants as well to kinda help break down the pathogen as well. Limiteds effects we get polyphenols various other kind of antimicrobials as a result. So we have kind of direct effects, but then crucially with regalia, so we're gonna have the plant initially respond to its application, and then when the pathogen does. [00:10:50] Come around for a, an attack. That plan already kind of is, is heightened its responses, it's ready for it, so it's gonna be a faster kind of response time and therefore what we kind of consider more of a, a longer term defense response. [00:11:02] Craig Macmillan: Are there other modes of action, perhaps ones that are live? [00:11:05] Nevada Smith: Yeah. And that, I think that's a great point. Is there, you know, the, the bacillus category has been a big category the last dozen years or so. And this could be anything waiting from a bacillus subtles to bacillus Emli. There's other bacilli out there too. And I think they're more of an integrated approach. [00:11:22] So I conventional our farm vineyards. We're gonna just rotate it in there. So just like if you're straight organic or you're straight bio pesticide, it'd be a regalia, as an example, rotated with a bacillus product. We happen to have one as well, a very nice one called Sargus. But there's other great solutions out there in the marketplace today. There's other living organisms as well. There's some products in the Streptomyces categories as well. They're used in grow rotation, but I think to me as a grower and as a winemaker myself. I'm just looking for integration, IPM strategy all the way along. And depend on how, what your guard rails are for farming that would dictate what your options are overall. [00:12:07] Craig Macmillan: So, , to you, Robert, , how do these actually work? Like bacillus subtilis and things? [00:12:11] How do they actually either prevent or treat powdery mildew in grape. [00:12:15] Rob Blundell: Yeah, good question. So for Bacillus with Star in particular so we're actually not looking to treat powdery mildew kind of outright with this product itself. That's more where regalia is gonna come as a benefit. So actually Bacillus is great for something like botrytis in grapes. So, and this is really, really where we can kind of combine regalia and stargus together for a very effective program. [00:12:34] Kind of a one-two punch. So we, you have a live bacillus product. So we have spores that are gonna colonize a surface. So whether that's being the soil, you know, microbia the leaves or the berries, and with botrytis infecting berries causing damage, necrotic lesions in those berries, that's where something like stargus , a bacillus product can be applied to those berries to effectively colonize it. [00:12:55] And again, kind of creating like a nice. Kind of shield essentially from pretty much all fungal pathogens work the same. They have to attach, then they have to penetrate to essentially, hold on. So if we can kind of form a physical, kind of physical barrier, that's gonna be great. So for a lot of the Bacillus products they produce a suite of antimicrobials. [00:13:13] So star for our company we have a suite of antimicrobials that produces, so we have things like Itur, Phin, these are all really good antimicrobials. They're gonna have a direct effect on it. So those spores will be able to, you know, colonize the berry, for example, and then help Yeah. Prevent prevent powerdy mildew So you have this live culture essentially that's on the grapes and it's producing compounds, and that's where the, the antimicrobial comes in or the antifungal comes in. [00:13:40] Nevada Smith: Yes. And. [00:13:47] So there's two registrations from an EPA standpoint. There's the live bacteria count, which people are familiar with from back in the day when there was bts, right cells ths for worm protection. And so we measure the CFUs, which is a colony forming unit. So the bacteria, and there's a minimum threshold that we have for our product as well as anybody else that registers their bacteria. Just sort of a quality control thing for the grower to know this is the level we produce. What we. Seeing the production for our solution is really around the chemical compounds being created in the fermentation process, this lipopeptides cycle. And so that's what's important to know that there's some differentiation. [00:14:25] And I always use the example, I'm a huge basketball fan and you know, there's a difference between Michael Jordan and myself. I'm not at his level. And so not all bacilli are created equal, but they all do have some performance values for them. And obviously, you know, the more you can look into science and whether it be uc, extension and the Gubler Eskalen models and local trial researchers will give you the value proposition each of these products brings to you. [00:14:50] Craig Macmillan: Now, this is something that I, I don't think I've heard before and I wanna make sure that I heard it correctly. So, some of the protection is actually coming from things that are being produced during the fermentation production of the bacteria themselves. And so these are side things. And then that makes it into the final product. [00:15:05] Nevada Smith: Yeah, that's actually the most important thing on foliar. So holistically for bacillus, and this is a very broad brush here unless you're in a tropical environment like bananas in. Columbia or Costa Rica, you're not growing more spores on the leaf surface. You might have that happen a little bit depending on sort of your micro environments. What you really want is coverage and then that eradicates. [00:15:29] The way that the the bacillus really works, it really pokes holes into the cell wall of power mildew. So that's, and it just kinda leaks out and dies. And so it's botrytis , and or powder mildew. That's the major effects that it has on these pest diseases. [00:15:43] But in those rare examples, I'll tell you, we've seen some results of our products being used in crops and tropical environments. If it can grow, it's creating more value. Now let's talk about something different. You put bacillus. Sargus into the ground in a soil treatment. It has tremendous effects on colonizing around the roots. [00:16:01] And so that's where bacillus is actually known in its natural environment into the soil profile. So that's where we really see that the one two value. Now, that's not what we're using it for in grapes. Grapes, is for foliar control of. And mild diseases. But we have many other crops that we use bacillus for like corn, for root management and prolification around the diseases down there. [00:16:27] Craig Macmillan: Do you have anything to add to that, Robert?  [00:16:29] Rob Blundell: Yeah, so that's, yeah, excellent points from Nevada. So yeah, kind, kind of getting, talking about how we can use bacillus, you know, actually to go into the soil. So something like nematodes, you know, that's, that's a huge issue in grapes always has been. It's where we have, you know, root stocks engineered over the years to have, you know, nematode resistant root stocks. [00:16:43] Again, not, not kind of the primary purpose of what we'd be looking to use stargus, and vineyards, but again, having a soil colonizer is fantastic. You know, a lot of the. The majority of diseases, especially in like the row crops, they're coming from the below ground. You know, you've got the pythium and lettuce. [00:16:57] You've got like sclero, things like that, huge kind of soil-borne pathogens. So again, having something that you can add to the soil, you know, the soil already has its own fantastic suite of, naturally present. You know, bacteria, fungi, that's, you know, like Nevada said, that's what we got ab baus from, stargus from. [00:17:12] So we're just kind of adding to that to kind of help boost the fight. And we can always kind of think of the interaction between pathogens and plants as kind of this arms race. There's a ways, you know, the pathogen kind of gets ahead by evolving slightly, and then you have the ho response from the plant and then the, the microbiome as well. [00:17:27] So we're just trying to kind of tip the scales and our balance is how a good way to kind of think of biologicals as well. And I think as you were mentioning, kind of the, the fermentation process, and that's where we get our microbials from. [00:17:37] Every microbe has primary metabolites. That's what's key to basically the survival of a microbe. But then we have secondary metabolites, and these are very highly specialized products that get produced. For bacillus, during that fermentation process, this is a, you know, these are unique metabolites. You know, metabolites are produced by the majority of. Micros, but the in particular can produce these like fantastic suite of very unique metabolites. So that's where the, a non-life product kind of comes into itself as well. By us able to understand what are those metabolites we're producing same fermentation, can we optimize those? And then do we, do we even need a live product as a result of that? [00:18:12] Craig Macmillan: Um, it sounds like this could have a really dramatic impact or role in fungicide resistance management. I. What is that role? Or are we talking about going over completely to biological for a program or are we including in a rotation with other materials? What about organic growing where we have a, a little smaller suite of things that we can use? [00:18:35] Nevada Smith: , I'll start with that if you don't mind. [00:18:36] I think it's a great question and where I see it fitting is most synthetic pesticides for disease control are really affecting the mitochondria on the inside of the dupo. And where I see it fitting is the sort of one, two, I would say contact plus systemic. That's an a de-risk, your resistance management issues. But B, increase the likelihood that those products work better and longer. [00:19:02] So today we position a product like Sargus other bacillus products in the marketplace to be in combination with a. SDHI chemistry, like Luna would be an example of that, or Pristine. We would see those integrated in the cycle of sprays, which is, it's very similar to why you use sulfur with those products as well. [00:19:23] But I think, you know, as a winemaker, I want less sulfur my crop as possible, but obviously I want, as a farmer too, I want it to be clean as can be. So it's kind of this yin and yang overall. [00:19:33] But for resistance management, I think you have to really think about the whole approach. And once again, back guardrails. Of what your restrictions are for you as a farmer and maybe the winemaker working together with them. How do you really get to the. And, you know, I, it's kind of a joke too, but we talked about earlier the word sustainability be very broad. Stroke. Well, I'm wanna farm into the future years. I wanna have that vineyard for a hundred years and not to replant it. So I'm really trying to keep as clean as possible all the time, especially for the over wintering stuff. And so to me early often protection, control contact plus systemic is the approach that we take at our farm as well. [00:20:10] Craig Macmillan: When we say earlier, are we talking bud break, two inches, four leaves?   [00:20:15] Nevada Smith: For powder. Yeah. But then we could debate, you know, on these opsis issues and can cane issues. [00:20:24] Craig Macmillan: When would I wanna put on a bacillus? [00:20:27] Nevada Smith: I would start with a sulfur spray about bud break here, and then kind of rotate back into the bloom time for the first bloom spray, about 50% bloom, more or less. I kind of time it too, and if it's a little later, I'm okay with that. That would be the major time where I get the first shots on and that we, I would start with regalia, for example, just because it's a different mode of action. And then I'd come back with the bacillus here about seven to 10 days later. [00:20:51] Craig Macmillan: And would you then include synthetic materials as well, I'm assuming. [00:20:55] Nevada Smith: Yeah, on our farm we would typically our biggest issue is getting across the, the vineyard. And so we're looking to start off with a synthetic material first, just so we can get a nice, well, sulfur first, sorry. That probably like A-S-D-H-I chemistry. And then I'd start to think about how can I integrate my approaches to, being softer chemistry based through the rest of the season. [00:21:17] Craig Macmillan: Does that make sense to you, Robert? [00:21:19] Rob Blundell: Yes. And actually I'm just gonna jump back a little bit in our conversation. I just add a few more details kind of on this approach as well. So yeah, a little bit earlier, I kinda mentioned this arms race between the pathogen and the host and, you know, the available treatments that we have and really kind of a huge benefit of. Adding a biological, say, into your conventional program or just introducing more biologicals in general for your, your fungicides is you know, as, as Nata was saying, you know, a lot of the conventional chemistry is targeted in that mitochondria. It's a very specialized kind of function. It's there, it does a great job when it works well, but then. [00:21:51] We get pathogen resistance, obviously. So there's kind of two types of resistance. You get qualitative resistance and quantitative. So qualitative is when there is a kind of sudden or abrupt loss in the ability of say, a fungicide to work. And then you have quantitative where it's kind of more of a gradual decline in effectiveness. [00:22:08] And then you get kind of these varying levels of fungicide sensitivity versus that qualitative where you're having either resistant or a sensitive is isolate. And this. It's great. We're talking about grapes and powerdy mildew, 'cause this is one of like, this is like the classic textbook example. We kind of get taught in pathology about this because powerdy mildew, it has these really quick cycling times, produces a number of generations per season, very easily dispersed. [00:22:28] So this is such a high risk kind of category for this fungicide resistance. So again, if we have just a whole range of availabilities in terms of different fungicide options, you know, chemistry, soft chemistry, biologicals various other options, we're just kind of increasing our chances of really. Just well, and one not having any pathogen resistance. [00:22:49] Because again, as soon as you have that, then you have you, you really lose your options for your chemistries. So again, just, you know, introducing a few biologicals here and there, especially for, you know, grapes on the West coast, which is the amount of sprays we're having to do in other states where you have less sprays, you can kind of get away with kind of not considering your approach a little bit more. [00:23:05] You don't have to kind of. Do your frack checks as much because maybe you're only doing one or two sprays. But here we have to be very, very concerned with our, you know, what products we're using and then at what timing they're using. So again, just having a biological to really kind of take the pressure off some of those chemistries is a, is a huge a huge, valuable source of preserving the life of your chemistry. [00:23:23] And then have, like Nevada said, you know, having sustainable wines for the years to come. [00:23:28] Craig Macmillan: Actually, that made me think of something. Is there a risk of resistance being developed to biological strategies? [00:23:38] Rob Blundell: Yeah, that's, that's a really good question. So yes. [00:23:41] It's kind of a newer question. Yeah. So again, with a lot of these chemistries being very, very site specific function, all you have to do is have a very small mutation in your, say, powerdy mildew, to overcome that. And typically with biologicals, the typically, I say typically the mode of action is a little bit more broad. [00:23:57] So very rarely are you gonna have an extremely like. , so like a lot of the chemistries buy into certain receptors that their job that do that really well. Biologicals don't tend to do that as much. They're more of a broad spectrum. That's why we see a, like for our fungicides, we see a range of control against a lot of different, you know, powerd mildew, we've got ascomiscies,, Presidio, my seeds, they pretty much do well across a range because they are more broad spectrum. [00:24:19] Not to say that in time we're gonna start to see a decline. It's, you know, again, it's kind of really how we consider using them. And we. Whether we wanna like, fully rely on them or hey, that's, let's, let's use more of a, a combined approach. So again, we just really make that sustainable as well. [00:24:33] So kind of to answer your question definitely it comes with risk but kind of inherently due to the more broad spectrum nature of biologicals, we're not too worried about the kind of resistance that we've seen developed as a result of c chemistries in that very, very specific function of a chemistry. [00:24:48] Craig Macmillan: That makes a lot of sense. I know that you had mentioned you're farming in a more traditional fashion, Nevada, but your products, and obviously I know some folks in the organic area. What role do biologicals play in an organic fungicide program? Nevada? [00:25:03] Nevada Smith: I think it's definitely at the core of your foundation of seeing how you are gonna approach powerdy, mildew and botrytus. Is it a typical, you know, seven spray system, which I'd say it's kind of typical for the northern coast markets or the coastal range. Or if you're in the valley floor are you more in that three to five applications for bio pesticides and, and what timing and how you're approaching those things are critical overall to assessing those on the organic. [00:25:30] You don't have to be just organic. You could be, from a theoretical point of view, you can just choose to be this type of farmer, which is, I want to choose softer chemistries. And I think that's the mixed bag that we deal with with customers, a crop and the crop advisors out there. [00:25:44] Rob Blundell: Yeah, and I was gonna say just to kinda add to that as well. So again, regardless whether you're doing organic or chemistry or biologicals, you know. Really key as well. Foundation is just having good cultural control as well. Something we haven't really touched on today, but again, you can really increase the effectiveness of your biological, your chemistry based on what you're doing in, in the vineyard. [00:26:02] So, you know, things like, you know, canopy thinning, so if you're using say, a biological, you wanna try to colonize those berries, you wanna kind of thin out that kind of piece. You're getting a better spray coverage. You're also gonna, you know, reduce the humidity and that kind of pee of things like mildew you know, effective pruning in dry conditions. [00:26:18] Navar was kind of talking about opsis, some of those canker pathogens. So those grapevine trunk diseases, that is still the most effective way to control a grapevine trunk disease is just to prune under the right conditions. 'cause you need that wound, that pruning wound to heal when it's, you're not gonna get a, let's see, you know, we got that ring coming in this week. [00:26:33] So, grapevine trunk disease is dormant on those on the, on the parts of the vine. They're gonna be airborne. So you need to make sure there's a very good dry window. So again, like cultural practice is always, always key to whatever approach or biologicals or chemicals. [00:26:46] Nevada Smith: I think the add to that, one of the biggest things I remember, I wanna say it's like in 2010, I saw Gubler trials, Gubler, uc, Davis, you know, famous for everything. And he had the trial and all he did was pull leaves. On the bunch closures, and I was like, wow, that looked amazing. And I said, what? What spray did you have on there? [00:27:02] And they're like, nothing. We just pulled leaves and just literally that airflow coming across there, drying out, I assume it was just drying out the spores was amazing. I was like, wow. But then I started doing the cost analysis as a grower. I'm like, I can't send a crew there and pull leaves all the time. So, [00:27:19] Craig Macmillan: Yeah, it's true. I mean, and that's why it's a mix of things. I think. It's integrated pest management. You, you know, you do want to get some airflow through there. You will probably do some canopy management, whether you do shoot thinning or leaf removal. Some of that also helps with coverage. [00:27:32] Right. So using a mix of cultural and chemical or pesticide techniques is probably, probably wise. I'm not a pest control advisor, so I probably shouldn't say that. I. But I think I, you, they're not the first folks that have, have reminded me of that. And sometimes I know that, I think we kind of forget. [00:27:49] I wanna change topics a little bit. There's a, I don't wanna say new, but new to me. Area bio fertilizers a totally different kind of strategy for plant nutrition Nevada. What is a bio fertilizer? What, how do they work? What is it and how does it work? [00:28:05] Nevada Smith: So bio fertilizers can be a multitude of things, but once again, back to bio based on living organisms prior living organisms. We happen to have one that we're just launching this year into the grape industry called Illustra. It's based on this unique technology, UBP. Universal biological platform. I'm not trying to be a billboard ad here, but the reason why I'm bringing it up is it, it's really is a platform, which is interesting about it because it's, it's a technology that we can change and manipulate depending on how we go through the production cycle. And so we're creating tools that are more made for abiotic stresses. [00:28:39] And so we're trying to deal with different stresses that. Crop can deal with. And so right now the core market that we've been using these products , for is like soybeans and corn. [00:28:49] But as we think about the permanent crop markets of grapes, tree nuts, citrus, it's a little bit different as far as cycle and how you approach it. And so what we've seen through the data, these bio fertilizers is really trying to mitigate abiotic stresses. So what we're really mitigating is one, like you, you think about herbicide applications. You kind do a banded application near the tree trunk into about a third of the spray row. That herbicide usually hits that tree trunk. [00:29:14] There is a cause and effect on the grapevine itself. What if you could put a tool down that was sprayed on the same time to mitigate that stress or de-stress it from even how much time and pressure it's having? So. Our product is really one of those tools today that's really focused on mitigating biotic stresses. [00:29:30] Other things I can think about as a farmer is like salinity in the soil. The roots are pushing. You have water issues in California. We all talk about that. How do you mitigate the plant that still maximize the yield? So. Choosing the bio fertilizer today that's really focused on that, not just being a typical, you know, can 17 or un 30 twos based nitrogen based products. [00:29:51] This is something else to bring into the marketplace. They're kind of more niche based, depending on what you're dealing with. But there there's several out there. There's, seaweed extracts would be a big one, right? That people use a lot around farms. There's humic, andic acids, organic acids in general. So those are the kind of the buckets of items today that farmers are choosing for bio fertilizers. [00:30:14] Rob Blundell: Hmm. Yeah. And I can yeah, touch a little bit more on the, on the UBP illustrate product as well in terms of kind of how, how that really functions. And as Navar said, it's, you know, helping bounce back after, say, some herbicide damage, promoting that early season boost in biomass. [00:30:27] So, you know, a product like this, this UBP will basically kind of. Inducing cell division. So in you know, increasing mitochondrial activity, more cell division essentially leads to more chlorophyll, more photosynthesis graded by a mass production. And it's actually done by acidifying the cell wall. So we acidify a cell wall. You get more what we have these, there's proton pumps on these cell wall. [00:30:48] We're basically pumping in more protons, increasing the rate of that cell division. So we're basically yeah, boosting that in ocean season biomass. Therefore having that. You know, quicker resilience to say, you know, abiotic stresses like no said, whether it's salinity, salt, drought, water, things like that. [00:31:02] So yeah, numerous, numerous benefits of some of these fertilizers. [00:31:07] Craig Macmillan: Which actually talking about antibiotic stress, that it reminds me of something. I want to apply it to this, but I also want to go back. If you're using a live material, a bacillus or something, or if you have a, a bio fertilizer that may is are there living things in bio fertilizers. [00:31:22] Nevada Smith: There can be, [00:31:24] uh [00:31:24] Craig Macmillan: be. Okay. [00:31:25] Nevada Smith: We don't have anything in ours today, but I think there are, let's call the word impregnated Fertilizers. With living organisms. It could be trico, dermas, it could be other things, bacillus. And those are good, good tools to use. [00:31:39] The hard part is like, you know, now we start to open the can of worms around like compost tea, like what's in there. And I think that's the biggest challenge that growers, those things do work as a whole. But then you start to run into the quality assurance, quality control. And I think that's where companies invest in the bio pesticide industry are really trying to. Tell the story and not just be perceived as snake oils and saying, Hey, replicated work we measure to this level, like CFU content and here's what we expect results to be consistently. [00:32:08] And this is sort of the shelf life issues and we're kind of getting as a, you know, the world evolves. I think there's just this environmental things that people choose to do. And I think, you know, everything works. Just a question of how you integrate it into your own farming systems. [00:32:24] Craig Macmillan: So speaking of environmental factors and antibiotic stress one thing that's occurred to me is that if I have something that's that's out there, either that's living or maybe maybe a fragile compound, how do things like drought and heat affect these materials in the field? [00:32:38] Rob Blundell: Yeah. Yeah, very good question. I think historically that was always kind of. What people thought of the negative of biologicals were like, well, is only gonna work under certain conditions. You know, where, where have you tested it? So yeah, it's, it's a good question as well. [00:32:50] It's , case by case dependent you know, certain extremes and temperatures, various conditions as well are gonna have effects on, you know, the, the longevity of that. But we, you know, we try to test it under. There a variety of conditions. And then for particularly something you know, with our fungicides as well for, for the grape industry, you know, these new be tested on a variety of key varietals as well. [00:33:10] You know, it's, Hey, it might work for Chardonnay but not for Sauvignon Blanc. So that's important to evaluate as well, rather than just bring a product to market that like you, it's only gonna work on very certain aspects of a, of the single industry. [00:33:22] Craig Macmillan: So heat as an example, , you have a fair amount of confidence that I can apply something in the, in the heat if I have a hot, dry condition in the summer that it's not going to. Break down those materials that are there from the fermentation or kill the live organism. We, we think there's a fair amount of resilience here. [00:33:39] Rob Blundell: Yeah, again, definitely gonna be dependent on the, the type of microbe and the type of metabolite that it's producing. But you know, microbes in nature are exposed to these extreme conditions just naturally anyway, you know, so we have epi amplified slipping on the surface of products. So on the surface of. [00:33:54] Structures. So like a grapevine, like a leaf. They're obviously out there and exposed to the elements every single day. And then the soil is a, is a chaotic environment. There's a lot going on in the soil. So microbes are just, you know, extremely resilient in nature themselves. So there's gonna be a, again it's gonna vary depending on, you know, the microbe and, and the product we're using. [00:34:12] But there's good efficacy. [00:34:16] Craig Macmillan: What's the future? What is the future looking like for biological products, living or extra? [00:34:23] Nevada Smith: for the marketing hat on myself, not the farmer side. [00:34:27] It, I think everything's coming down to specialized sprays. And if I had to vision what the features look like to me, it's gonna be about. Seeing robots down the vineyard. They have 18 different things and their little mechanisms and there's, they're just, they're analogizing what's going on in that grape cluster itself. [00:34:44] They're spot spraying three or four things and they're going down the next level. That to me, is where we're gonna get down to the future, where the grapes themselves will naturally grow less chemicals to be used overall. [00:34:54] but if you need to go through and really take care of a problem, you're gonna go through and take care of a problem. And I think that's where it's become very exciting to me. You're gonna put less of a prophylactic spray across all systems, and you're kind of really create some microenvironments where you think that Vine number seven got sprayed a lot. Vine number 21 has not been sprayed all season. Wonder why? Let's go check it out. Let's understand and investigate. [00:35:18] The other big thing I think in grapes that's really interesting from exploratory research and development side for our company is like viruses. Viruses have not been addressed and it's becoming an issue. It's something I want to kind of explore and put on our docket of, you know, assessment stuff and how we can take new technologies to really improve virus transmissions. How do you mitigate once you have a virus? And it still produce that vine for another 10 plus years. So it gets quality and quantity out of it. Those are the kind of things interesting to me. [00:35:50] Craig Macmillan: Robert. [00:35:51] Rob Blundell: Yeah, definitely. Yeah, really good point, Sarah as well. And yeah, viruses in particular is, is something we see about in the grapevine industry. And yeah, often biological companies we're focused on, you know, the, the fungal issues, the bacteria, the, the nematodes. So that's, that's a huge area that really needs some more dedication. [00:36:06] So there's gonna be some great technologies available for that in the future. Yeah, I think to speak to no Nevada's points on kind of the future of it, I think like a really kind of custom tailored approach is gonna be available for those that want it. Particularly from the pathology side of my interest. [00:36:19] I think precision monitoring and detection of disease is just, I. Advancing leaps and bounds. So again, like, you know, going out there and doing scouting, hopefully people are gonna have a lot better tools available, available to 'em in the near future to really kind of understand crucial times in their season where disease is coming in. [00:36:36] And then again, like I. Just having better tools to kind of really actually di inform us of the pathogen as well that's present rather than just again, a lot of, a lot of diseases is hard to pinpoint to an exact pathogen. We're lucky in grapes, powerdy, mildew, and, botrytis are very obvious. We know what those are, we think are some of the row crops. [00:36:52] It could be a whole host of things. We've got nematodes, we've got various sore pathogens that we can't actually see. So I think yeah, improving disease diagnosis and detection, having these precision tools is gonna be a huge part of the future where biologicals can integrate themselves in as well. [00:37:07] Craig Macmillan: That sounds pretty exciting. I wanna thank you both for being on the program. This has been a really great conversation. My guests today we're Nevada Smith. He is the head of Marketing North America and Robert Blande, who's a research plant pathologist, both with Pro Farm Group. Thanks for being on the podcast. [00:37:22] Nevada Smith: Appreciate you. [00:37:23] Rob Blundell: Thank you very much, Craig. It was a pleasure. [00:37:25] Craig Macmillan: And to our listeners, thank you for listening to Sustainable Wine Growing Vineyard team. [00:37:29] Nevada Smith: Craig, one more thing. We gotta just drink more wine.  [00:37:40] Beth Vukmanic: Thank you for listening. [00:37:41] Today's podcast was brought to you by Vineyard Industry Products serving the needs of growers since 1979. Vineyard industry products believes that integrity is vital to building long-term customer, employee, and vendor relationships. And they work hard to provide quality products at the best prices they can find. Vineyard industry products gives back investing in both the community and the industry. [00:38:06] Make sure you check out the show notes for links to Pro Farm, an article titled, what are Bio Pesticides Plus Related Sustainable Wine Growing Podcast episodes. 117 Grapevine Mildew Control with UV Light 123. What's happening in biologicals for pest management and plant health? 266 Soft pesticide trial for powdery mildew, downy mildew, botrytis and sour rot, and a healthy soils playlist. [00:38:34] If you'd like the show, do us a big favor by sharing it with a friend, subscribing and leaving us a review. You can find all of the podcasts on vineyard team.org/podcast, and you can reach us at podcast@vineyardteam.org. Until next time, this is Sustainable Wine Growing with the Vineyard team.   Nearly perfect transcription by Descript

Picture this, you wake up one morning with nausea, body aches, abdominal pain, and despite sleeping all night, you are exhausted. You then find yourself running to the restroom with watery and somewhat explosive diarrhea. You think to yourself – what could this be? Well, if the year was 2023, in the summer and you happen to live in Texas, chances were somewhat high that you had probably had cyclosporiasis.  And today, we are going to talk about this particular parasite and focus in on what our options are for detecting it given that it is not routinely picked up on O&P exams. And while there are molecular panels out there that include Cyclospora as a target, as our speakers will share, there is an easier and cheaper approach we can consider to quickly ID this pathogen. Guests: Dr. Angela Ma. Public Health Ontario and Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto Dr. Marc Couturier. Drector of the clinical microbiology lab at NorDx lab at MaineHealth in Scarborough, Maine Links: Shedding new light on Cyclospora: how the use of ultraviolet fluorescence microscopy can improve diagnosis of cyclosporiasis Join ASM for up to 50% off the publication fees when you publish in JCM or any of the ASM journals. Attend ASM Microbe This episode of Editors in Conversation is brought to you by the Journal of Clinical Microbiology and hosted by JCM Editor in Chief, Alex McAdam and Dr. Elli Theel. JCM is available at https://jcm.asm.org and on https://twitter.com/JClinMicro. Visit journals.asm.org/journal/jcm to read articles and/or submit a manuscript. Follow JCM on Twitter/

Managing pests like powdery mildew, downy mildew, botrytis, and sour rot can be a complex challenge. Andy Fles, Vineyard Manager at Shady Lane Cellars in Michigan, shares insights from his USDA Sustainable Ag Research Education producer grant project. The project compares two pest management approaches: a ‘soft' pesticide program and a conventional one. Andy conducted the experiment using his on farm sprayer, providing real-world results. Despite climate variability and fluctuating pest pressures, the soft pesticide program proved effective. The project underscores the potential of using softer chemistries to manage disease while maintaining fruit quality. Resources:         REGISTER: April 25, 2025 | Fungicide Spraying: Evolving Strategies & Grower Insights 80: (Rebroadcast) The Goldilocks Principle & Powdery Mildew Management 117: Grapevine Mildew Control with UV Light 197: Managing the Sour Rot Disease Complex in Grapes 219: Intelligent Sprayers to Improve Fungicide Applications and Save Money 235: Battling Fungicide Resistance with Glove Sampling Rufus Issacson, Michigan State University Shady Lane Cellars Secures $11K National Farming Grant Timothy Miles, Michigan State University Vineyard Team Programs: Juan Nevarez Memorial Scholarship - Donate SIP Certified – Show your care for the people and planet   Sustainable Ag Expo – The premiere winegrowing event of the year Vineyard Team – Become a Member Get More Subscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org.   Transcript [00:00:00] Beth Vukmanic: Managing pests like powdery mildew, downy mildew, botrytis and sour rot can be a complex challenge. [00:00:10] Welcome to sustainable Wine Growing with Vineyard Team, where we bring you the latest in science and research for the wine industry. I'm Beth Vukmanic executive director. [00:00:21] In today's podcast, Craig McMillan, critical resource Manager at Niner Wine Estates. With Longtime SIP Certified Vineyard and the first ever SIP certified winery speaks with Andy Fles, vineyard Manager at Shady Lane Cellars in Michigan. Andy shares insights from his USDA Sstainable Ag Research Education Producer grant project. The project compares to pest management approaches, a soft pesticide program and a conventional one. [00:00:50] Andy conducted the experiment using his on farms sprayer, providing real world results. Despite climate variability and fluctuating pest pressures, the soft pesticide program proved effective. The project underscores the potential of using softer chemistries to manage disease while maintaining fruit quality. [00:01:10] If you'd like to learn more about this topic, then we hope you can join us on April 25th, 2025 for the fungicide spraying evolving strategies in Grower Insights tailgate taking place in San Luis Obispo, California. Dr. Shunping Ding of Cal Poly will share updated results from a study on the efficacy of different fungicide programs containing bio fungicides. [00:01:34] Then we will head out into the vineyard to learn about new technologies for integrated pest management and talk with farmers from different growing regions about their program. Now let's listen in.  [00:01:49] Craig Macmillan: Our guest today is Andy Fles. He is the vineyard manager at Shady Lane Cellars in Michigan. And today we're going to talk about a pretty cool little project. He's got going looking into two different pesticide programs. Thanks for being on the podcast, Andy. [00:02:03] Andrew Fles: Yeah, my pleasure, Craig. [00:02:05] Craig Macmillan: So you have a grant from the USDA sustainable agriculture research and education program. To look at what you call a soft pesticide program for your vineyard in Michigan and comparing it to what we would call a sustainable or sustainable conventional program. What do you define as a soft pesticide program? [00:02:25] Andrew Fles: Well, that's kinda just a, a term that we applied to identify it. I didn't want to use organic because I thought that there would be a good chance we would utilize things that are considered by the industry to be very soft in terms of you know, they're not a harsh chemical or a carcinogenic, a known carcinogenic compound. [00:02:49] But something, for example, like. Like horticultural grade peroxide, which goes by several different trade names. So that's just, it's hydrogen peroxide and it is a disinfectant that turns into water and oxygen. So it's pretty Soft in terms of what it does to beneficials and, and plants and, and such. [00:03:11] We utilize some of those products already in our spray program. But combined also with, we're probably 50 percent organic in terms of what we spray out. for fungicides, pesticides, insecticides. And so we're still altering in some synthetic compounds. [00:03:28] And we wanted to compare that, what we currently do, to something that was much softer, like only soft compounds. Something that could be considered a OMRI certified organic program, or, or almost, right? Like maybe there's just one or two things that are very soft, but not technically OMRI certified. [00:03:49] Craig Macmillan: Right, and I do want to , get into the weeds on that a little bit later. Cause it's a, it's an interesting, Set a program that you've got going and I have lots of questions about them. What inspired this project? [00:04:01] Andrew Fles: I think just that continued movement towards investigating what works here in the east. You know, we, of course, get more wetting events and, and wetting periods that cause more fungal issues here compared to the west coast. And so we really, you know, we have to have an eye on sustainability. Certainly at Shady Lane, we really push for that. [00:04:25] But we also need to make sure that we have a marketable crop. We need to make sure the wine quality is, is high and acceptable for our standards. And so you know, if we're talking about, you know, every year is quite different here. We can get a, like, for example, in 2024, very wet in the first half of the year, very, very dry in the second half. [00:04:51] And, and then, which was quite different from 23 and quite different from 22 and so on and so forth. so, so some years we need to kind of step in and use a synthetic product here at this key time or, you know we need to protect our, our, our wine grape quality. [00:05:07] Craig Macmillan: What are the primary pests and diseases in your area? [00:05:11] Andrew Fles: So we have issues with the usual suspects that powdery mildew, of course. That's, that's fairly, I think if you're on top of your game, that's, it's pretty controllable. Even with soft products here it's just a spray frequency and coverage issue. [00:05:27] Downy mildew is something that can be quite challenging in certain years. [00:05:31] And there's, and there's less tools in the toolbox to use for that as well. And so you gotta, you gotta be on top of that with scouting preventative, like canopy, you know, canopy management practices that deter too dense of a canopy or, or clusters that are. hidden behind several layers of leaf. [00:05:53] Those are going to cause problems for you no matter what you're spraying, synthetic or organic, right? So, so we try and utilize all those things and and then we, we can also have issues in some years with botrytis and even sour rot and tight clustered varieties. So, so we were looking at sour rot and botrytis in the, in the cluster analysis of this portion of the , project. [00:06:18] Yeah, we have some locations can struggle with grape erinium mite. That's becoming more and more prevalent here. Wasn't an issue four years ago. Not, not really up in, up in northern Michigan anyway. So that's becoming more and more of an issue. And then we always struggle with rose chafers. It's a, it's a grub that, you know, comes out for six weeks and really terrorizes the vines. [00:06:49] And for that, for that pest, we really walk the line of the economic damage threshold, right? So, so a little, you know, we're going to see rose chafers every year. Some years are better than others. And what is our acceptable damage, you know? And so, once we see the rose chafers really getting dense in number, and also, you know, munching on a few leaves is one thing, munching on the clusters and the shoot tips is another thing. [00:07:21] Craig Macmillan: That's what I was going to ask. Yeah, I'm unfamiliar with this this pest. It, skeletonizes leaves, but it also will attack flower clusters and, and grape clusters in the early stages of development. Is that right? [00:07:34] Andrew Fles: Pretty much all green tissue. Yeah, a bunch of shoot, shoot tips leaves are probably, you know, their preferred source, I think, but anything tender. And so if, if the timing is just right where the, the inflorescences are, are you know, just coming out when the, when the beetles hatch, then they can really go for those cluster tips and, and shoot tips. [00:07:59] While we're scouting for this pest, we not only do the, you know, the density numbers and annotate that, but we look at, you know, how many are actually eating leaves versus shoot tips and clusters. [00:08:13] Craig Macmillan: Interesting, interesting. What is the design of your project and what varieties are we talking about? And what kind of variables are you measuring and how are you measuring them? [00:08:25] Andrew Fles: this is a farmer grant as opposed to a research grant. , it's tailored to folks that want to do on, on farm trials. And we want to do. Something in a significant enough volume, you know, that, that some that it would apply, it would be more applicable in the real world. [00:08:45] So for example you know, at a university they might do this randomized plots, you know, and they're using a backpack sprayer because they're, they're applying you know, three vines here, three vines there, scattered all throughout the block. And we wanted to use the sprayer that we actually use. [00:09:04] Um, and we wanted to do a bigger sections. And so what we did was we broke it up into two acre sections and we did two acres of both the traditional, the conventional program that we normally would do here and the soft treatment. So we did two acres of each in pinot noir, two acres of each in a, in a French American hybrid called ol, and then two acres of Riesling. [00:09:33] And we wanted to look at powdery, downy, botrytis, and sour rot. [00:09:38] In certain years, we can have quite a lot of botrytis and sour rot pressure in those three varieties. Because Pinot Noir of course is tight clustered. Vignole is even tighter clustered despite having that French American disease resistance package. It, it doesn't possess that for Botrytis or Sour Rot. [00:09:58] and then of course Riesling is a, is a very, it's probably the number one variety in Michigan. And as we all know, it's susceptible to Botrytis. [00:10:08] Craig Macmillan: Yeah. Big time. [00:10:10] Nice design. Great varieties to choose. I think that was really, really smart. How are you going to quantify these different variables? How are you going to measure the damage? [00:10:18] Andrew Fles: So for Powdery and Downey we just kind of did a scouting assessment. You know, how, prevalent is the infection based on how many leaves per, per per scouting event? I think off the top of my head, it was like 25 leaves. Per block that's more, I guess, anecdotal which we, and we did see that in the Pinot Noir, it was pretty clear cut that we struggled to control Downy in the soft treatment more so than in the conventional treatment. [00:10:50] It was, it was pretty clear there. And then as far as the Botrytis and Sour Rot, so that's really where the MSU team came in with the, the Rufus Isaacs lab and Dr. Rufus Isaacs and his master's PhD candidate. They did a lot of work there and, and then also the Tim Miles lab , so basically what they did is they took 25 clusters of each treatment and they did an assessment , for of course, how many berries were infected by, by botrytis and sour rot. [00:11:25] And then they also took those clusters and they hatched them out to see how many Drosophila species were there. [00:11:33] Craig Macmillan: Oh, okay. Yeah, good. That's interesting. [00:11:36] Andrew Fles: Wing drosophila here in Michigan and so really it was just the two species of traditional vinegar fly, drosophila, and then spotted wing. They did, you know, the, the statistics on that. [00:11:50] Craig Macmillan: interesting. And this is, this is a multi year project, right? [00:11:54] Andrew Fles: This was just one year. [00:11:56] Craig Macmillan: Just one year, okay. [00:11:58] And when will you have final results? [00:12:01] Andrew Fles: I have some of those already. We're going to do like a more formal presentation at a spring meeting here, a grower meeting, that's kind of co sponsored between MSU Extension and a local non profit that promotes grape and wine production in the area. So yeah, we're going to make a presentation in April on on the results and, and kind of, we're just continuing to, coalesce and, you know, tie my spray program with wedding events and then the results that they got as well. [00:12:37] Craig Macmillan: What other kinds of outreach are you doing? You're doing the meeting and you're doing other things? [00:12:41] Andrew Fles: I haven't discussed this with with Rika Bhandari as the PhD student. I suspect that she would use this in some of her publishing, you know, whether it gets published, I don't know, it's part of her Her main focus is sour rot, so this will be included in some of her presentations. [00:13:03] But I don't know that for a fact. [00:13:06] Craig Macmillan: That's exciting to get some information that's local. It's locally based and get it out to the local community as well as the broader community. I think that's really important if you don't mind I would like to get into some of the nuts and bolts of these two programs because I found that to be very interesting And then as we go talk about How that panned out for the different pests and diseases that you saw in these trials Let's talk about the soft program first You've got a dormant oil app in May and I assume you mean that there would be like JMS stylet oil or something like that [00:13:41] Andrew Fles: I think it was called bio cover. [00:13:43] Craig Macmillan: Bio cover and that's a pretty standard practice in your area I would guess [00:13:48] Andrew Fles: It is, yeah. [00:13:49] Craig Macmillan: and then the following month in June You, uh, have copper in the mix. In both the traditional and in the soft chemistry. I'm guessing that's also a common practice in your area. Probably for downy and for powdery. [00:14:06] Andrew Fles: Yeah, the copper is is something that we've been leaning towards and getting away from some of the synthetics. Which stick better to plant surfaces, we've been migrating that way anyway, these last numerous years now and so, yeah, , there are some similarities between the two programs at times it's really those key times of pre bloom and post bloom and variation that that we've traditionally. [00:14:34] Really locked in on some of the synthetic chemistries here [00:14:37] Craig Macmillan: And then also in June you have a Serenade Opti, which would be a Subtilis based material. And I believe that's also in your conventional in July. That's pretty standard practice, and that's an OMRI certified product, I believe. [00:14:52] Andrew Fles: Yes, yeah. [00:14:53] Craig Macmillan: There's some overlap there. It looks like the Rose Chaffer comes out around this time. [00:14:59] Andrew Fles: Yeah, probably it's not in front of me, but probably mid june [00:15:04] Craig Macmillan: Yeah, that's what you have here. In the traditional you've got a, a neonic, a sale. And then in the program, there's kind of a question mark here. What did you end up using in the, in the soft program for a roast chaffer? [00:15:19] Andrew Fles: Let me find it here [00:15:21] So we used neemix 4. 5 [00:15:26] Craig Macmillan: Nemix. I'm not familiar with that. Is that a Nemo based product? [00:15:28] Andrew Fles: Yeah, it's a neem oil [00:15:30] Craig Macmillan: And then in the traditional you have a neonic, a sail. Did you see a difference in Rose Chapter damage between the two? Because this is a pretty big difference here. [00:15:39] Andrew Fles: a pretty big difference in terms of [00:15:42] Craig Macmillan: Well, the modes of action obviously are very different. [00:15:45] Andrew Fles: Oh, sure, sure. Yeah, we had a little higher a little higher prevalence of rose chafers in mostly in the Pinot Noir treatments. Not so much in the Riesling, and I think that's largely because of black location. Traditionally the Pinot Noir block is our worst, one of our worst blocks in terms of rose chaffer rose chaffers are these beetles. [00:16:09] Of course, they're very similar to Japanese beetles for those listeners that, that may know that, but they really thrive in sandy soil, which is what we specialize here in northern Michigan, sandy based soil, right? [00:16:22] , and especially in un mowed fields. Right? We've really been trying to manage , our headland spaces like a prairie even more so upon joining SIP and, and learning more about making a comprehensive farm plan of, Of all of the land, right? And so we've really managed our, headlands and open fields like prairies which means minimal mowing, [00:16:47] like once a year is what we, we just mow to keep the autumn olive out. And and so we're trying to promote, you know, bird life and, and. All forms of life in these fields, which includes and sometimes an increase in rose chafers. [00:17:03] However, this 2024 was, was a. Fairly low pressure year. [00:17:09] And so I was very comfortable with, with sticking with this the soft insecticide. And we didn't feel like, you know, even though we saw this, this increase in pressure in the soft treatment, it wasn't surpassing the economic damage threshold that we are really keen. [00:17:27] And right. IPM [00:17:29] Craig Macmillan: So, true IPM. [00:17:31] Andrew Fles: IPM is very important, here, you know, where we have all these insects and it rains a lot and, you know, you got to really. Be ready to to, to scout and then react. [00:17:41] Craig Macmillan: Exactly. Yeah. And knowing what your economic injury limit is, I think it's huge. And your action threshold based on that. Tell me a little bit about the Spinosad based products. You have a couple in the soft that I assume are meant to be insecticides. [00:17:55] Andrew Fles: Yeah. The delegate. Yup. [00:17:56] Craig Macmillan: Yeah, Delegator and Trust. [00:17:59] Andrew Fles: I'll talk a little bit about intrepid as well. That's probably a foreign thing for any, any West coast listener, but that's intrepid is a it's a molting regulator and it's essentially for, in this case, for grapes, it's for grape berry moth. And this is an insect that is very difficult to do IPM on because there's a, there's kind of a morph that lives in northern Michigan that doesn't Go for the traps and so you can put traps out and it you just have no idea what's going on Because they just don't really care for the pheromones so they're really almost impossible to trap and I've talked numerous time with dr Rufus Isaacs about this and how do we you know get a handle on populations and you know They just can't get their traps to work up here. [00:18:50] We target with the intrepid, it's a, again, it's a molting regulator, so it just prevents them from developing, and it's very specific it's not a broad spectrum, so that goes on as a preventative where we have blocks near the woods, [00:19:05] because we see great berry moth coming in from wild, wild vines [00:19:10] that may or may not be in the woods, but we Where we see larva hatching is, is just kind of a perimeter. [00:19:16] So what we'll actually do is a perimeter spray. We don't even spray the whole block. We'll spray the outside row or two or three of each end. And then we just kind of blast it in. Along the, the other, you know, along the posts, the end posts. And that seems to work fairly well. [00:19:34] Craig Macmillan: Huh. [00:19:35] Andrew Fles: And then, as far as Delegate goes and Entrust those are Spinoza based products like you mentioned. [00:19:42] Those are primarily, you'll see that we put them on, well, I don't know if you can see timing, but we put them on. in September. Yeah, at the end of the season. September. [00:19:53] Yeah. Yeah. So, so those go on right around or right before even version and that is for drosophila [00:20:01] I think there's been some research recently from Cornell and then also Brock University in Canada. And I know also that Tim and Rufus have been doing trials here in Michigan as well. between the three of us out here in the, in the Northeast we're very focused on sour rot. [00:20:19] And so Michigan State along with these other folks have done these trials where they found that including an insecticide at veraison or, and then also at about 15 bricks significantly reduces sour rot infections. And that's because you're going after one of the vectors. [00:20:39] Craig Macmillan: Interesting. There's another material that I wasn't familiar with. I did a little bit of research on it. That's a product called Jet Ag, which is a hydrogen peroxide, a peracetic acid material. You have that in both the soft chemistry and your quote unquote conventional section. Is that a material you've used for a long time? [00:20:57] Andrew Fles: Yeah, we, I forget when exactly it started coming around I think probably 2015, 16 is when it was maybe released or made its way to northern Michigan and kind of coincided with with some sour rot. Issues that we have had off and on over the years with Pinot Noir or Vignole. And it's a, you know, it's a strong hydrogen peroxide. [00:21:23] It's a heavy oxidizer. It goes in and it, it, it cleans everything up. You know, it disinfects. And there's, there's some thinking as well that it, it'll kill the yeast. And some of those yeasts, the aroma is very attractive to spotted wing drosophila and regular drosophila. And so if you're, if you're kind of this is probably something that, that people, you know, that rely on native ferments might not want to hear, but you know, it really, it really disinfects the fruit which, which is key for You know, controlling sour rot. [00:21:59] And so we've used that over the years as both a preventative and a curative treatment. [00:22:05] Craig Macmillan: Right. [00:22:06] Andrew Fles: I didn't actually end up using it this year because It essentially stopped raining it was almost west coast ian here in the fall. It stopped raining in August and it didn't rain again. [00:22:19] You know, I mean, aside from like just a, you know, very, very light mist that wouldn't even penetrate the soil deeper than a centimeter. You know, so we didn't get any appreciable rain. From, I think it was maybe August 5 or 10, all the way till November 31st, or sorry, October 31st. [00:22:39] Craig Macmillan: Actually, that raises a good question. So, what is the summer precipitation like, quote unquote, in a normal year or an average year? [00:22:48] Andrew Fles: Yeah, we've been having, [00:22:49] Craig Macmillan: is it? [00:22:52] Andrew Fles: it's so variable is the, you know, we keep coming back to that. Every season is different here and it's so true even in Northern Michigan we have seen climate change affecting our summer rainfalls. So, whereas, you know, traditionally, and I say traditionally as maybe like the 80s and 90s maybe even early 2000s, you would expect to see, you know, a good four to eight inches a month. [00:23:20] you know, less, less so in, you know, in July and August is walking that more like four inch. Four inches of precipitation and you can get that sometimes in two different days [00:23:33] Craig Macmillan: Wow. [00:23:34] Andrew Fles: And that could be all or it could be spread out, you know over over several 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 different events. we had a dry June a couple years ago, I think we, I think it rained two days and amount to much. [00:23:50] And 2023, all of May we had, it rained one day. It was very dry. And so it's really been a roller coaster here in terms of what to expect as far as precipitation comes, I mean during the growing season anyway. [00:24:08] Craig Macmillan: Mm hmm. [00:24:09] Andrew Fles: It's been a challenge to know, you kind of have to have all these tools ready, right? [00:24:13] You have to have your jet ag ready. [00:24:15] If you get a bunch of infections going you got to have some of these other products ready and just , be ready for anything essentially. [00:24:24] Craig Macmillan: That, I'm just kind of reeling, I'm from California, and so like four to eight inches of rain during the growing season, it sounds like a fungal disease disaster to me. I'm impressed that you can get a crop, a vinifera crop to, to harvest with those kind of conditions. [00:24:39] Let's talk about the sustainable conventional program a little bit. Again copper appears early which would make sense. Then the insecticide portion would be a sale. It's a neonicotinoid, and then you've got a couple of fungicides in here. [00:24:55] You've got sulfur, and you've got a boscalid. Then in July again you've got a subtilis, that's serenadopty, and the, the intrepid, the IGR. August, you've got another neonic rally, and then you've got a product called ranman, or ranman. Which is a Sazofenamide, again, traditional fungicide. And then Inspire Supert, verasion, very common. And then you've got the the JetAg and Delegate, which is an antispinosid based product. When I look at this, I see a lot of very safe, very smart, very rotated fungicide chemistries here. Was this the kind of program you were using previously? [00:25:34] Andrew Fles: Yeah. And you know, it always can change a little bit. Sometimes you can't get a certain product or you can't get it in time. [00:25:42] Uh, whereas, you know, you, you're planning to use X product for your, for your kind of like You know, your, your pea sized berry spray, let's say but you, all of a sudden you have a bunch of rainfall, you know, and, and so if I was planning to use Quintech, which only covers powdery all of a sudden I have this big wedding event that was just perfect for growing downy mildew I I might switch from Quintech to and vice versa, you know, if we're, if we're into some weather, that's really favorable, it's time to push more of those serenades and you know, we've used some of the other biologicals over the years as well and, and just trying, trying to go that way as much as possible, but, you know, sometimes the weather forces your hand, like, like it did this year, you'll see in my, In my program we went into some Randman and some [00:26:35] Zampro, and those are those are very specific to to downy mildew. [00:26:41] You know, but we're still, with those products, you know, they're more expensive than something like Kaptan, you know. We Can't spray that with sip and we didn't spray it before because we don't want it on our fingers [00:26:56] The vineyard you and I don't want it in our lives So so we're always trying to go the ran man route, even though it's a little pricier, but it's very Target specific for Downey and so, you know with all the rains that we had in June and July and early July we felt like the smart play and we did start seeing some downy mildew cropping up much earlier than normal. [00:27:21] If, if we see it at all, that is. in that, at that point you want to make the call, you know, Hey, I want to get out in front of this thing. I don't want downy on my fruit. You know, if you start seeing it on growing tips, I think it was the 4th of July or the 2nd of July or something we were scouting and we were getting a lot of rain at that point and it was very humid and it was just like rain every other day for about a week there and it's like you gotta pivot and, and make the move to something that's really going to provide. control there. [00:27:52] For the soft program at that point, we were trying to use, I believe we use serenade, you know, which is more broad spectrum as far as biologicals go. We knew we wanted to keep it going after the, , the Downey with the soft chemistry. And that's why we got into the orange oil as well. [00:28:10] Craig Macmillan: Oh, interesting. [00:28:11] Andrew Fles: to, Yeah, that's, that wasn't in the proposal that I sent you, but we did pivot. I couldn't get. The cinerate it was, I was told it was on the West coast, growers were hoarding it and none of it, none of it made it over this way. I was really hoping to get my hands on some of it. [00:28:28] I've already pre ordered my 2025 cinerate. [00:28:32] Craig Macmillan: And Cinerate is a cinnamon oil based product, right? [00:28:36] Andrew Fles: Correct. Yeah. Cinnamon oil. oil. Yeah, it's another oil. [00:28:39] Yeah. Yeah. It's another one of those kind of antimicrobial oils, if you will. Um, So we pivoted to, to orange oil and thyme oil. TimeGuard has been, is a product that's been out for a number of years now. We've used it before, , we haven't really relied on it as much in the past. As, as we did with this soft treatment. [00:28:59] Craig Macmillan: Tell me a little bit more about what the outcomes have been at this point. We talked about the the pinot noir a little bit. We talked about the Rose Shafter showing up there a little bit more. At, at the end of the day, the end of the season. How did you feel about it? How did you feel about comparing the two [00:29:15] Andrew Fles: you know, it felt, it felt really good. It seemed like the soft program kept pace with the conventional for the most part. In the Pinot Noir, we had we had some more rose chaffer damage, of course, but without doing a, a full on research trial, it's hard to say that it was the treatment alone because of, as I mentioned, the location was a big factor. [00:29:38] With the downy mildew, it seemed to be a little more prevalent, certainly in the Pinot Noir on the, on the soft program that is but it never got to the point and I was, I was always ready to go in with whatever I needed to, because we don't want to have a defoliation and not being able to ripen fruit, you know, the fruit and, and especially in such a great growing year. [00:30:01] we never really resorted to. You know, breaking the glass and, and grabbing the ax and running out there and like, and it was emergency, you know, we never, we never had to do that. There was a moment there in July where, you know, where would the downy pressure we thought maybe. [00:30:19] Maybe we would have to abandon it, but then things dried up and we kept after things with with some of these, these things like thyme oil and orange oil. Getting good coverage with them is so important. But getting those on at the right time really seemed to provide enough control. [00:30:37] Craig Macmillan: Actually that's a, that's an excellent point. Let's talk about the phenology a little bit. How, for the varieties that you're growing, how big are these canopies getting? What's the spacing that they're planted on? How many gallons per acre are you using in your spray applications to get good coverage? [00:30:54] Andrew Fles: Yeah, so for the purpose of the project I stuck with 50 gallons an acre throughout the season. Which even, even for the conventional portion, traditionally I'll, I'll start with 30 gallons an acre aside from the dormant spray, of course, but like, you know, early season sprays until the canopy becomes a little denser, , I'll be at 30 gallons an acre and then probably mid July post bloom, right around bloom, perhaps , we'll ramp up the conventional to 50 gallons as well. [00:31:26] For the purposes of this, we just did 50 gallons across the board, both treatments. a lot of the canopy is well, it's really all VSP except for the vignole. Vignole is high wire cordone. And then we're talking nine by five spacing. The vinifera as well, which is pretty common around here. Double geo some spur pruning. We've really developed a kind of a hybrid system where we do a little bit of, we kind of mix cane and spur , , and alternate those in, in some of our venefera programs. [00:31:57] Craig Macmillan: And in, on the same plant? [00:31:59] Andrew Fles: Yeah. Sometimes. [00:32:01] Yeah. [00:32:01] Craig Macmillan: one side, gator the other. [00:32:03] Andrew Fles: What that does for us you know, where we get. Or we can at least, you know, and we can, sometimes we can lose a whole cane , or a lot of buds. I don't want to get too in the weeds on, on what that system is, but, but it's really developed around being able to quickly replace and adapt to cold damage. [00:32:24] And so if we need to go in and cut a trunk out, we've already got a cane growing from down low, if that makes any sense. [00:32:31] Craig Macmillan: No, that does make sense. And it's a practice that I'm familiar with from other areas in the Midwest, the North, the Northeast. Very, very smart. But that's a very different canopy architecture than you might find someplace that's all VSP. Or, you know, a double canopy situation maybe like in New York. [00:32:48] How comfortable are you now? After going through this, it sounds like you liked the softer program, you feel you got good control on most things. But if I'm understanding you correctly, you're not afraid to keep some other, other tools in the toolbox, basically. [00:33:05] Andrew Fles: Right. Yeah. And I think a big purpose of this program was to investigate some of these products. I want to highlight Problad Verde as well. [00:33:14] That's. Another one that's been out there and we've used it before as well. You know, I did a trial with Tim Miles's lab on and Rufus doing a sour rot trial in Pinot Noir in the past with pro, and it was just kind of a end of the season application of Problad with I believe we use delegate or in trust. [00:33:34] I can't remember. One of them and, this project, the SARE project was really looking at problad as being more of the backbone , of it. And, and so we ended up using that for the soft treatment pre bloom, post bloom. And then again, at version, because it has similar to jet egg, it's kind of a disinfectant, right? [00:33:57] It's this lupine seed extract that, that is a. That is a disinfectant and so it's going to go in, but because it, it's advertised anyway as having some systemic activity, [00:34:09] Craig Macmillan: Mm [00:34:10] Andrew Fles: systemic properties, that's, that's key for us in the east here. Because, hey, if we get a half inch of rain, well, it's still kind of in the leaf or it's still in some of that green flower tissue. [00:34:24] Before it opens up and blooms and so, really working problad in as instead of a kind of just end of the season toy it's really became, became the backbone of the tritus control for us in this, in this trial. And then again, looking at some of these oils, I think there's a lot of promise for. the orange oil in particular, I've, I've been seeing more and more research coming out about how you know, it does work on Downy and we did see that you know, even though we had an increase in Downy infection man, it could have been a lot worse. It was still at an acceptable level. [00:35:02] And so I think, I think I'm going to feel more and more comfortable using those products. [00:35:07] Craig Macmillan: You've demonstrated to yourself. And that's what the, that's how it works, and that's what everybody needs, to have some confidence. Which I think is really great, I was very impressed by the idea of trying things that maybe are not widely used, were not widely tested outside of maybe the West Coast, and to be able to show efficacy on your property, I think is really important. [00:35:27] I think it's one thing many of us have learned about softer materials. They may or may not work depending on what your pressure is. And that can vary region to region, but it can also vary within a region. It definitely can vary year to year, so having that flexibility that you've built into this program is very admirable. What would you say are the big picture benefits of the soft pesticide program at this point? [00:35:48] Andrew Fles: Hopefully just to increase awareness of, of how they can be effective for folks here in Michigan or, or similar climates, New York and Canada, I should say I don't think , this SARE project alone is, is going to be any sort of groundbreaking news, but I think it's just another verification and if we start to have more and more of them people will believe more and more in these products because it's just, it's at that point, it's word of mouth, right? [00:36:21] It's more and more growers are starting to back it. And, or experiment with it at least and, and see results, I think a lot of growers are very word of mouth oriented anyway. [00:36:34] So, uh, so it's very important, like, Oh, Hey, what did you try last year? And I think there's plenty of that going on in our area. [00:36:42] A bunch of us anyway, we seem to network pretty well and, and trust each other. , Oh, I use this at this key time and it really proved effective. So I think just bringing more and more awareness to these soft programs or these soft products, I should say. , and I can't really speak to the sustainability of. Farming lupin seed for for a fungicide product, you know, I can't, speak to that, but I want to believe that it's, it's a more sustainable product than, you know something that was made in a factory and, and might have petrochemicals in it. [00:37:19] Craig Macmillan: Well, it might have resistance issues as well, I think is one of the key things. And by the way, both programs I thought were very intelligent. I think like in terms of the frack rotations in the sustainable one, I thought that was really well done. Is, is there one thing that you would tell growers? [00:37:35] What's the one takeaway you would tell people from this project? You just kind of touched on one, but is there a message here for people? [00:37:43] Andrew Fles: I think the message is, you know, that we have to be really careful in crafting our. Spray program to the season that we have. If we were getting A lot more rain in September than what we ended up having I mean, we were, we were in pretty severe drought here. I think the soft program could still work. [00:38:03] But you have to choose the product and probably apply it much more frequently. You know, you have to go in and respond to those rains. , or even maybe perhaps be ready to pivot to something that is synthetic and systemic and curative. You know, maybe you have to go in with a hammer, but that doesn't mean that, you know, the majority of this growing season can't be done in a very soft way. [00:38:30] And so we're really just responding to that weather. But I think if this is our focus , to use these softer chemistries on things that we're going to drink or eat, even if it's vegetables, I think that these products are becoming better and better and there's becoming more and more of them, which is really encouraging to see you know, 10 years ago, maybe we had serenade and And you know, a couple of other products, but now, now there's, they're really becoming prevalent. [00:38:58] And so I think the take home is, is crafting that spray program with these new found tools that we have. Problads, , your crop, , your what, what should I call them? Like your aromatic oils, lack of better term, like orange oil, thyme oil, cinnamon oil. You know, I think these things do have a place. [00:39:17] Craig Macmillan: Where can people find out more about you? [00:39:19] Andrew Fles: Well, they can visit ShadyLaneCellers. com and there's stuff in there about our farm and in what we do and where we are, who we are a little bit. And then also there will be, and I could get you this information if you're interested, so this spring meeting where we're going to present the results of this believe we'll have a Zoom link option. [00:39:43] Craig Macmillan: As a reference date, this is being recorded in February of 2025. And so spring meeting will be coming up in a few months from here. I'm not sure when this will air, but even anything is fantastic. So I really want to thank you for being on the episode. Our guest today was Andy Fless, he's Vineyard Manager at Shadyland Cellars and you've been a great guest. Hey, thanks for being on the podcast. [00:40:03] Andrew Fles: My pleasure, Craig. Thanks a lot for having me. [00:40:08] Beth Vukmanic: Thank you for listening. Today's podcast was brought to you by Martinez Orchards. Martinez Orchards is one of the most trusted and respected names in the nursery business. They have earned that reputation through years of hard work, honesty, integrity, and a commitment to their customers. They provide support with their knowledgeable salespeople and highly experienced production team. They know successful plantings allow them to fulfill their promises, and they strive to build lasting relationships with their customers based on a foundation of mutual steadfast trust. [00:40:40] Make sure you check out the show notes for links to Andy at Shady Lane Plus. Sustainable wine Growing podcast episodes 117. Grapevine Mildew Control with UV Light 219 Intelligent sprayers to improve fungicide applications and save money. And 235, battling fungicide resistance with glove sampling. [00:41:03] If you liked this show, do us a big favor by sharing it with a friend, subscribing and leaving us a review. You can find all of the podcasts@vineyardteam.org slash podcast and you can reach us at podcast@vineyardteam.org. [00:41:16] Until next time, this is Sustainable Wine Growing with the Vineyard team.   Nearly perfect transcription by Descript

Thanks to our Partners, NAPA TRACS, and Today's Class Recorded at the 45th annual Mobile Air Climate Systems Conference (MACS 2025) in Orlando, Florida, the focus is on the critical topic of leak detection in automotive air conditioning systems. Two main leak detection methods are compared: dye leak detection, which uses fluorescent dyes and UV lights for visual identification, and electronic leak detection (ELD), which uses sensors to detect refrigerants. The discussion also covers the compatibility of these methods with various refrigerants, including those used in electric vehicles, and explores the advantages and disadvantages of each approach. John Godden, Production Operations Manager, Spectronics Corporation Matt Farel, Business Development- Service Tools, Inficon Show Notes Watch Full Video Episode MACS Training Event & Trade Show: https://macsmobileairclimate.org/ National Automotive Service Task Force (NASTF): https://wp.nastf.org/ Koura: https://www.kouraglobal.com/ Honeywell: https://www.honeywell.com/us/en Leak Detection Discussion (00:00:00) Importance of Air Conditioning (00:02:12) Heat Pump Systems (00:03:03) Complementary Technologies (00:04:09) Tracers in Manufacturing (00:04:44) Visual vs. Electronic Detection (00:05:33) Safety of Refrigerants (00:07:50) Importance of UV Light (00:08:21) Using Multiple Detection Methods (00:09:33) Verifying Repairs (00:10:52) Preference in Detection Methods (00:12:06) Market Trends in Leak Detection (00:13:00) The Importance of Shop Management Systems (00:13:53) Training and Customization of Napa Trax (00:14:33) Leak Detection Methodologies (00:15:40) Dye Compatibility with Refrigerants (00:16:20) Tracer Gas Leak Detection (00:17:54) EVs and Leak Detection Challenges (00:19:45) Advancements in Leak Detector Technology (00:21:52) New Developments in Dye Products (00:23:38) Transition to Natural Refrigerants (00:24:29) Thanks to our Partner, NAPA TRACS NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/ Thanks to our Partner, Today's Class Optimize training with Today's Class: In just 5 minutes daily, boost knowledge retention and improve team performance. Find Today's Class on the web at https://www.todaysclass.com/ Connect with the Podcast: -The Aftermarket Radio Network:

Longevity, Success, Healthy Living, and Nutrition Made Simple Join Our Health Club Community FREE https://www.drasa.com/health-club   Visit Us At Our Health Club Retreats https://www.drasa.com/retreats/ It's Dr. Asa Here... Ask Me Your Question! Text Me: 407-255-7076 Call Me: 888-283-7272 Send me a DM: @DrAsa We are here to help you live your best life. You don't have to live lower than your potential for the rest of your life! Also our Health Club Providers are here to help guide and teach you on how quickly you can reach your health and wellness goals at: https://www.drasa.com/find-a-provider

Materials scientist and physicist Guosong Hong is an expert in getting materials to do remarkable things. Recently, he and collaborators used a common food dye found in snack chips to turn living tissue transparent, allowing light to penetrate through skin and muscle. Hong is now working to realize a new age of medical imaging that lets doctors see deep into the body – without surgery. It's a miracle of physics but it could change medicine, Hong tells host Russ Altman on this episode of Stanford Engineering's The Future of Everything podcast.Have a question for Russ? Send it our way in writing or via voice memo, and it might be featured on an upcoming episode. Please introduce yourself, let us know where you're listening from, and share your quest. You can send questions to thefutureofeverything@stanford.edu.Episode Reference Links:Stanford Profile: ​​Guosong HongGuosong's Lab: THE HONG LABConnect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>> Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / FacebookChapters:(00:00:00) IntroductionRuss Altman introduces Guosong Hong, an expert in physics, material science, and biology from Stanford University.(00:02:52) Material Science Meets NeuroscienceHow Guosong's research blends nanomaterials and brain science.(00:04:01) Why Tissue Isn't TransparentThe challenge of light penetration in biological tissues.(00:05:55) A New Approach to Tissue ClearingThe physics behind tissue transparency and refractive index manipulation.(00:08:57) UV Light and TransparencyHow manipulating UV absorption can align refractive indexes.(00:11:17) First Experiments and ResultsInitial tests that demonstrate successful tissue clearing.(00:13:19) Applications in MedicineThe potential of transparent tissues in dermatology and medical imaging.(00:15:36) Testing on Live TissueThe results of testing transparency techniques on live mice.(00:19:30) Transparency in NatureHow some species have naturally transparent tissue.(00:20:52) Human Eye and Protein TransparencyThe unique proteins that keep our lenses clear using similar physics.(00:23:24) Wireless Light Inside the BodyThe development of ultrasound-activated light sources for tissue imaging.(00:26:56) Precision of Ultrasound LightHow precisely ultrasound can trigger tiny particles to emit light.(00:29:14) Conclusion Connect With Us:Episode Transcripts >>> The Future of Everything WebsiteConnect with Russ >>> Threads / Bluesky / MastodonConnect with School of Engineering >>>Twitter/X / Instagram / LinkedIn / Facebook

In this episode of the Evolving Wellness Podcast, we're joined by Dr. Roger Seheult, an ICU physician, pulmonologist, and sleep expert, who's also the founder of the wildly popular YouTube channel MedCram. Dr. Seheult reveals the surprising connection between light exposure and health, discussing how hospital lighting environments are contributing to illness and the critical role of circadian rhythms in healing. He shares fascinating insights from his research and practical advice on improving circadian health, including the benefits of infrared light, forest bathing, and aligning with natural sunlight. From shift work impacts to the science of daylight savings and even melatonin myths, this episode is packed with valuable tips and eye-opening information for optimizing your health through better light management. Sponsored By:  Black Lotus Shilajit Visit: ⁠www.blacklotusshilajit.com⁠ and Use Code: SARAHK for 15% the entire site! Upgraded Formulas: Use code: YOGI for 10% off at ⁠www.upgradedformulas.com⁠ Viva Rays Go to ⁠vivarays.com⁠ & use code: YOGI to save 15% Timestamps:  00:00:00 - Introduction  00:03:31 - The MedCram YouTube Channel  00:04:47 - Discovering Circadian Biology   00:08:59 - The Benefits of Infrared Light   00:11:26 - Why You Can't Biohack Light   00:13:08 - Case Study: Light's Role in COVID-19   00:15:30 - The Healing Power of Nature 00:19:41 - The Science of Circadian Rhythms & Light Exposure at Night   00:24:02 - Hormonal Health & Cancer Rates 00:26:04 - Shift Work and Night Shifts 00:28:43 - How Daylight Savings Affects Flu Spikes   00:30:27 - Harvard Kennedy School Study: Sunlight & Flu Prevention   00:33:38 - The Dangers of Over-Supplementation   00:36:19 - Practical Tips for Night Shift Workers   00:38:53 - Ketosis, Intermittent Fasting, and Circadian Health   00:39:43 - The Link Between Eating at Night and Rectal Cancer   00:45:45 - Breakfast vs. Dinner: Timing and Health Benefits   00:48:08 - Medication Timing and Its Impact on Circadian Rhythms   00:50:15 - Training Your Circadian System for Optimal Health   00:51:03 - Why We Crave Snacks at Night   00:55:33 - Changing the Medical System 01:03:33 - UV Light and the Risk of Skin Cancer   01:07:44 - The Truth About Melatonin Supplementation   Check Out Dr. Roger: Website  Youtube X (Twitter) Instagram This video is not medical advice & as a supporter to you and your health journey - I encourage you to monitor your labs and work with a professional! ________________________________________ Get all my free guides and product recommendations to get started on your journey! https://www.sarahkleinerwellness.com/all-free-resources Check out all my courses to understand how to improve your mitochondrial health & experience long lasting health! (Use code PODCAST to save 10%) -  https://www.sarahkleinerwellness.com/courses Sign up for my newsletter to get special offers in the future! -https://www.sarahkleinerwellness.com/contact Free Guide to Building your perfect quantum day (start here) - https://www.sarahkleinerwellness.com/opt-in-9d5f6918-77a8-40d7-bedf-93ca2ec8387f My free product guide with all product recommendations and discount codes: https://www.sarahkleinerwellness.com/resource_redirect/downloads/file-uploads/sites/2147573344/themes/2150788813/downloads/84c82fa-f201-42eb-5466-0524b41f6b18_2024_SKW_Affiliate_Guide_1_.pdf My Circadian App - Apple My Circadian App - Android My Circadian App - Youtube

Send us a textAbout the guest: Andrzej Slominski, MD, PhD is a dermapathologist and skin biologist who has spent decades studying skin biology, especially regarding endocrinology (hormones), stress response, photobiology, and more.Episode summary: Nick and Dr. Slominski discuss: hormone production in the skin; vitamin D photobiology; risks and benefits of UVB light; skin cancer & sunscreen; protective effects of melatonin production in the skin; and more.Related episodes:M&M #104: Benefits & Risks of UV Radiation & Sunlight, Skin Health, Vitamin D, Nitric Oxide, Evolution of Skin Color | Richard WellerM&M #146: Photobiology, Sunlight, Firelight, Incandescent Bulbs vs. LEDs, Mitochondria, Melatonin, Sunscreen & the Optics of the Body | Scott Zimmerman*This content is never meant to serve as medical adviceSupport the showAll episodes (audio & video), show notes, transcripts, and more at the M&M Substack Affiliates: MASA Chips—delicious tortilla chips made from organic corn and grass-fed beef tallow. No seed oils or artificial ingredients. Use code MIND for 20% off. SiPhox Health—Affordable, at-home bloodwork. Comprehensive set of key health markers. Use code TRIKOMES for a 10% discount. Lumen device to optimize your metabolism for weight loss or athletic performance. Use code MIND for 10% off. Athletic Greens: Comprehensive & convenient daily nutrition. Free 1-year supply of vitamin D with purchase. Consensus: AI-powered academic research tool. Find & understand the best science, faster. Free 1-year premium sub with code MINDMATTERSPECIAL (expires 12.10.24) Learn all the ways you can support my efforts...

Are you high, or is that a sheep glowing?Yep- sheep glow, but that's not all... when it comes to glowing the list of animals includes the platypus, dolphin teeth, bilby ears and Tasmanian Devil feet. Featuring:Linda Reinhold, Zoologist at James Cook University.Professor Simon Lewis, Curtin University. Dr. Kenny Travouillon, Western Australian Museum. Caitlin Grieve, Hillend Dorsets.Production:Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer.Petria Ladgrove, Producer.Joel Werner, Script editing.Additional mastering:  Simon Branthwaite.If you want to hear more "What the Duck?" episodes- please like and subscribe here.This episode of What the Duck?! was first broadcast in October 2023 and is produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.

In this episode of Healthy & Awake Podcast, I'm joined by the legendary Dr. Jack Kruse, a pioneer in health and wellness. Dr. Kruse has relocated to El Salvador to work with the President on amending the Constitution, promoting medical freedom, and contributing to the country's health revolution. We explore his experiences in this monumental endeavor and answer audience questions about circadian rhythms and their impact on weight loss and overall health. We also discuss the significance of light exposure timing. Dr. Kruse's passionate, sometimes vulgar language adds intensity to our conversation. While I typically maintain a clean tone, I encourage my guests to speak freely, so be aware that this episode may not be suitable for sensitive listeners. Dr. Kruse's candid insights are a testament to our mission to challenge the status quo and engage with controversial health topics.https://jackkruse.com/https://www.patreon.com/DrJackKruse/posts___________________________

Have you ever wondered just how much light plays a role in optimal health? In this episode of Heart2Heart, Dr. Mike Hart talks with Dr. Alexis Cowan, a renowned expert in metabolism and light biology, about the profound impact of light on our well-being. Dr. Cowan discusses the intricate roles of different wavelengths and the transformative power of sunlight. Dr. Cowan shares her personal journey and scientific insights, revealing how light can enhance our mood, mitochondrial function, and overall health. They also cover the importance of red, infrared, UVA, and UVB light, and give practical tips to harness the benefits of natural light in your daily life. Guest Bio and Links: Dr. Alexis Cowan a.k.a ‘Melanin Monroe' is a leading expert in metabolism and light biology. With a PhD from Princeton, she has dedicated her career to understanding the impact of dietary inputs and light on tissue metabolism. Her goal is to empower people with tools, strategies, and information that they can use to improve their health, their lives, and the lives of their loved ones. Listeners can learn more about Dr. Alexis Cowan on IG @dralexisjazmyn, and her podcast, Undoctrinate Yourself   Resources:  A quantum theory for the irreplaceable role of docosahexaenoic acid in neural cell signaling throughout evolution Show Notes: (0:00) Welcome back to the Hart2Heart Podcast with Dr. Mike Hart    (0:15) Dr. Cowan gives a brief bio of herself  (5:00) Light is the foundation of the ‘pyramid of health'  (7:30) Different wavelengths of light (8:00) Benefits of red and infrared light (11:00) How we are becoming blue light toxic (15:30) Practical tips for optimizing light exposure (19:25) “We're meant to receive all these wavelengths together in synergy, and when you just try to short the system by giving one input in the absence of the entourage effect of the others, I think we run into some major issues and create imbalances in the system that are unintended.” (24:00) Standard amount of sun to receive a day without supplementation  (28:15) Impact of UVA and UVB light (33:30) Understanding infrared and UV Light (39:30) Effects of green light on sleep (41:35) Light impact on mood and addiction  (53:30) Practical tips for sunlight exposure (1:00:00) DHA and the quantum biology of DHA (1:02:00) Benefits of infrared saunas and red lights  (1:04:30) The structure of fourth phase water (1:07:45) Benefits of grounding  (1:15:30) Dr. Cowans's goal with her wealth of knowledge (1:18:30) Closing thoughts  --- Dr. Mike Hart is a Cannabis Physician and Lifestyle Strategist. In April 2014, Dr. Hart became the first physician in London, Ontario to open a cannabis clinic. While Dr. Hart continues to treat patients at his clinic, his primary focus has shifted to correcting the medical cannabis educational gap that exists in the medical community.  Connect on social with Dr. Mike Hart: Social Links: Instagram: @drmikehart Twitter: @drmikehart Facebook: @drmikehart

Fluent Fiction - French: Secrets Under UV Light: Unveiling Hidden Messages in the Louvre Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.org/secrets-under-uv-light-unveiling-hidden-messages-in-the-louvre Story Transcript:Fr: Le soleil brille haut dans le ciel de Paris en ce jour de la Fête Nationale.En: The sun shines high in the Paris sky on this National Day.Fr: Le Louvre, majestueux, est envahi de visiteurs.En: The Louvre, majestic, is swarming with visitors.Fr: Claire, conservatrice d'art, traverse les salles avec détermination.En: Claire, an art curator, strides through the halls with determination.Fr: Elle a un secret : un peintre célèbre aurait laissé un message caché dans un tableau.En: She has a secret: a famous painter supposedly left a hidden message in a painting.Fr: Claire arrive devant le tableau en question, une œuvre que peu de gens remarquent.En: Claire arrives before the painting in question, a work that few people notice.Fr: C'est "Le Jardin Mystérieux" de l'artiste inconnu.En: It is "The Mysterious Garden" by an unknown artist.Fr: Alors que les touristes s'attroupent autour de la Mona Lisa et de la Vénus de Milo, Claire reste concentrée sur sa mission.En: While tourists crowd around the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo, Claire stays focused on her mission.Fr: Antoine, l'un des gardiens du musée, la voit souvent ici.En: Antoine, one of the museum guards, often sees her here.Fr: Il est intrigué par son insistance mais reste discret.En: He is intrigued by her persistence but remains discreet.Fr: Pour Claire, chaque détail compte.En: For Claire, every detail matters.Fr: Elle examine le tableau sous différents angles.En: She examines the painting from different angles.Fr: Le soir approche.En: Evening approaches.Fr: Les touristes quittent le musée, mais Claire doit rester.En: The tourists leave the museum, but Claire needs to stay.Fr: Elle sait que si elle demande une autorisation, elle sera refusée.En: She knows that if she asks for permission, it will be denied.Fr: Ses collègues ricanent souvent de ses théories.En: Her colleagues often scoff at her theories.Fr: Pourtant, elle est convaincue qu'ils ont tort.En: Yet, she is convinced they are wrong.Fr: Enfin seule dans la salle, Claire sort une lampe UV.En: Finally alone in the room, Claire takes out a UV lamp.Fr: Elle éclaire doucement le tableau.En: She gently shines it on the painting.Fr: Là, quelque chose brille faiblement.En: There, something faintly glows.Fr: Un texte caché commence à se dévoiler.En: A hidden text starts to reveal itself.Fr: Claire lit à haute voix.En: Claire reads aloud.Fr: "Liberté et vérité, cachées pour ceux qui cherchent."En: "Liberty and truth, hidden for those who seek."Fr: Des frissons parcourent son dos.En: Chills run down her spine.Fr: Des feux d'artifice éclatent à l'extérieur pour célébrer la prise de la Bastille.En: Fireworks burst outside to celebrate the storming of the Bastille.Fr: La salle tremble légèrement sous les explosions.En: The room trembles slightly under the explosions.Fr: Claire écrit rapidement les mots qu'elle voit sur un carnet, peur que le message disparaisse à nouveau.En: Claire quickly writes down the words she sees in a notebook, afraid the message might disappear again.Fr: Au petit matin, le directeur du musée est furieux de trouver Claire encore là.En: Early the next morning, the museum director is furious to find Claire still there.Fr: Elle est convoquée par le conseil d'administration.En: She is summoned by the board of directors.Fr: Les critiques fusent mais Claire reste calme.En: Criticism flies but Claire remains calm.Fr: Elle explique ses découvertes avec passion.En: She passionately explains her discoveries.Fr: Antoine, présent dans la pièce, la soutient silencieusement.En: Antoine, present in the room, silently supports her.Fr: Le conseil est sceptique mais Claire ne renonce pas.En: The board is skeptical, but Claire does not give up.Fr: Elle montre les preuves, les photos sous la lampe UV.En: She shows the evidence, the photos under the UV lamp.Fr: Peu à peu, leurs regards changent.En: Gradually, their expressions change.Fr: Une historienne respecteuse examine les documents.En: A respectful historian examines the documents.Fr: "C'est... incroyable," murmure-t-elle.En: "This is... incredible," she murmurs.Fr: Les jours suivants, les médias se ruent sur l'histoire.En: In the following days, the media swarm the story.Fr: Claire passe de la marginalisation à la célébrité.En: Claire transitions from marginalization to fame.Fr: Son courage est salué.En: Her courage is praised.Fr: Le message caché devient un symbole de quête de vérité, reflétant parfaitement l'esprit révolutionnaire de la France.En: The hidden message becomes a symbol of the quest for truth, perfectly reflecting France's revolutionary spirit.Fr: Claire, autrefois solitaire, devient une figure respectée, une célébrée historienne.En: Claire, once solitary, becomes a respected figure, a celebrated historian.Fr: Antoine l'accompagne souvent, prêt à explorer d'autres mystères.En: Antoine often accompanies her, ready to explore other mysteries.Fr: Maintenant, Claire avance avec confiance, sûre de son instinct et de ses capacités.En: Now, Claire moves forward with confidence, sure of her instincts and abilities.Fr: Le Louvre, en cet été mémorable, a révélé un de ses secrets les mieux gardés, grâce à la persévérance d'une passionnée.En: The Louvre, in this memorable summer, has revealed one of its best-kept secrets, thanks to the persistence of a passionate individual. Vocabulary Words:the sky: le cielthe curator: le conservateur / la conservatriceto swarm: envahirthe hall: la sallethe painting: le tableauthe message: le messagethe crowd: la foulethe guard: le gardiendiscreet: discret / discrètethe detail: le détailthe tourist: le touristepermission: l'autorisationto scoff: ricanerdifferent angles: différents anglesto approach: approcherto deny: refuserthe theory: la théoriethe UV lamp: la lampe UVto reveal: dévoilerfreedom: la libertéthe truth: la véritéto tremble: tremblerto disappear: disparaîtrethe notebook: le carnetearly morning: au petit matinto summon: convoquerthe board of directors: le conseil d'administrationcriticism: la critiquethe evidence: la preuvethe historian: l'historien

Thanks to Garth Jenkins from the University of Glasgow for the answer! Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

To understand fungicide resistance in the vineyard, a group of United States scientists formed the Fungicide Resistance Assessment Mitigation and Extension (FRAME). Sarah Lowder, Assistant Professor and Viticulture Extension Specialist at the University of Georgia describes a nationwide sampling project to test for resistance markers. To get samples, they are promoting a new collection method called glove sampling. This process leverages the time that fieldworkers are in the field running their hands through the vines. They collect samples by rubbing their gloved hands on a cotton swab and sending the sample to the lab. Research shows that glove sampling results are very similar to spore trapping, a process that samples the air flowing through the vineyard. Resources:         117: Grapevine Mildew Control with UV Light 219: Intelligent Sprayers to Improve Fungicide Applications and Save Money A Rapid Glove-Based Inoculum Sampling Technique to Monitor Erysiphe necator in Commercial Vineyard Fisherbrand™ Plastic Handled Cotton Swabs and Applicators Grape FRAME Networks Glove swab sampling tutorial for collecting grape powdery mildew (video) Glove Swab sampling tutorial for collecting grape powdery mildew - silent (video) Identification of Putative SDHI Target Site Mutations in the SDHB, SDHC, and SDHD Subunits of the Grape Powdery Mildew Pathogen Erysiphe necator Rapid sampling technique to monitor Erysiphe necator more effective than visual scouting Sarah Lowder Vineyard Team Programs: Juan Nevarez Memorial Scholarship - Donate SIP Certified – Show your care for the people and planet   Sustainable Ag Expo – The premiere winegrowing event of the year Sustainable Winegrowing On-Demand (Western SARE) – Learn at your own pace Vineyard Team – Become a Member Get More Subscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org.   Transcript 2024-07-04_235_Sarah Lowder - glove sampling for mildew_Otter [00:00:00] Craig Macmillan: Our guest today is Sarah Lawder. She is Viticulture Extension Specialist and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Horticulture at the University of Georgia. And today we're going to talk about some exciting new advancements around monitoring for powdery mildew and other related topics. Welcome to the podcast, Sarah. [00:00:16] Sarah Lowder: Thank you very much, Craig. I'm very excited to be here. [00:00:18] Craig Macmillan: First though, I want to start with something I just found out about that applies to this, and that is the grape frame networks. Can you tell us exactly what that is and kind of how it came about and what it does? Okay. Thanks, Craig. [00:00:29] Sarah Lowder: Absolutely. Yeah, the FRAME Network is part of a USDA SCRI grant. This is a project that was funded several years ago, I believe in 2017, as part of the Specialty Crop Research Initiative Project System. And FRAME Networks literally stands for Fungicide Resistance Assessment Mitigation and Extension. networks. And so this was a grant that was really intended to look and learn so much more about how fungicide resistance works in the vineyard for powdery mildew specifically. But this was a group, a very large group of scientists from all across the country from a wide range of different disciplines looking into how we can better address fungicide resistance for vineyards and for powdery mildew specifically. [00:01:12] Craig Macmillan: But there's also applications either now or in the future for other fungal diseases like downy mildew, et cetera. [00:01:18] Sarah Lowder: Absolutely. Yep. They are currently working on getting a new iteration of this grant, Frame 2 as it were that will hopefully be able to address also resistance in Downy Mildew and Botrytis Bunch Rot. [00:01:29] Craig Macmillan: Fantastic. This is really exciting because what I saw was that there are people at Washington State, Oregon State in California, and then on the East Coast. So hopefully this work will continue. What exactly kinds of things does Frame do? [00:01:45] Sarah Lowder: Yeah, so we had a multi pronged approach for this project. One of the big parts that I was a part of is looking at the assessment of the fungicide resistance. So one of the things that we did was collect powdery mildew from all across the country, from states and vineyards all over, all over the place, and then look for different fungicide resistance markers in that mildew. That can hopefully help us much more quickly assess if we have fungicide resistance present in a sample. One of the big groups of fungicides that we looked at was the QOI fungicides, the Sturbulurins, also sometimes they're called or the FRAC Group 11, with FRAC is the Fungicide Resistance Action Committee. Is what the FRAC group would be for that and those just kind of group your different fungicides based on the mode of action. So how they work on the different diseases that they're attempting to control. And so we were looking at this group, this group 11, the QOI products which operate by attaching to the mitochondria, so the powerhouse of the cell. And just preventing them from being able to produce energy and so the, the spores die and you don't get any more growth of that disease. But because it's one of those products that works like a binding site if you get resistance presence it just means that your fungicide can no longer attached to the disease and then it can grow in the presence of that fungicide and then you can even no matter how much you spray that product it can still continue to grow. By looking at there's one particular mutation that occurs that causes that resistance in this group of products and we're able to run a test much more quickly than you can otherwise do a lot of different fungicide resistance testing And tell whether or not you had QOI resistant or sensitive Mildew in your field so you knew whether or not you could use that product or not [00:03:35] Craig Macmillan: What about frac group three? That's another one that we have known Resistance issues with the demethylation inhibitors. Is that part of the project as well? [00:03:43] Sarah Lowder: Absolutely Absolutely, the DMIs demethylation inhibitors, absolutely, the FRAC3 Group 3 are a group of products that have a little bit more complicated unfortunately of a resistance pattern rather than just having one particular mutation. There, there are a bunch of different things going on in those products. But we do have a marker that can help us get a sense for the resistance. It's not as necessarily reliable as the QOI. Frack Group 11 product resistant testing, but we can test that as well and give us an idea of whether or not we might have resistance to DMIs present in the field as well. [00:04:19] Craig Macmillan: Are there other frack groups that have potential or have found some resistant populations coming down the pike? [00:04:28] Sarah Lowder: Absolutely. Anything that has a very specific mode of action really has some potential for having a resistance develop in a population. [00:04:36] Craig Macmillan: Great. [00:04:38] Sarah Lowder: We're, we're looking at some of the modes of action. We have not heard as much of field failures due to resistance to a lot of other products, but we wanted to, like, kind of get a, get a jump on looking for some of those other modes of action to see if we can develop. Test to be able to monitor that, monitor that much more quickly before resistance becomes as much of an issue. And we were able to get a lot of that information for like the SDHI groups, which is the group 7 products. Although again, we're not really hearing too much yet of any field failures for powdery mildew control from the SDHIs. As well as looking much more into some of the mechanisms for how group 13, quinoxafen how well how the resistance might work in that system. All of those are stuff that we were able to do because of the Frame Network project team. [00:05:26] Craig Macmillan: That's really great. I hope that we can continue that. That's really important work. In order to do that kind of thing, you need to get samples. And you and your colleagues are promoting a new method for monitoring for powdery mildew and collecting, I guess, ASCA spores, I would imagine, is what you're collecting. Tell me about it. There's videos on YouTube. It's really exciting. [00:05:47] Sarah Lowder: Absolutely. [00:05:47] Craig Macmillan: It involves a glove. [00:05:49] Sarah Lowder: Indeed, we call them glove swabs, which is one of the projects that I was able to help lead as a part of the system. Because you hit the nail on the head when you are trying to monitor fungicide resistance. The first step that you have to do is actually find the mildew. And you want to find this before you have a control problem. You want to find it while there's still not very much mildew present in the field. We looked at, we looked at a bunch of different ways. Not everything worked very well. But one of the ideas that we had was, oh, We have vineyard workers moving throughout the field all the time. Could we potentially use these people who are already in the field doing normal stuff to also potentially collect powdery mildew? And we found that as you're moving through the vineyard, as you're moving your hands along the canopy, you're able to collect powdery mildew. Conidia spores, actually, it's generally, it's their summer spores. are collecting and you're able to take a, just a cotton swab. So many of us have taken a COVID test that you've had to stick up your nose. It's a very similar, similar swab that you take with your hands. And you can stick that in a tube and send it to the lab for processing. This system worked, I think, way better than any of us were expecting it to. It was actually much better than trying to go out there and look for it physically. And you can do it much faster because it's just literally, you can be walking through the vineyard with your hands in the canopy, take a swab. and collect it, and you can find that so much faster if you're already having to do a lab test for that product. [00:07:16] Craig Macmillan: And also the potential here is that, let's say I've got a crew out and we're doing a shoot thinning in the spring, so they're handling the canopy all the time, we could swab some gloves and then send that out to be tested and get an idea what's out there. [00:07:27] Sarah Lowder: Absolutely. Absolutely. And as you're already testing for whether the field is out there, you can also use the same test to tell whether or not you have resistant mildew to the QI fungicides. [00:07:38] Craig Macmillan: Is this quantitative? [00:07:41] Sarah Lowder: So, it is run on a quantitative quantitative PCR. So, in theory, it does give you some information on how much mildew is present. In the QI QPCR test, in the test that tests for the fungicide resistance pattern, it tests a piece of DNA in the mitochondria, and you can technically have different numbers of things. Mitochondria per cell, individual cell, and so the, the quantitative, it does give you that information, but it's not necessarily the most reliable information. So as, as a scientist, I'm always hesitant to say that, oh, you can get quantitative information, but it, in theory, it does give you a little bit of information about how many spores at least you were able to collect. You can tell a little bit of that information. [00:08:21] Craig Macmillan: Can it tell me something along the lines of, I can go out and sample at the very beginning of the season, maybe even post bud break, and say, oh, we have nothing there yet, and then come by later and test and say, oh, we have something there now. Is there a qualitative aspect to it? [00:08:41] Sarah Lowder: Absolutely. So we tested it and compared the glove swabs to visual scouting to compare it to someone actually physically going out and looking and found that the glove swabs were much more sensitive. They were able to find the powdered mildew much faster, and also much sooner than the OR than our visual eyes were able to do So. But we also tested it in comparison to impaction spore traps. So these are tests that actually had come out of a lot of the lab that I worked in the foliar pathology lab with Walt Mahaffey at the USDA for a couple years previously with like Lindsay Thiessen that they were able to test these impaction spore traps which sample the air that flows through the vineyard. We're collecting that many of the vineyards in the Willamette Valley of Oregon which we did a lot of the testing in that area as well as in Areas like Napa, California have a bunch of these spore traps present that we were able to test it in comparison to these spore traps, which have been used pretty widely in the system. And what we found was that our glove swabs were showing us very similar information to these impaction spore traps which was really cool because a lot of these growers absolutely do use already these impaction spore traps to look at when they're going to initiate their fungicide spray programs. So, in theory, yes. You could absolutely potentially use these glove swabs as a fungicide initiation indicator. [00:10:01] Craig Macmillan: Yeah, that's what I was getting at, and that's, that's a really exciting technology. Because obviously we're trying to control the amount of material we put out there, and obviously part of resistance management is being careful what you put out and when. And so having a good idea of what the timing should be, I think, is really important. And then of course, as everybody knows, People who listen to this podcast know, by the time you see it, it's too late, baby. [00:10:24] Sarah Lowder: Absolutely. [00:10:24] Craig Macmillan: You know, it's, it's, it's, you're chasing a ghost. And so, here's, here's our Ghostbuster tool, where we can catch that ghost before before it comes too much of a problem. Now you said, send these off for, to a lab for analysis. What what labs are we talking about? [00:10:39] Sarah Lowder: The initial frame grant project is technically at a, has come to an end and so the funding that originally funded a lot of this testing has ended, but now we're able to supply all of these protocols and testing materials and stuff to a lot of the different private labs elsewhere. So I know one of the private labs that does the impaction trap testing. service in the William Valley of Oregon has taken over that process, as well as I know a bunch of different labs like I know at UGA here, where I am currently, they have some tools and able to do some of those testings or do some of those tests as well with the qPCR. And so even if you, a lab where you send a lot of your materials, if they happen to have a qPCR present and you're strongly interested in doing it, you can talk to them to see if they might potentially be willing to add this into their repertoire. [00:11:24] Craig Macmillan: So, this technology is starting to make it out into the world of commercial plant pathology. [00:11:29] Sarah Lowder: Yes. [00:11:30] Craig Macmillan: I may have a plant pathology lab that I already work with, I can talk to them, I can make some phone calls, and for instance, a commercial lab in Oregon, they're a business, so they still may do samples from California or from Washington or from Ohio. [00:11:44] Sarah Lowder: Yeah, potentially. [00:11:45] Craig Macmillan: It's not limited by territory. [00:11:46] Sarah Lowder: Correct. You can send these samples and as long as you're not leaving your samples out in the sun and in the heat for a long period of time they can be shipped off elsewhere as well. [00:11:55] Craig Macmillan: Where do you see this technology going? What's, what's the future here? We, we, we've just kind of touched on it a little bit, but what, in your, when you close your eyes and imagine the long term impact of your work, where do you see this kind of thing going? [00:12:08] Sarah Lowder: One, I would love to see a lot of this information being used more regularly to be able to test this a little faster. And eventually, one day, we may be able to test for all of these different resistance genes, all of these different resistance patterns within the same sample. So you could be like, okay as a normal part of my practice, I'm going out and taking these glove swabs or whatever else that I'm looking to test. Even if I don't use a glove swab, but I can come in and take my powdery mildew sample and send it off to the lab and get a, just a score sheet of exactly what fungicide products could be used or could be not used. That would be really awesome, because no one wants to buy a product that it's not going to work, and no one wants to put a product out that's not going to work for any reasons, environmentally or financially. In the wallet or just for labor purposes. It's just a win, win, win situation. If you know, you don't have to use a product and instead you could choose a different one. [00:13:01] Craig Macmillan: Oh, this might be a related, very practical matter. So gloves, touching vines, no problem. I can have workers. I could have actually my VIT tech go down a row and then swipe the canopy. Where do I get the swabs because we're talking about something has to be a sterile protected swab, just like the COVID test swab. Where do I get those? [00:13:17] Sarah Lowder: Yeah so a lot of the times, or at least for a lot of this test that we did originally they were groups that we sent out, or like just kits that we would send out to the different cooperating practices. But essentially, it is literally the same tool. It's a polystyrene cotton swab tip and we normally will put them into these little half tubes that kind of keep their tip protected, and then you will stick it back into the plastic wrap that it came in, and then wrap it up so that it stays more protected. But it is, it is literally the same tool that you often will use for those COVID tests, which made it really hard to get that right at the beginning of the pandemic. [00:13:54] Craig Macmillan: Where, where can I get them? Where can I order them from? [00:13:56] Sarah Lowder: So I can send a link for the type of material that we're looking for. And then you can shop around for the same tip at a couple different locations and find the best price. [00:14:06] Craig Macmillan: That'd be perfect. We'll put a link to that in the show notes. So folks, you can go check that out and find the materials that you need. And then you can also shop around for the labs and see who's doing what. And again, if a lab is getting a lot of phone calls. That's going to encourage them to adopt this new technology. What is kind of the, the current state of the nation, if you will, in terms of fungicide resistance, what are the hot new topics, what's getting funded? What are people working on and where are they working on it? [00:14:33] Sarah Lowder: Fungicide resistance is certainly a hot topic that has a lot of different research happening in a lot of different areas. I could literally fill your entire podcast probably with talking about this topic. One thing that I'm very excited about is to hopefully see this Frame 2 iteration happen that is, being submitted for funding for this next funding cycle this year, but it is looking to hopefully also add in testing for downy mildew and betritis bunch rot, which are also two big diseases that can cause a lot of issues. Especially now that I'm over here in Georgia, I'm very excited to hopefully get to test much more of the downy mildew which can be quite the struggle in the vineyard. And we're getting much more information on a lot of the other modes of action that we're working with. I'm excited to see a lot of the information come out about some of the quinoxephins. Some of this information that we have started to work on and we haven't seen much field resistance to these products yet. But if we continue to use them, then they may still pop up. And so hopefully making sure that we can get ahead of the game for these other products. [00:15:37] Craig Macmillan: I'm very happy about that because I'm old enough to remember when the DMIs came out and it was like, Oh my god, it's a secret. It's the silver bullet. We're never gonna have to use sulfur again. Yay, and then it was literally within a couple of years they failed in some places. Now, the Fungicide Resistance Action Committee is publishing better information, more information, more accessible information every year about what's new about the different code groups. And they're also now putting a category in, or they have for a long time, but they have a category in there about the potential for resistance. So they'll say, yeah, there's known resistant populations for this. This one has got high potential, even if we haven't found it yet. And that's directing research in that direction. And I think that's really important that we stay ahead of these things. things, looking at where the potential is, as well as where there's known issues. So that's really fantastic. This is going on at what OSU, MSU, I think, Tim Miles in Michigan Walt Mahaffey in Oregon. I think Washington state. [00:16:35] Sarah Lowder: Mm hmm. Michelle Moyer is the viticulture specialist at Washington state university, who's been the project director for this project, led with Walt Mahaffey, who is the foliar plant pathologist at the USDA located in Corvallis. the horticultural crops units. And then a whole, a whole group of scientists from across the nation. There are people at UC Davis. There's people at Michigan State University. Even while I worked on this project in my role at Oregon State, I'm at with the USDA in Corvallis, Oregon. I'm now here at the University of Georgia working with Phil Brannon, who was the University of Georgia, Scientist working on this project and who actually was the person that convinced me to actually apply for the job that I currently now sit in. [00:17:20] Craig Macmillan: That's great. You know, we do still have a little bit of time left. This is a huge topic, but I found it interesting as I was doing research on you and looking at your publications. One of the things you've been involved in is research on collective action. and information transfer among growers related to disease management. And I am really fascinated by this topic. My background is in sociology. So my background is in people, talking to people, doing people stuff. And as we know, things, not just diseases, but also insects like mealybugs, etc. It's an area wide issue. And what you do or do not do on one farm affects what happens or doesn't happen on another farm. Can you tell us just a little bit about what that research was like, what you did? [00:17:57] Sarah Lowder: Absolutely. So that was really coming from how do we branch out from some of the fungicide resistance? Like how do we use a lot of this information that we are getting? One of the things that we were realizing is that some of the vineyards that we were working with, that we were getting some of these tests from, even organic vineyards who were not using any, they weren't using the QIs. They also weren't using any other synthetic product. We're still seeing sometimes very high rates. of the fungicide resistance to these different products. And what we really found was that a lot of the information that we were able to look at was really so much more useful on that larger scale when we were able to look at all of this data in the aggregate. And so one of the things, which I'm going to talk about my experience with the Oregon State, in the William Valley Vineyard growers especially, that they took all of this information, that they took the data, powdery mildew information that we are getting from their impaction spore traps. They were taking the fungicide resistance data that we were giving them, and they were sharing all this information with each other. And we're able to say, Hey, oh, I was using this product, you know, on my field this year and next year. And then I started to see a lot of issues. You didn't see it immediately, but you saw it pretty closely after I did, even though you followed the patterns elsewhere. And so they were able to take a lot of that information and aggregate it and share together and be able to use that much more quickly. I didn't talk too much about how much of the fungicide resistance that we were seeing. We definitely did see some differences in some of the states. that we were looking at, although it was generally pretty high rates of resistance to the QI products across the nation. That degree was less in a lot of the places in Oregon where a lot of this information started and where they shared a lot of this information from the get go. So one of the things that we wanted to look at was how does this information come across and then what do people do with that information? Absolutely. So when you get into the area wide management, when you, when you start talking about it, you're like, okay, while I manage my property, Unfortunately, a lot of these diseases aren't just staying on my property. If we could, if we could keep everyone isolated, then we wouldn't have to talk about a lot of this information management information management across all these different regions. What do we do once we have that knowledge and once we're sharing all of these spores back and forth even if we don't necessarily want to share that. But if we can also share some of the information on what we're all seeing, we can all manage it a little better. Even if it's just as simple as like, Oh, my sprayer was not calibrated correctly and I'm starting to see More powdery mildew in my vineyard blocks. If you communicate that to your neighbor, then they may be able to increase their spray intervals a little bit more in order to not lose their crop because they're going to have to deal with a much higher crop load. And they could be looking at the spore information. They could be looking at any of these monitoring effects that they're collecting. But if you can know that a source population nearby is going to be pushing more spores more readily, that's even before it's hitting your vineyard. So it's getting that information even a little faster than you would with some of the spore monitoring efforts, if that makes sense. [00:21:01] Craig Macmillan: That does make sense. And so, in terms of the collecting the information, this doesn't just have to be glove swabs or, you know, impaction traps. This simply can be people saying, hey, I'm seeing mildew pressure that's pretty intense, or I'm seeing it earlier, or whatever. Other people are saying, I'm not seeing it yet, but I know I'm downwind of you, for instance. Or, I know that my conditions are still very conducive, so I might be able to, like you said, increase my spray intervals, maybe check my calibration, check my coverage. It's a, it's a heads up. Basically from from one grower to another. How is this information shared? [00:21:34] Sarah Lowder: So there are lots of different ways that this information is shared One of the ways that we wanted to look is at just what did people find the most useful when they were Looking for different information on either new diseases or old diseases or all that kind of thing And some of the stuff that we were finding was that people really found their colleagues, just those person to person conversations that they were having to be the most useful information when managing any diseases. And while people certainly found, which I was happy to hear, that people found their viticulture specialists, their extension agents, to be extremely useful when helping to find this information, they really were still, the the most important part was their colleagues and their neighbors, the other growers in the area. And so you can look at different ways that people communicate, which we, one of the things that we did was look at a communication network. So just exactly how is that information flowing in the system? And there are certain people, which this may not necessarily be a huge surprise. But there are certain people that a lot of people go to, to learn more information about stuff, especially as someone that is looking at a region and be like, Ooh, I have one, this super great new tool, mate, I have something even cooler than the glove swabs. And now I need to tell. the growers about it. I need to see if we can actually use this in a commercial way that'll be viable. You can go to some of these more influential individuals within a region and then hopefully see that information spread a little bit more quickly than it might otherwise if you just kind of picked your people based on just where they were located or even just the closest ones you get your hands on. As it were. [00:23:09] Craig Macmillan: Gotta find the node. Gotta find the hub, [00:23:11] Sarah Lowder: find the node. . [00:23:14] Craig Macmillan: This is an interesting topic to me because one of the things that I think we've lost from a cultural standpoint is the coffee shop. People who are now retired growers have talked to me about how you're on your farm. You know, before sunup you get things running, you get going. People are doing what they're doing. Everything's fine. And then you go to the coffee shop about nine o'clock and everybody's there. And that's where the information would get transferred. And this goes back to the, you know, basic farming decades ago. We don't do that anymore. What we do is we're there at Sunup before Sunup, we get things running, we get done, then we're back in the truck and we're on the phone and we're going to the next ranch and we're not connecting with people. In that kind of social conversational way, the way that we used to. And so hopefully we can revive some of that either through meetings or through internet or through just simply networks, like you said, if there's a relationship, you can just simply call somebody and say, Hey, I'm starting to see this and hopefully we can build those social networks and see the collective benefits [00:24:12] Sarah Lowder: and find more ways to bring us together. [00:24:15] Craig Macmillan: Find more ways to bring us together in a world that seems to be forcing us apart, right? No. On this topic of managing diseases and monitoring diseases, is there one thing you'd recommend to our listeners around this? [00:24:27] Sarah Lowder: There are lots of different diseases in lots of different ways that a lot of things are managed and we talked a little bit about Collective action in the sense that a lot of times some diseases are more effectively managed on a much wider scale than an individual Farming unit so like you could do the best practices in your own vineyard but if you have Someone next door doing lawn best practices that could just mitigate all of the hard work that you just put into it. But it's hard to say anything on the large scale other than the fact that Talking more with those around you has a much wider benefit for disease management on all scales And just also grow better cultural practices, better more information on learning. I may be someone in the academia realm, but I always think that the more you can learn, the better. And your neighbors are in the same game as you are, especially in vineyards. I feel like the mantra of the rising tide lifts all boats is very much in effect. [00:25:24] Craig Macmillan: So we can learn from extension and from all that great stuff that's out there, but we can also learn from each other. Sarah, where can people find out more about you and your work? [00:25:31] Sarah Lowder: Yeah, so now that I'm over here at the University of Georgia, where I'm most easy to find is through the Viticulture Extension website. It's called the UGA Viticulture Blog. We post a lot of information relevant to those growers in the southeast, but we also have a blog posting that sometimes will go out via email if you would like to sign up for that, backlog of what we've posted. It's the easiest way to find me. I'm all around the University of Georgia system. [00:26:00] Craig Macmillan: Fantastic. Thank you so much. Our guest today was Sarah Lowdre. She's a Denture and Viticulture Specialist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Horticulture at the University of Georgia. Thanks for being here. This was a great conversation. [00:26:10] Sarah Lowder: Thank you, Greg. I had a great time. Nearly perfect transcription by Descript

In this episode, I discuss skin health appearance and why both are important indicators of the health status of your immune system, gut microbiome, and other organ systems. I explain why sunlight is essential for skin and hormone health and how excessive sunlight can accelerate skin aging and cause certain skin cancers. I discuss the different types of sunscreens (physical, chemical, and mineral-based) and potential health concerns of the chemicals found in some (but not all) sunscreens. I also discuss the importance of getting your skin (and not just moles) checked for pre-cancerous and cancer growths, the role of nutrition and lifestyle factors that improve skin health and appearance, and how to improve your skin by reducing local and systemic inflammation and supporting your microbiome.  I explain what works to improve your skin's youthfulness and appearance, including reducing wrinkles, sagging, and pore size. I review the data on ingesting (or topically applied) collagen, vitamin C, niacinamide, hyaluronic acid, and retinol, and what is known about the use of peptides (e.g., BPC-157, copper peptides) and red and far-red light phototherapies for improving skin health and appearance. I also discuss the causes of acne, rosacea, and psoriasis and explain nutritional, skin care, and prescription-based approaches to treating these common skin conditions. This episode ought to help everyone better understand the biology of the skin and help them make the best possible decisions for their skin health, care, and appearance according to age, goals, and current skin conditions. Access the full show notes, including referenced articles, books, people mentioned, and additional resources at hubermanlab.com. Andrew's New Book Protocols: An Operating Manual for the Human Body: https://protocolsbook.com Thank you to our sponsors AG1: https://drinkag1.com/huberman Joovv: https://joovv.com/huberman BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/huberman  ROKA: https://roka.com/huberman  LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/huberman  Timestamps 00:00:00 Skin Health 00:02:59 Sponsors: Joovv, BetterHelp & ROKA  00:07:18 Skin Biology, Skin Layers 00:12:40 Sun Exposure, UV Light & Skin Cancers; Sunscreen 00:19:51 Aging, Sun Exposure, Skin Cancers, Physical Barriers 00:27:24 Sunburn & Skin Cancers 00:30:09 Sponsor: AG1 00:31:58 Vitamin D, Sun Exposure & Sunscreen 00:36:50 Organic (Chemical) Sunscreen & Inorganic (Mineral-Based) Sunscreen 00:49:20 Skin Cancers, Moles, Laser Resurfacing 00:53:59 Sponsor: LMNT 00:55:34 Sun Exposure, Melanoma & Life Expectancy 01:03:13 Tool: Youthful Skin, Collagen & Vitamin C 01:12:55 Peptides, BPC-157, Copper 01:20:58 Tool: Niacinamide (Nicotinamide), Youthful Skin, Dark Spots, Hyaluronic Acid 01:26:25 Tool: Retinol (Retin-A, Tretinoin, Retinyl Esters), Youthful Skin 01:33:07 Tool: Phototherapy, Youthful Skin, Treating Skin Conditions 01:41:10 Tool: Nutrition for Skin Health, Anti-Inflammatory Diets 01:47:54 Highly Processed Foods, Advanced Glycation End Products & Skin Health 01:52:08 Tools: Reduce Inflammation: Gut Microbiome, Sleep, Alcohol, Smoking, Stress 01:58:58 Acne, Hormones & Insulin; Tool: Low Glycemic Diet, Dairy 02:07:26 Tools: Face Cleansing & Acne; Scarring & Popping Pimples 02:13:29 Tool: Treating Rosacea, Alcohol, Skin Care, Nutrition 02:18:31 Stubborn Rosacea, Over Cleansing, Pulsed Dye Laser 02:21:04 Psoriasis Treatment, Immune System & Prescriptions 02:25:24 Zero-Cost Support, YouTube, Spotify & Apple Follow & Reviews, YouTube Feedback, Protocols Book, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter Disclaimer

The goal of the NASA Acres Consortium is to bridge the gap between space and farms to create sustainable food systems now and in the future. Yu Jiang, Assistant Professor of Systems Engineering and Data Analytics, School of Integrative Plant Science Horticulture Section Cornell AgriTech explains how this group of researchers is using land-based robots to ground truth data from satellites and aerial imaging to create predictive models. The project aims to bring cost effective solutions for disease management, breeding, pruning, and more to farmers of all sizes.  Resources:         117: Grapevine Mildew Control with UV Light 129: The Efficient Vineyard Project 191: CropManage: Improving the Precision of Water and Fertilizer Inputs 199: NASA Satellites Detect Grapevine Diseases from Space Convolutional Neural Networks for Image-Based High-Throughput Plant Phenotyping: A Review Deep Semantic Segmentation for the Quantification of Grape Foliar Diseases in the Vineyard Deep Learning-based Autonomous Downy Mildew Detection and Severity Estimations in Vineyards NASA Acres - applying satellite data solutions to the most pressing challenges facing U.S. agriculture Yu Jiang Vineyard Team Programs: Juan Nevarez Memorial Scholarship - Donate SIP Certified – Show your care for the people and planet   Sustainable Ag Expo – The premiere winegrowing event of the year Sustainable Winegrowing On-Demand (Western SARE) – Learn at your own pace Vineyard Team – Become a Member Get More Subscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org.   Transcript Craig Macmillan  0:00  Our guest today is Yu Jiang. He is an assistant professor of systems engineering and data analytics in the School of integrative plant science horticulture section at Cornell agritech. Thank you for being on the podcast   Yu Jiang  0:12  Thanks Craig for having me for these podcasts.   Craig Macmillan  0:15  I found out about you, because you're connected to the NASA acres Consortium, which is doing a bunch of really cool stuff for all kinds of crops around the world and winegrapes turning out to be part of it. What is what is NASA acres,   Yu Jiang  0:28  So I got to adopt the some of the official description about a NASA acre so our audience can better understand what's our mission and what's our approach. So NASA acres consortium is commissioned under NASA Applied Sciences program, and brings the value of Earth observation technology down to earth. NASA acres consortium established the march 2023 And then led by Dr. Alissa Witcraft from the University of Maryland. NASA acres is NASA's second consortium devoted to strengthening food security and agriculture, followed by the success of NASA harvest, a global focus a consortium but this time, NASA Acers specifically emphasizes on the US own agriculture land in NASA acres, we bridge the gap from space to farm and adaptation to impact to gather with US farmers, ranchers, and other agri food system decision makers who are charged with addressing the most pressing challenges to sustainable, productive, resilient agriculture now and in the future. to ensure our missions, NASA acres utilize a consortium structure to bring together a geographically, semantically and personally diverse group of agriculture actors, and partners from both public and private sectors collaborated within a model that matches ivory cultures own highly dynamic and diverse needs, and flexible partnerships and rapid actions on tools in NASA acres that will help ensure that a satellite based Earth Observations applications are user driven and free for all the preppers we envision .   Craig Macmillan  2:25  a huge mission. There's a bunch of different technologies that are involved here. And you're involved in a bunch of them. One that I'm particularly curious about was we had a guest on the podcast from Cornell Katie Gold, she was working with hyperspectral imaging and the detection of plant stress, but as a plant disease. And that's the that's the sky. Right? That's the information coming from satellites or whatever. You are the boots on the ground person. Is that right?   Yu Jiang  2:49  Yes, correct. I'm on the ground, I'm doing the groundwork.   Craig Macmillan  2:53  All right, we're literally grounding. So as far as that project goes, I understand that you're using robots and with sensors and artificial intelligence and whatnot to detect and predict disease spread. You tell me more about that.   Yu Jiang  3:09  For my account of a personal program, and the involvement of with NASA acres, you know, project, we bring in new, especially ground robots, we use various internet of of things, sensing network technologies, that we can offer the information as the ground truth matterments that many of these you know satellite or Earth observation data streams can use to try and various models for prediction, or estimation of various things of interest. And disease is definitely one of the biggest things for the ineyard management's currently adding in the future.   Craig Macmillan  3:50  Absolutely. If I understand what this work is on the ground as its ground truthing what the hyperspectral imaging is telling us is that right?   Yu Jiang  4:00  Roughly yes, if you can see there, all the current paradigm of doing remote sensing work. Most of the time, people are really focusing on the modeling, or how we can find the best and model to link or connect the hyperspectral signals collect data from, you know, satellite based or airborne based imagery systems, we use the ground truth data collected by a human on the ground. And these have been proven very successful in the past to produce various models that we are using right now including weather forecast, but with the very rapid and unprecedented climate challenges, and also the induced disease pressures. We are kind of lagging behind with the speed or pace we need to develop new models to tackle these problems. And that's a reason we want the robot to do so so that we can catch up with the disease. This can Have a fashion or progression speed, but also offer new tools for our viewers to use for their management decision making.   Craig Macmillan  5:08  So tell me about the robots, what are the robots doing?   Yu Jiang  5:12  So we developed a customized robot called the phytopathobot short for PPP. So basically phytopathology there's, my colleague, Katie Gold right is a scientist, that who really work on plant disease, and the bot is just the short name for the robots. And we put these two together, and basically just shows we integrated the kind of advantages offered robotic or automation systems with the new AI capability. So this robots can really bring the human experience and intelligence to all the fields that can do for example, if you see scouting recommendation, or some other, you know, checking functions that otherwise currently we have no human resources to do so for every single farm at the present time.   Craig Macmillan  6:06  Right? Is it fair to say that the training part would be described as artificial intelligence? Or should we call it neural network hearing? Or what would be the appropriate technical term for that part of it? Because I have a question about that.   Yu Jiang  6:17  Yeah, I think, broadly speaking, is a part of the artificial intelligence.   Craig Macmillan  6:23  Okay.   Yu Jiang  6:23  And that is more off the AI application for agriculture.   Craig Macmillan  6:28  What's happening is there's cameras then or there's some kind of a, either hyperspectral, or there's something that's getting information that's mounted on the robot, right?   Yu Jiang  6:40  Yes, correct. Our robot is currently equipped in ways both RGB multispectral thermal and the hyperspectral sensors, which many more on the road.   Craig Macmillan  6:52  And then you get readings. And then you know, human, I would assume says yes, this is disease, or yes, this is not. And then over many, many iterations, then the artificial intelligence learns what that is. And then it can be autonomous, you can send it out and it'll find it on its own, identify it on its own.   Yu Jiang  7:14  Yes, so I would see the autonomy is achieved at two levels. First is all the AI system for disease identification and quantification. We have a twin various models, with the expertise from our like, it's 30 plus year career technicians. And now we just a brand Hey, spray into the AI system that we can rely on to detect the disease in the field, specifically for a grape downey and powdery mildews at the moment. But at the same time, we also train the AI systems to guide the robots, autonomously navigating in the vineyard. is much more like the similar technology Tesla or other you know, EV car manufacturers are using for autonomous driving, but now just say, equipped those technologies with this ag robot that can do with autonomous navigation in vanguard in alternative in many of the different fields for agriculture purposes.   Craig Macmillan  8:14  the future of this technology, or the robots gonna continue to be a part of it, or are we going to be at a point where we're relying solely upon the aerial or orbit based imagery?   Yu Jiang  8:26  That's a great question. And I actually want to set up some of the context. information for our audience,   Craig Macmillan  8:33  please.   Yu Jiang  8:33  So yeah, the robots we kind of referred to here, actually those intelligent, you know, agent that can perform certain tasks in your backyard, or do the actual right to do all these operations, like a spring harvesting, you know, picking samples, all these, then when we consider how are we going to strategically and effectively deploy those robots? That's a big question is not a trivial because each robot at the current, you know, time would cost roughly 50,000 to $60,000. I think for many of the large farms, or wineries, the company will be able to afford that. For many of the small to medium sized farms, these can be a barrier for them to adopt the latest digital technology, which I hate, you know, that part as technologist. So one of the possibility is actually linked to the NASA acres project and the mission is a how we can use all sorts of information that can be affordably available to the growers to really use that for decision making. And a while of the concept we propose here is to make a closed loop joint training system that can connect the proximal sensing from the robots and other drone systems, we use the Earth observation data offered by federal agencies such as NASA, so that later all the growers can really enjoy, you know, using a very low cost or affordable platform offered from NASA or NASA acres consortia to make decisions on their individual farms. But largely training, the costs of a training such a model is taking over by large growers, largely, you know, stakeholders and some sort of a, you know, public and research institute that can balance the way or how the disadvantages you know, community can't adopt the latest technology.   Craig Macmillan  10:44  That is fascinating. You mentioned tasks, what kind of tasks are you talking about?   Yu Jiang  10:49  The current account of the PPP robots can do two tasks. First thing is for disease recognition, and the qualification, as I mentioned, for downey, and powerdy, and then now PPP can also generate a map right after the scanning off your vineyard, where those disease really severely infected your plants right now. And we working in progress try to use these PPP derive the map to correlate with the satellite maps or hyperspectral imaging so we can get so we can find which hyperspectral signals gone and correlated with diseases infection on the ground. And this is especially important for crops like grapes because of manual for the disease, or occurred from the bottom of the canopy, or the side of the canopy, where many off of the you know, satellite or Earth observation systems may not easily see at the beginning. But those signals will be embedded in the hyperspectral signatures.   Craig Macmillan  11:55  Got it. Okay. So I could get a map that would allow me to spray pesticide a fungicide very, very targeted way is kind of where we're going with this.   Yu Jiang  12:06  Yes, correct. I'm actually gonna just share some other ongoing effort here. Also, while also my colleague Dr. Devika Daughtrey from plants, Plant Pathology at Cornell agri tech, who identified the use of the UV, as treatment, powdery mildew or Downy Mildew for our grapes. And our account of ongoing efforts is to synchronize that map generated by PPP and the transfer to the UV robots. So now UV robots are gonna rely on that map to apply the UV treatment to balance the power usage and the hopefully to also maximize the contents of the disease spreading in the vineyard.   Craig Macmillan  12:52  That's really exciting. I understand the USDA also has some some role in this technology or related technologies.   Yu Jiang  12:59  Yeah, you ask the actually is a big partner of the whole team, especially for the grape genetics research unit, here in Geneva, New York. And we have a very multidisciplinary team, I will see I can see is from like a plant breeding to genetic to plant pathology now, including myself from engineering and robotics. And we also have about informatics, and we some colleagues from other universities on economy and marketing. So the whole team's efforts is back to a systems engineering approach, I would say. So when we look at the whole production, right, it's not just that, yeah, we have this robot that can do proceed and spray or deliver the UV treatment can solve all these questions. It's just hard to imagine that simple. So then we when we look at the whole agriculture production system, we started with the best plant material. And if we started with the building a candidate or a successful candidate data, usually just to make the rest of the whole production management much easier than ever before.   Craig Macmillan  14:14  Yeah, absolutely.   Yu Jiang  14:15  That's where, you know, all the scientists on the team really excited about how we can breed a new plant materials that have more like a natural resistance to plant the disease or maybe other stresses so that later on the in season management, it can be much more easily, you know, controlled or conducted by the growers. That Castile enable sustainable, you know, agriculture while maximizing the profitability for many of the growers in the future.   Craig Macmillan  14:45  I understand that one of the projects you've worked on had to do with phenotyping. So if I'm reading plants, there's a particular trait that I want and there's a particular expression of that trait that I want, whether it's disease tolerance or drought tolerance or salt tolerance. answer whatever it is, but that aspect of plant breeding is very difficult and takes a long time traditionally, and takes a high level of expertise. What is this idea of high throughput? phenotyping? What's that all about?   Yu Jiang  15:13  If you can have a think about the whole history of plant breeding, all the way you treat the back to mon Tao, we are human phenotyping is the best way, we just go to the field, plant and various plant materials, and just watch their performance in the field and find the best suitable for us. Right? So so then we recognize the traditional breeding, it becomes a numbers game, the more we test, the higher the possibility, we're going to find something, going t obe suitable for us, right? So we say it's a matter of who can email you this account of a traditional breeding way that requires the highest throughput phenotyping. Because the more you testing in the field, the higher the possibility we got to get something successful, and how to evaluate in the field is the biggest question right now. And that's where the high throughput plant phenotyping plays a vital role to address that bottleneck. So instead of for a breeder, to raw, only, you know, hundreds of 1000, you know, testing materials, the now can run, you know, 10,000, or even 100,000 in a year. That's how we hope to speed up the entire breeding cycles.   Craig Macmillan  16:25  So tell me the details of the tech of the details of the so I get some, I breed some plants, I've got some seeds, I'm gonna plant some seeds, right, I've got genetic recombination, now we gotta cross. How does this technology actually play a role? I put a bunch of plants in front of it, or how does it work?   Yu Jiang  16:46  Yep, so So in my understanding, there are actually two different paths ways to use that. One is along the traditional ways, as we just described, basically, we just find the best performancer from the field, right, and the system would just behave like a human in the field, we just find the tallest one, then we just a mirror the height of the plants in the field using the AI system with the robot, or if we want find more disease resistance is more like a what the PPB is helping right now, go to the field check a differente. And though gene all types off with a group of eyes, and then we find the least the infection as the candidate for the next one, right, this is a more like a traditional way. But now the second pathway is even more exciting is through the genetic studies. So once we kind of forget these phenotypes, especially there are differences, we have many different ways now can sequence them to understand their DNA markers and sequences, so that we will be able to work with the bell informaticians, to find which genes are associated with the phenotypic trees have a desire. Okay, so certain genes in my show, okay, the high disease resistance always associated with certain region in your DNA, and that's very likely being the gene or the region really control the resistance right to that particular disease. And if we ran multiple of these experiment, we get more and more as a candidate of Regents, and lead her on instead of keep running the field of trials, which still consume a lot of resources and the timing, because you need to wait until the plants are mature, and, you know, go through the entire season, we can now rely on those genetic, you know, information to identify the next around of a candidate, if the content of those gene regions is very likely, they're gonna have some, you know, resistance to certain disease. And that's another whole pathway, in my opinion, to facilitate the cultivar development in the future.   Craig Macmillan  18:58  And what is the role of AI in that?   Yu Jiang  19:00  So AI, please several rules there. So first, is to help the phenotyping itself, right. So basically, in the past, we sent a large group of it, you know, people go to the field and check the planet, hide diseases, infection, fruit size, you name it. And now we can just use, you know, robots to take images or even our cell phone to take an image. And then the AI will just mimic a human behavior to identify Oh, where the plant is, how tall the plant is, what's the number of leaves within that image or a number of a fruit fruit the size, a little versus, you know, trees and AI definitely now, at least, that being comparable with human performance for many of these tasks. And the other way is actually, to use AI as another tool to make a better prediction of relationship between the phenotypic trees and their genetic variants, right as we discuss for the second impassively is basically made to find that the association between genetic and phenotypic variants, and the AI also now plays a vital role to help us to find those relationships. It goes beyond traditional statistics human developed, and the find many interesting and hidden relationships that are currently statistic based approach cannot find.   Craig Macmillan  20:24  Wow, that's amazing. There's a couple of other things that that I that I was researching you that I noticed that were very, very, like practical right now, today, please, can I have some kind of technologies. One is improving the efficiency of pruning grapevines? And then I think I read this right, using facial recognition, AI technology to recognize powdery mildew infections. I would love to know about those two things, because those are two things that I would if I had it, I would use it today.   Yu Jiang  20:51  For sure. Let's start with the disease part. Yeah, cuz that's just allow what we just discussed why we developed that tool is basically a request actually, from my colleagues from the breeding and genetics slide. Okay. So in the past, my colleague, Dr. Lance Candle-Davison, at the USDA ARS develop a protocol that can use a one centimeter leaf disk as an assay to evaluate the disease progression, on the group leaf tissues, and then later on that can help him as a pathogen geneticists, to find the genes related to the disease resistance to powdery and downy mildews. But the challenge is, in the past, we have to train a bunch of, you know, technicians and the postdocs, even some of the other grad and graduate students at Cornell, to sit in front of a optical microscope and put the sample on our eight turn to like a tax 100x. And then manually identify how the pathogen really grew in the past a couple of days during the experiment, right, and then counted the number of a hyphal, which is a particular organ of the pathogen being grown, right. And then at the end of the day, they turn all these numbers back, and they will be able to run some quantitative genetic analysis, try to find the relationship. And I tried to once to be honest.   Craig Macmillan  22:27  Okay, yeah, I spent a lot of I spent a lot hours with a dissecting scope. So I hear you Isn't that fun?   Yu Jiang  22:34  Well, I want to see, for the first a couple of new samples. Yeah, it's it's a new experience for anyone, right? And if it's like, oh, yeah, I get that. After trial, you know, 10 samples. I'm done today. I don't want to see the front end of the microscope that day. And don't ask me to do this again. Right. It's quite tedious. And as a person, you'll feel fatigued very quickly. Yep. Very quickly, because you need to, to be super concentrated on what are you observing right now? And then also make the columns in your brain? I don't know how I did that. But I did. But after 10 samples, no, no more?   Craig Macmillan  23:16  Yeah. Yeah.   Yu Jiang  23:17  So that's the motivation for us to consider how the AI system can really help us, right? Because basically, what do we want the AI to do is giving you know, an image? Can you tell me? Which part content of the hypho And then tell me how I mean, how many of these hyphos are within that image? That's all right. So it's very much like the facial recognition technology we're using every single day. So our smartphone or maybe other security checking, you know, systems, right? And that just to give us motivation, hey, why not? Let me just build the robot and some of the AI tools that we can automate this whole process. So later on, instead of asking our students to do that very tedious work of observing the dissecting microscope, we will be able to allow them to do more intelligent work, how to find or improve the approval from the genetics, the perspective or the breeding perspective, rather than letting them doing this repeated and boring work. And that's the whole motivation here. And that's a reason why we can't have a proposed out method and that really got some success and to speed up that process. And now, just want to share with you in the past the year 2023 Last group, by using this technology was able to find a 60 more quantitative trait, a low sigh, which you can see there are data that gene regions related to certain, you know, phenotypic traits. And here in this study, that's more for the powdery mildew resistance. just named as single year, his team found 60 More as compare with, we fund probably 40 In the past four decades.   Craig Macmillan  25:08  Wow, wow, that's fantastic. There's so much here. There's so much stuff going on in it, as I have guests on that are working in these areas. It's just is it every day, I'm just learning so much new stuff, but I can't let you go without talking about pruning. I just, I just have to know about that I've I pruned a lot of grape vines personally, and I've trained people and you know, and there's, there's this, well, I'll just break it down for you. Pruning grape vines is an art form. And I don't care what kind of Trellis I don't care what kind of grape, whatever it is. And even if you're mechanized, that you gotta tune this thing up, and you got to collect data, and you got to figure out how this is gonna work. And when you have vines that are being pruned, you're trained, every single time somebody that I've been working with, usually above me was like, do these people really know what they're doing? Because they can't screw it up. Right? So now, is this going to help me? I mean, this is do you have technology? That's gonna help me you? I mean, I need this help.   Yu Jiang  26:02  Yes. Also, simple answer is A Yes, yes. And yes. So we are developing actually, the technology for the broader pruning a system for both apples and grapes as perennial crops, because they do need this type of technology to help based on my personal experience in the past three years, with both the pruning for apples and pruning for grapes, I share your burden Craig, it's not only you, but as an observer, and both the person who did the pruning, okay, using the knives, I have a strong feeling, I don't know what I'm doing.   Craig Macmillan  26:44  Right?   Yu Jiang  26:44  Right, I have a lot of criteria being you know, taught, say you need to find a branch that thick or that long, then you need to cut to certain lengths or just a cut them entirely, so that you can have new shoots coming with more healthy groups and the more productive grooves in the year. But to be honest, and once you get into the field, maybe perhaps the first several you keep that in mind. And then otherwise, oh, yeah, I just feel like these two needs to be cut. Don't ask me why I just feel that way. Right. And this is a kind of shows the non uniformity among the workforce. If I'm a beginner, I have less experience, I gotta be low in my working efficiency, I am going to create more problems, and rather than more success pruning, for the management, and obviously, the more counter for trend and people needs to be you know, pay them more because they have those experiences. So that all comes through the labor shortage issue, then it's just really hard to find those skilled people. So in my group, we kind of develop we are developing new 3d imaging technologies. Oh, wow. Yeah, that can get the very high fidelity of the 3d models of your grape vines and the apple trees in the field. And then once we get to some models, we can extract the skeleton is much more like how human described that, oh, yeah, that's my skin, and then I have to shoes and how they grow. And then we just be able to do that in a granular detail with all the needed information, like what's the diameter, or what's the length for each of these branch. And then due to all we can, based on our predefined the pruning criteria, to decide where are the cutting points, so that either a person or maybe a machine, or maybe a robot in the future, can go to the field directly cut based on the information we already get. Yeah, and the good thing is now with this whole kind of a new approach, instead of based on our existing you know, criteria, we can also form all different sets of criteria to really prune it in whatever way we want because that's a digital system. It won't hurt anything rather than using some of the power from you right? And then we can count off a get a difference you though proven the vineyard to take a look which we better serve our purpose. And we are also working with some offer collaborators try to incorporate to the growth models for grape vine. Try to see with different pruning strategy how the group vine or apple trees gonna grow during the growing season. And how I mean for me differently you know, branch structures and maybe different fruits load and the distribution with a hope you know, if we know this information beforehand, we can let the universe to determine what might be the best strategy we want to do as the you Though time progress to the green season, so do you have much more information in advance? Rather than Oh, yeah, I got it just to do the pruning. But that's the best I can do.   Craig Macmillan  27:15  Right? Right, right. So it sounds like that could be kind of an iterative process, you have a robot go through, and you get your 3d model, and you bring it back. And then you develop an algorithm essentially, that says, Keep this, don't keep this keep this, don't keep this, cut it here, cut it there, then you could execute that. Exactly, basically, to the vine.   Yu Jiang  30:29  Yes. Correct.   Craig Macmillan  30:30  And then you could have it grow. And then you can come back the following year, and say, Okay, well, what happened? And you could refine that model over time.   Yu Jiang  30:39  Yes, correct. That that's exactly the concept called a digital twin. Wow. Yeah, we see is a product actually from NASA, used to use that for you know, making the Mars rovers or the moon rovers, because they need to simulate so many different things before they put the actual manufacturing, right. But now we want to adopt these concepts for agriculture, before we do any of the decision making on pruning or harvesting. We want to see how they progress in the digital world, because it just takes us so minimal cost, and then we can have better understanding which way might be the best, we want to move forward.   Craig Macmillan  31:20  Wow, that's really exciting stuff. This technology is probably still in its infancy, I would guess.   Yu Jiang  31:27  Yes. Correct. I mean, although now we have more and more 3d imaging technologies and even more like a loose AI driven approaches. But it still is early stage, we are having some challenges from the field. So that's a reason we are, working hard to make progress. And I hope to share more things, you know, in the coming years with the audience here and hopefully demonstrated to the grape industry someday.   Craig Macmillan  31:53  Yeah, absolutely. Keep going. We're out of time. But I want to what is it one thing you would recommend to grape growers around this kind of topic, these topics, I guess I should say,   Yu Jiang  32:05  Can I share two actually?   Craig Macmillan  32:07  Please yeah, to is great.   Yu Jiang  32:09  Why I really want to share with with all the growers as we are at the point where many of these digital technologies are being more and more available and affordable. So please keep your eyes and the for example, at Cornell, my extension program focuses on the digital agriculture trials for adoption short for data aims to fill in the gap between you know, the growers and the startup companies who deliver those new da tools for production management, and also tried to offer more knowledge base to our growers, they can learn and better use these tools by themselves. So this is very important, as many of these tools go and just a calming and you don't want to miss the opportunity offer using the best of the tool to shop yourself and make better management. The second thing I also really want to share with our audience here is pleased to share all these exciting lands from digital agriculture to our case, to younger generations who are working in your, you know, vineyard or winery. I'm a strong believer the best investment is always you know, for the future generations. If they got excited if the et buy in all these ideas and put more efforts to start, you know, learn and develop new technologies back to agriculture and the food sectors. I believe we're gonna have a sustainable and resilient agriculture in the future for sure.   Craig Macmillan  33:39  That is fantastic. Where can people find out more about you.   Yu Jiang  33:42  you can check on my labs website is a se a i r dot c a l s dot cornell.edu. I will provide you the link so that you can share with the audience.   Craig Macmillan  33:58  Fantastic. So our guest today with Yun Jiang. He's a system professor of systems engineering and data analytics in the School of integrative plant science the whole crypto section of Cornell agritech thank you so much for being on the podcast. This was really fun.   Yu Jiang  34:13  Thanks so much Craig for having me today and as my priority to share our ongoing efforts and research with the broader audience here for grapes. Thanks, everyone.   Transcribed by https://otter.ai Nearly perfect transcription by https://otter.ai

We have all seen the new gadgets that use UV light to “sterilize”. Everything from UV light phone cleaners to toothbrush holders, air purifiers, and water cleaners. But does it actually work? Can a simple light keep us healthier and safer? We dive into the science to separate fact from fiction and explore the surprising answers. But that's not all - we also reveal a game-changing new technology that's about to disrupt everything we thought we knew about UV light sanitation. Tune in to find out if this innovative solution is the key to a germ-free future! Learn more about John at litthinking.com/about. Support the Show - Become a Patron! Help us grow and become a Patron today: https://www.patreon.com/smartpeoplepodcast Sponsors: Babbel - Get 55% off your Babbel subscription at babbel.com/spp Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ketogenic diets that are overdone may be hazardous according to new data, ultraviolet light exposure may boost metabolism, and muscle sport athletes have weird motivation. How can you pass all this up on your long holiday weekend?!  -------- Donate to the show: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=3J6ZFPPKG6E6N Subscribe at Apple iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nutritionradio-org/id1688282387  Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1ECHrnjxjn33DBNWgErPtp Subscribe to our YouTube backup: https://www.youtube.com/lonman07?sub_confirmation=1 Podcast on Amazon/ Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/NutritionRadioorg-Podcast/B0BS8LFLLX?qid=1675812257&sr=1-1&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1&pf_rd_p=83218cca-c308-412f-bfcf-90198b687a2f&pf_rd_r=YKEZ8DX192TQF0CQV8KX&pageLoadId=u3x6bJ1 Podcast network web site: https://sites.libsyn.com/455769/site

This is our UV wrap episode. We started it back in February and have covered every angle we could think of over the last few months. In this episode, Tussanee gives her final thoughts on what we think about UV lights and adhesives. Is this the future or just a passing fad? Is it better or about the same as our standard cyanoacrylate adhesives? Tussanee shares what brands she recommends working with. LASHCON TICKETS ARE ON SALE Feeling disconnected from the lash industry? Looking for inspiration? Feeling discouraged about your business? If this is you, then LASHCON is the event for you. We created this event to help lash artists connect to their lash family, get inspired so they can tackle any troubles they face, and get equipped with business information that will help them take their company to the next level. LASHCON is the largest lash conference in the world, tailor-made for lash artists like you. Think of it as THE lash homecoming for lash artists, influencers, and lash brands. We have a 5-month payment plan in place. To get your ticket, you need to pay $156 today. Look for the " Partially " button to set up the payment plan. Tickets are on sale! For more info, go to www.thelashconference.com. If you are ready to buy, here are the ticket links: DIAMOND https://bit.ly/4bpME8b VIP https://bit.ly/4a44RaC GENERAL ADMISSION https://bit.ly/4a4fHxc JOIN OUR LASHCAST INSIDER CLUB:⁣⁣⁣ Join the coolest club in the lash industry. You'll receive discount codes for our webinars, trainings, LashCon, and upcoming coaching program. ⁣⁣⁣ Go here to sign up: mailchi.mp/lashcastpodcast.com/lashcon-give-away ⁣⁣⁣ IG: ⁣⁣⁣ @lashcast @thelashconference.con⁣⁣⁣ Join our free Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/lashcastpodcast/⁣⁣⁣ Contact: paul@lashcast.com

Dive into the bright world of UV lights in this illuminating episode! Join us as our pals from Light Heart Lash, Maddi & Elliott, shed light on their UV adventures. With a vast network of lash artists at their fingertips, they've gathered the inside scoop on what's hot (and what's not) in UV technology. Plus, engineer Elliott breaks down the science behind UV lights, sharing his expert insights. Tune in to get enlightened! LASHCON TICKETS ARE ON SALE Feeling disconnected from the lash industry? Looking for inspiration? Feeling discouraged about your business? If this is you, then LASHCON is the event for you. We created this event to help lash artists connect to their lash family, get inspired so they can tackle any troubles they face, and get equipped with business information that will help them take their company to the next level. LASHCON is the largest lash conference in the world, tailor-made for lash artists like you. Think of it as THE lash homecoming for lash artists, influencers, and lash brands. Tickets are on sale! For more info, go to www.thelashconference.com. If you are ready to buy, here are the ticket links: DIAMOND lashcastproductions.com/products/lash…er-11-14-2024 VIP lashcastproductions.com/products/lash…er-11-14-2024 GENERAL ADMISSION lashcastproductions.com/products/lash…er-11-14-2024 JOIN THE AMERICAN LASH ASSOCIATION TODAY Save 25% off the year membership fee by using our discount code. Discount code: LASHCAST25 americanlashassociation.org/ JOIN OUR LASHCAST INSIDER CLUB:⁣⁣⁣ Join the coolest club in the lash industry. You'll receive discount codes for our webinars, trainings, LashCon, and upcoming coaching program. ⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Go here to sign up: mailchi.mp/lashcastpodcast.com/lashcon-give-away ⁣⁣⁣ IG: ⁣⁣⁣ @lashcast @thelashconference.con⁣⁣⁣ Join our free Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/lashcastpodcast/⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Contact: paul@lashcast.com

An antiquated California law makes the use of autonomous equipment in the vineyard challenging. Michael Miiller, Director of Government Relations at the California Association of Winegrape Growers (CAWG) explains that workplace safety standards developed in the 1970s based on 1940s equipment state that self-driven tractors must have an operator onboard. To update this law, CAWG is working closely with manufacturers and countries that allow autonomous equipment to aggregate data on safety. Automation has many potential benefits to farm workers include developing transferable skills, upward mobility, precision agriculture, and increased safety. Learn about how the law works today and about funding opportunities to train staff. Resources:         117: Grapevine Mildew Control with UV Light 120: Autonomous Drone Vineyard Spraying 219: Intelligent Sprayers to Improve Fungicide Applications and Save Money California Association of Winegrape Growers (CAWG) Legislative Action Center California's ongoing ban of autonomous tractors a major setback Department of Industrial Relations Regulation Title 8 Section 3441 Operation of Agricultural Equipment Electric, self-driving capable tractors roll into California North Coast vineyards. North Bay Business Journal. (Partial pay wall) Frequently Asked Questions Self-Propelled Agricultural Equipment (CAWG Member Login required) Vineyard Team Programs: Juan Nevarez Memorial Scholarship - Donate SIP Certified – Show your care for the people and planet   Sustainable Ag Expo – The premiere winegrowing event of the year Sustainable Winegrowing On-Demand (Western SARE) – Learn at your own pace Vineyard Team – Become a Member Get More Subscribe wherever you listen so you never miss an episode on the latest science and research with the Sustainable Winegrowing Podcast. Since 1994, Vineyard Team has been your resource for workshops and field demonstrations, research, and events dedicated to the stewardship of our natural resources. Learn more at www.vineyardteam.org.   Transcript Craig Macmillan  0:00  Our guest today is Michael Miiller. He is Director of Government Relations at the California association of wine grape growers. And thanks for being on the program.   Michael Miiller  0:09  Thank you for having me.   Craig Macmillan  0:11  The talk today is where we're at with autonomous tractors as they give a presentation, and you brought up some of the issues we were facing. And I know you've worked on this a lot as well, if you can tell us as of where we are here, end of February 2024. Are we going to get our detractors or not?   Michael Miiller  0:30  That's a really good question. And you can approach them in a whole bunch of different ways. One is we already have them, the technologies there. Now they're being used in many vineyards, across companies around the world. They're also being used in orchards and fields and other commodities. And the reasons for that are in that it's not just economics, it's also about availability of workforce. It's about precision, agriculture, precision, viticulture, making sure that we are good stewards of the land. And it's also about looking to the future, making sure that we have a sustainable industry to grow by grower sustainable vineyard is a huge investment in So on one hand, yes, we already have that. On the other hand, there are continued complications of California law with it. The law states that if you are using self driven tractors, and that's the language in the California workplace safety standards, self driven tractors, then that means that you're supposed to have a driver on board that equipment. So if you have an autonomous tractor that is self driven, meaning that it's programmed to operate without a driver on board, but through electronic means through technology, then you're supposed to have a driver on that board, no matter what. And that law obviously very antiquated. It was, you know, created in the 1970s is one of the very first workplace safety standards in California, is based on 1940s technology. And it's basically targeting for a guided tractors and seeding you mechanisms, as well as irrigation, those kinds of things. And that really targeting the tractors or technology we have today just wasn't even a fathem of possibility back in the 40s 50 60 70. So this is all new logic doesn't address that issue. So in that sense, we're not there yet. But we're getting there.   Craig Macmillan  2:24  Reading up on this topic. But first of all, I can see why it came about. Because I remember growing vegetable fields where people were laying irrigation pipe, and there was nobody in the trenches. And I thought, wow, and then also I thought that was really dangerous is someone who then has to jump up into the tractor to train the roads. So they're putting the wheels and things I can understand that. And yeah, nobody had any idea we'd be here today. So where's the resistance coming from this point from this code from Cal OSHA that coming from the legislature was we're, what's the book that we're reading from?   Michael Miiller  2:57  So it's a couple of things. One hand, while there is resistance for some talk about where where we have embraced, right, where we have people welcoming, you have to remember that the California is the place where agriculture and technology intersect, right? We're largest agricultural state in the nation with a home of great innovation technology. So for these things to come together in California, um, it isn't by happenstance, you know, it's because the technology is here that needs parties here. And people generally understand that this technology, you know, while it seems new, or there's something that is up and coming and in development, it is here already, and it is here to stay. So people do genuinely know that, you know, looking at regulators looking at politicians, they generally get that there is a need to get this right. Okay. So that's the good part of it. The resistance comes in a couple places. One, you have labor unions, who basically fundamentally think that they're gonna lose jobs, technology, right? That for every track that has being driven and remotely, yeah, that's one less tractor driver. And they see that as a job loss in this example. We don't see it that way. We fundamentally believe that in California, there are two tractor jobs for every one tractor driver, you know, we just don't have enough workers to do the job. So in that reality, we're not losing jobs. We're just not. That's just not the reality. And the other part of it, too, we also know that if you take the average person who was working on a tractor and say, Hey, would you rather ride that tractor all day long? Or would you rather operate that tractor remotely from a laptop computer with a skill that is transferable to other industries? I would say more than 99% of those drivers say, yeah, you take me off the tractor. If I can do it remotely? Absolutely. Why would I want to be on the tractor? We don't really see it as a job loss issue. We also see more as a job safety issue. And we know that with technology, the firm is much much safer. It just is because of how the machine is designed to be used. If you're spraying pesticide with it with a machine It is going to be more precise, where it is applied. And it's going to be lesser in amounts and how much is applied. So we think that that is increased worker safety, as well as the basic fact that there's nobody on that tractor, it's less likely that someone's going to get hurt by that tractor. So we really fundamentally believe that is actually as a increase worker safety, increased environmental safety, as well as no job loss. But that is really views are coming from they're fundamentally concerned about job loss, I would never speak for them, you should talk with them yourself. But that's what they testify to in public hearings, then you look at the other issue, the big the bigger public perspective, and the bigger political conversations that happen around it. And we talked about anything that is automated, as far as you know, equipment, vehicles driving around, the first place people go to as those taxis in San Francisco, and they look at it from that perspective, okay. You've got busy roads, you've got hills, you've got curves, you've got pedestrians, you have all of those factors. And then they look at the videos that are, you know, online and computer, you know, YouTube, whatever. And they see those occurrences which, frankly, are very infrequent and not the common occurrence, but they're an infrequent occurrence. But they see those infrequent occurrences and they see them as commonplace, even though they're not. And then they see them, as is something that, you know, applies to all autonomous equipment, all self driven equipment. And in reality, if you're looking at, you know, the tractor moving two and a half miles per hour through a vineyard, when nobody's there, you have a very different situation than, you know, 1000 pound, you know, semi truck going down the interstate for a taxi in downtown San Francisco, was a very different situations. And so we think that we really just look at ag equipment autonomously in a vineyard, because we represent winegraoe growers, that it should be a whole separate conversation from all of the other, you know, autonomous equipment conversations,   Craig Macmillan  7:03  There are autonomous tractors in other states, right, and other countries. So is it possible to bring in these races from these other places, and make an argument that would be persuasive?   Michael Miiller  7:17  That is exactly what we're doing. We believe, whenever you're writing, a workplace safety regulation, this should be based on data should be based on evidence should be based on facts. It shouldn't be based on hyperbolic concerns and discussions, right? Although there's always you know, the the element of people to be safe and where there are concerns. And those concerns or concerns are expressed broadly. Some people I think, take anecdotes and view them as facts or evidence, when in reality, an anecdote is not, you know, conclusive evidence. So we're looking at that evidence from not only other states, but other countries as well. You look over Europe, South America, Australia, New Zealand, I mean, this equipment is in use, and they have data of the manufacturers have. And they put that together, some of the labor unions have resisted that data, they think that if the worker isn't represented by a union, then the worker is afraid to file a complaint or speak up and therefore the data isn't reliable. And in California, you've got less than point 5% of our ag forces represented by a union. Most workers in California don't want to be in a union, they don't see any gain to their advantage in that. In that reality, then it's incumbent on us to come up with all that right data and all that right evidence. And that's what we're doing. We're working closely with those other countries, manufacturers, those countries and others. I recently met with the company from New Zealand, and they were had a very interesting presentation about how they have a robot that goes through the vineyard. And it scans in real time looking for viruses and diseases. If you think of for red blotch, for example, right, the robot will go through it a cup, and then the grower and your manager will get on their computer screen, an image of that vineyard with specific locations of where there's a problem and where it needs to be treated. So that grower can then take a robotic tractor, go into that vineyard the next day, and sprayed just those locations where there are problems. And they're doing that in New Zealand and heavy hills, all kinds of terrain, and they're doing it successfully in a very safe way. And that's evidence that we that we you know, gathering and putting together and we think that that's ultimately gonna be very helpful to us.   Craig Macmillan  9:37  You brought up an interesting point that is certainly talked about autonomous tractors and tractor are mentioned or equipments mentioned in either zero. This is Cal OSHA regulation?   Michael Miiller  9:47  Correct.   Craig Macmillan  9:48  Does this apply to things like automated robots?   Michael Miiller  9:51  Probably because remember, when you're talking about self driven agricultural equipment equipment.   Craig Macmillan  9:56  Yeah, then can be very broad. Interesting, interviewed a number of different posts for the podcast that are working on automated robots to do all kinds of stuff. And this exact problem had really occurred to me.   Michael Miiller  10:10  If you think about it from the perspective of some of the sprayers that are out there now, there's a sprayer that has like three different models. And there is no, you know, driver's seat, there's no steering wheel, there's no accelerator, brake, clutch, gear shift none of that. It's all operated remotely. So even if you wanted to put somebody on top of that sprayer and have it running through the vineyard, there's no place a person to be. It's just not physically possible. Right?   Craig Macmillan  10:39  Where are we have what's coming up next? We're in February 2024. And you had mentioned public hearings and testimony speaking in the Senate, what's the next phase on this topic?   Michael Miiller  10:49  So we're working closely with the manufacturers, we believe that the best way forward is mobile a couple of things. If your viewers are members of the California Association of wine grape growers, we put out a FAQ fact sheet that we think will help growers to use equipment under California law legally in California, in California, the key is that we using that equipment, it shouldn't be anybody else in the vendor, right? If the tractors going through doing his work, just make sure that there's nobody there. Because if you do that, then it is not really a workplace. Remember, the regulation is a workplace safety standard that applies to a workplace. So if there's nobody there is not a workplace, that law doesn't apply to that. And again, I'm not your lawyer. So I encourage you to read our FAQ sheet, but that also talk with your legal counsel and your HR professionals. Make sure that works for your specific situation. Very broadly speaking, if there's nobody in the in the vineyard, then it's not really work because it should be elaborative. But that means you should also keep the records of that, how do you how do you document that there's nobody there and keep your payroll records, make sure it's all detailed, keep time logs about when the machines that use or where it's in use, you make sure you've got all that documented for a minimum of six months. So that if there's ever a citation issue, if somebody files a complaint, you can then say, Okay, here's what you know, here's what we did, here's how we did it. And there's nobody there. Therefore, it's not a workplace, and therefore, there's no basis for the citation. So that's in the short term, because, again, I have visited a number of venues where the equipment is in use. And that is fundamentally how it's often used right now, with nobody around the equipment they the operative late at night, they operate on doing equipment that doesn't really require anybody to be in the vineyard. So it fits what's in practice today is to really look at that separate from a workplace safety standard, because it's not really a workplace. So that's the short term. And the long term, we really got to fix this regulation, we just have to the regulation is goes back to the disco age, for God's sake, right, music has changed. So it's technology. So and so was fashion, right? So yeah, I don't have any bell bottoms anymore. So so we need to think about, you know, how that regulation, you know, should read and how it should apply to just autonomous equipment and what that would look like. And part of that is going to have to come from the manufacturer, industry from the from that sector, because they're the engineers, they're the experts, they know how to do that, right? The agricultural end of it, we can bring all kinds of evidence to bear about why it's needed, and why it's appropriate, why it needs to be updated, the details of the equipment itself, what if defined with equipment is in a way this engineer and how its technology is used, then you have to look at how to operate that equipment safely and what that looks like and how that, you know, operates. And then you go look at where is equipment intended to be used and for what purpose. So you've got to put all that together in a regulation that your reflects the science, not only of today, but also where things are going. So because we have to keep going back and just as regulation of science, develops, technology grows over time, is gonna be a long, long continual investment process of the regulation. And we think it should be written in a way that reflects what's happening today, with also our appreciation of what's coming down the road, is we know that there's more coming. I mean, we're at the tip of the iceberg of what the technology can do right now.   Craig Macmillan  14:35  Oh, yeah, no, you're absolutely right. I the role of humans in this is always the tricky bit. It's kind of an aside, but I'm old enough to remember when laser cutters first came out. It was kind of a panic that you're gonna put an eye on you're gonna blind somebody with these, you're gonna and no, I don't want to shine in my eye but they're all over the place. I use them all the time and they're just they're not illegal. Don't put it in an airplane. Hopefully we can kind of get past some of it. So one of the reasons I say that is, again, I've talked to many guests, they're going full on in this area. And they've got federal funding, like you said, it's being it's being implemented in all over the world. And we need to catch up.   Michael Miiller  15:13  Frankly, if you're a grower in California, and you're not thinking about looking at precision agriculture, and how do you use this technology, you're making a mistake, because it really will benefit every part of the industry. I firmly believe that and it'll benefit our workforce, our communities, everybody involved. Well, another example perhaps for me too, is you mentioned laser printer. The other ones, I remember the 70s When I was a kid, the invention of scanning groceries, the barcodes at the cash register, right? That didn't exist before early 70s. Right. And one of the places where there was a lot of pushback on it was from cashiers, they thought you're going to replace my job with these machines are going to scan the groceries. And if you talk to the average grocery cashier today, they would not want that job otherwise, because it makes their job a lot easier.   Craig Macmillan  16:05  You still need cashiers.   Michael Miiller  16:07  Correct. Yeah.   Craig Macmillan  16:08  Yeah. I mean, that role didn't go away. You know, when I first met you, I saw you give a talk. And I asked you a question. I'm gonna answer this question here. That does a really interesting answer. We're definitely moving this technology direction. There's no doubt of it. When we're talking automation, we're talking robotics, we're talking electrical driven motors, on and on and on, this is going to take a pretty sophisticated workforce to not only operate, but also to maintain nationally or in California, are we bringing people into learn these topics in these areas?   Michael Miiller  16:46  That's a good question. It's a several layered answer. You know, one is one hand. Yes, we are. I mean, when you're looking at some of the manufacturers who are doing some of this product testing, they're making sure that there are people trained to operate their machines, and there's the training themselves as part of the package, when you buy the tractor, you're gonna get some assistance and training your employees to have a part of it as you have Fresno State university, UC Davis, Cal Poly, a lot of community colleges, who are already training in some of this work, they're they're making sure that where there is training of agriculture industry, that that training includes technology, right. They're training people, you know, for all of that, as well as for the marketing in the industry, product, all of it. So the training is already happening as well, or I mentioned earlier, where we know that there's some embrace of this issue, the governor just recently announced that there's going to be a $10 million program at the EDD employment training panel, where there's some money being provided for agricultural employers to train their employees and various things, not just technology, it can be all kinds of different issues. But the idea goes to make sure that we have a sustainable workforce of workers are getting trained in skills that will benefit them through upward mobility, transferable skills, and all of that. And that $10 million is for that purpose. So if you're the if you're the grower, who's wanting to make that change, and move, move from, you know, traditional tractors to self driven automation, whatever kind of equipment you're going towards, you know, it might be an option for that grower to, to apply for a grant for the ETP, to get some funding to train those people in that new skill. So there is a lot of recognition of the need to train workers and to make sure that that people have the skills necessary. One of the big ones you mentioned was how do you maintain these tractors, right, if you've got an electric tractor, you know, that's operating on the battery. And it's a whole different mechanism than if you have a tractor, that's diesel gasoline, you know that how you repair that equipment, how you service equipment, you maintain it, it's a bit of a different skill. So we need people who are trained in that as well as how to operate it. So there's a pretty substantial need for training people. And I think that that's kind of the appeal of it too. Because all those skills are transferable. When we look at our workforce, we see that the average ag worker is getting older and older. That's because we're not bringing in a lot of younger people, right? They don't want to do the ag work, they want to do something different, right? They're more interested and motivated to do other kinds of work. So if we can look at that reality for younger workers and say, how do we make this job more appealing to them? And we're applying these kinds of technologies and skills, they will come back because at work in the 70s is very different than ag work today with this technology. It's just an entirely different thing.   Craig Macmillan  19:46   If there was one thing that you would tell a great or on this topic, what would it be?   Michael Miiller  19:52  I'll start with this. I'm a Midwestern kid. I was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I spent most of my childhood in Iowa and Wisconsin, my tie back to agriculture is from that Midwest experience, right. And my uncle has a farm outside of Mitchell, South Dakota. And I would go help them as farmers and I drive tractor and do whatever he had. He had hogs. He had some cattle, he grew soybeans, corn, alfalfa, all kinds of stuff. He was very diverse in what he did every year. You know, he relied on Mother Nature for rain in new irrigation back there, right? So I remember talking with him after I come out to California, just touching him, see how he's doing? And I asked him, so what's your most reliable crop right now? How are you doing with it? How was how's the industry has environment, it's my most reliable crop right now is a cell tower, that I lease on the corner of my land, that is guaranteed income every year, every year that's guaranteed income. With that in mind, if I talk to a grower today and say, what's, what's the one thing they should really think about, think about where your opportunities are to actually, you know, save money, invest in the future, reduce your cost, and actually create those reliable sources of income and sustainability, right. So if you're looking at things like carbon sequestration in the vineyard, you're looking at cover crops you're looking at, you know, all of that kind of stuff. You're looking at, you know, a technology that is down the road, you're looking at stuff that's coming, and I would pause, take a breath and look at all of that, because there are huge opportunities there is some growers laughed at my uncle for putting up this tower. He's like, Yeah, but this is cash income every month. And I'm good to go with it. Yeah. So yes, I say continue looking at the technology and see how it applies to your bottom line. Because you will be surprised at how much and how big of an advantage it is for growers to actually look at this technology and make that investment.   Craig Macmillan  21:55  I'm from the Midwest, myself. I'm from Iowa, Soux Falls Iowa.   Michael Miiller  21:58  I lived in Waterloo as a kid.   Craig Macmillan  22:00  You're kidding me.   Michael Miiller  22:01  No, Waterloo!   Craig Macmillan  22:02  We need to edit this part out! Well, then you can well, then you really can relate to this. You know, I was involved in farming, I was a city kid. But we had, you know, members of our church, or folks that we knew who had farms and side of town, they had to make some big decisions. Sometimes, you know, depending on the price of corn, they may have to store it, I may put it in a silo. Or maybe I should look at another crop or another type of livestock or something like that. Since that time, we now have farms with tractors that are running on GPS that have intelligent sprayers all programed. And a family can farm quite a bit of ground with again, a lot of safety, but they weren't big investments. They were risks. That's that's what I hear from around other crops. It's like Nope, that was a big jump. But once we did, it made tons of sense, it worked out great. I do want to kind of underline your idea that we should definitely be looking and thinking and doing the math. And then especially as technology becomes more adopted.   Michael Miiller  23:00  Everybody's got to make the decision as a grower by grower or video by vineyard basis. But in speaking in general terms, I think growers would be surprised actually beneficial it is to them.   Craig Macmillan  23:10  Where can people find out more about you in these topics?   Michael Miiller  23:13  You go to our website www cwg.org orgy my email simple Michael at cwg.org Send me a text anytime email I'm easy to get a hold of. The contact information is on the website. And there's some information on there as well mentioned our FAQs etc website and it gets available for our growers and viewers who aren't caught growers should be known I could help you with that as well.   Craig Macmillan  23:39  Okay, sounds good. This today was Michael Miiller. He's Director of Government Relations, California Association of wine grape growers. Thanks for being here.   Michael Miiller  23:46  Thank you so much. Enjoy yoru day.   Craig Macmillan  24:22  Waterloo, Iowa   Michael Miiller  24:24  Yeah! yeah, go cyclones.   Nearly perfect transcription by https://otter.ai

April 17, 2024: Harnessing UV Light to Combat Bacteria

In today's episode, we continue our UV light series with the founders of Lash Apothecary: Olivia Knight, Curtis Knight and Ann Frehner. They have been distributing their OPAL UV light system for a while and have done a lot of research to make sure what they are selling is safe. We have talked to a bunch of lash companies selling UV lights and sadly many have not been able to provide us any info on the safety of their products...thankfully Lash Apothecary was able to. Olivia, Curtis and Ann have a passion for our industry as well as for providing safe products and our discussion with them was very enlightening and entertaining. It's been great getting to hear from a chemist, physicist, engineer, doctor, manufacture and we felt it would be perfect to have someone on who is selling the product every day to lash artists because they would get the most immediate feedback on the product from their customers. BTW...we have a discount code for you can save some money on their new OPAL Series 2 System. DISCOUNT CODE: LASHCAST You save 15% off their UV system. LASHCON TICKETS ARE ON SALE Feeling disconnected from the lash industry? Looking for inspiration? Feeling discouraged about your business? If this is you, then LASHCON is the thing for you. We created this event to help lash artist get connected to their lash family, get inspired so you can take on any troubles you face, and get equipped with business information that help you take your company to the next level. LASHCON is the largest lash conference in the world, tailor-made for lash artists like you. Think of it as THE lash homecoming for lash artists, influencers, and lash brands. Tickets are on sale! For more info go to www.thelashconference.com. If you are ready to buy here are the links to the tickets. DIAMOND lashcastproductions.com/products/lash…er-11-14-2024 VIP lashcastproductions.com/products/lash…er-11-14-2024 GENERAL ADMISSION lashcastproductions.com/products/lash…er-11-14-2024 JOIN us at the Lash Boss Summit on April 26-27, 2024 www.lashbosssummit.com/ JOIN THE AMERICAN LASH ASSOCIATION TODAY Save 25% off the year membership fee by using our discount code. Discount code: LASHCAST25 americanlashassociation.org/ JOIN OUR LASHCAST INSIDER CLUB:⁣⁣⁣ Join the coolest club in the lash industry. You'll get discount codes to our webinars, trainings, LashCon, and our upcoming coaching program. ⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Go here to sign up: mailchi.mp/lashcastpodcast.com/lashcon-give-away ⁣⁣⁣ IG: ⁣⁣⁣ @lashcast @thelashconference.con⁣⁣⁣ Join our free Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/lashcastpodcast/⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Contact: paul@lashcast.com

Episode Highlights With RobbyThe connection between toxicity, inflammation, and energyNatural and non-invasive ways to support the body in detoxificationThe natural frequencies that help break the bonds of toxins and where they are stored in the bodyHow infrared is especially beneficial and how it supports the body in healingWhat the healing frequencies of nature are that are found in sunlightHealthspan vs lifespanWhat we don't realize about nature exposure and sun exposureHow infrared frequencies are especially helpfulWhat the science says on infrared frequencies and far vs near-infrared How these frequencies support mitochondria and nitric oxide You can get over-exposed to UV light but how to balance it naturallyHow we can get too much UV and not enough infrared from the sun and how to balance thatUnderstanding the wavelengths of infrared light and how to use them most effectively Products that support the frequencies our body needs to healThe benefits of heat/sauna and the temperature shifts for supporting the bodyResources We MentionTherasageSoaring Child: Thriving with ADHDA place where you will learn how to address your child's ADHD symptoms naturally..Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

We took a couple of weeks off from the UV talk, but we are excited to be back with Soo-Jin Yang of Illuminos Lashes, the creator of the first UV light system in our industry. Soo-Jim came up with the idea of using UV light technology 12 years ago, and she had to move mountains to make it a reality in 2019. Her story is very inspiring and just shows you how tough-minded you need to be when everyone around you is telling you "no". Aside from hearing about how she created the first UV light system, she also shares her concerns for our industry and how some systems out there are overpromising how safe their systems are. She has a discount code for you if you want to buy one of her new systems. You can save $50 by using the code LASHCAST50. CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR SYSTEM: https://illuminolashes.com/lynk-gel-device/ LASHCON TICKETS ARE ON SALE Feeling disconnected from the lash industry? Looking for inspiration? Feeling discouraged about your business? If this is you, then LASHCON is the thing for you. We created this event to help lash artist get connected to their lash family, get inspired so you can take on any troubles you face, and get equipped with business information that help you take your company to the next level. LASHCON is the largest lash conference in the world, tailor-made for lash artists like you. Think of it as THE lash homecoming for lash artists, influencers, and lash brands. Tickets are on sale! For more info go to www.thelashconference.com. If you are ready to buy here are the links to the tickets. DIAMOND https://lashcastproductions.com/products/lashconference-diamond-ticket-october-11-14-2024 VIP https://lashcastproductions.com/products/lashconference-vip-ticket-october-11-14-2024 GENERAL ADMISSION https://lashcastproductions.com/products/lashconference-standard-ticket-october-11-14-2024 JOIN us at the Lash Boss Summit on April 26-27, 2024 https://www.lashbosssummit.com/ JOIN THE AMERICAN LASH ASSOCIATION TODAY Save 25% off the year membership fee by using our discount code. Discount code: LASHCAST25 https://americanlashassociation.org/ JOIN OUR LASHCAST INSIDER CLUB:⁣⁣⁣ Join the coolest club in the lash industry. You'll get discount codes to our webinars, trainings, LashCon, and our upcoming coaching program. ⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Go here to sign up: https://mailchi.mp/lashcastpodcast.com/lashcon-give-away ⁣⁣⁣ IG: ⁣⁣⁣ @lashcast @thelashconference.con⁣⁣⁣ Join our free Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/lashcastpodcast/⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Contact: paul@lashcast.com

About the guest: Scott Zimmerman is an optical engineer and photobiology expertEpisode summary: Nick and Scott talk about: how light interacts with the body and affects our cells; melatonin as an antioxidant;  how red & near-infrared light affect mitochondria; sunlight, fire light, and artificial light; incandescent light bulbs vs. LEDs; negative health effects of artificial light; sunscreen & makeup; red & near-infrared light therapy; the optical properties of the human body; and more.*This content is never meant to serve as medical advice.Support the showAll episodes (audio & video), show notes, transcripts, and more at the M&M Substack Try Athletic Greens: Comprehensive & convenient daily nutrition. Free 1-year supply of vitamin D with purchase.Try SiPhox Health—Affordable, at-home bloodwork w/ a comprehensive set of key health marker. Use code TRIKOMES for a 10% discount.Try the Lumen device to optimize your metabolism for weight loss or athletic performance. Use code MIND for $50 off.Learn all the ways you can support my efforts

We are excited to add this episode to our UV light series. If you have been on IG the last few years, you've probably seen a video showing a robot applying eyelash extensions to a client. The response from lash artists has varied. Some are excited, but most seem very skeptical. In today's episode, Nate Harding, the CEO of LUUM, comes on our show to update us on how their lash robot is progressing. He explains how it's safer than a lash artist holding a pair of tweezers, and we discuss how this innovation might affect our industry. Aside from dispelling some misunderstandings about the LUUM robot, we wanted to have Nate on to discuss the light-curing adhesive that the lash robot uses to apply lashes. His team has done a lot of work on the safety of UV lights, and he shares what he has learned. If you want even more details about LUUM, please check out episodes 141 and 142, where we did a two-part series on LUUM's lash robot. LASHCON TICKETS GO ON SALE MARCH 26, 2024 We have been working on LASHCON 2024, and tickets go on sale on March 26, 2024. Mark your calendar! We have sold about 50% of our VIP tickets! BTW...we are upgrading the VIP experience this year...details to come. If you want to get notified when tickets go on sale, please become a LASHCAST INSIDER: https://mailchi.mp/lashcastpodcast.com/lashcon-give-away We'll be posting more details as well as doing a podcast on what we have planned for 2024. JOIN us at the Lash Boss Summit on April 26-27, 2024 https://www.lashbosssummit.com/ JOIN THE AMERICAN LASH ASSOCIATION TODAY Save 25% off the year membership fee by using our discount code. Discount code: LASHCAST25 https://americanlashassociation.org/ JOIN OUR LASHCAST INSIDER CLUB:⁣⁣⁣ Join the coolest club in the lash industry. You'll get discount codes to our webinars, trainings, LashCon, and our upcoming coaching program. ⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Go here to sign up: https://mailchi.mp/lashcastpodcast.com/lashcon-give-away ⁣⁣⁣ IG: ⁣⁣⁣ @lashcast @thelashconference.con⁣⁣⁣ Join our free Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/lashcastpodcast/⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Contact: paul@lashcast.com

We continue our UV light series today by bringing back our favorite chemist Michael Becker to the studio. In the last three episodes, we have had a physicist and a doctor give their insights on the safety of this UV light technology but today we pivot and bring in a chemist who understands how the UV light adhesives work. Michale has been researching this new trend and helps to dispel any fears a lot of lash artists might have using the adhesive that works with the UV light. LASHCON TICKETS GO ON SALE MARCH 26, 2024 We have been working on LASHCON 2024, and we are excited to announce tickets will go on sale on March 26, 2024. We have sold about 50% of our VIP tickets! BTW...we are upgrading the VIP experience this year...details to come. If you want to get notified when tickets go on sale, please become a LASHCAST INSIDER: https://mailchi.mp/lashcastpodcast.com/lashcon-give-away We'll be posting more details as well as doing a podcast on what we have planned for 2024. JOIN THE AMERICAN LASH ASSOCIATION TODAY Save 25% off the year membership fee by using our discount code. Discount code: LASHCAST25 https://americanlashassociation.org/ JOIN OUR LASHCAST INSIDER CLUB:⁣⁣⁣ Join the coolest club in the lash industry. You'll get discount codes to our webinars, trainings, LashCon, and our upcoming coaching program. ⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Go here to sign up: https://mailchi.mp/lashcastpodcast.com/lashcon-give-away ⁣⁣⁣ IG: ⁣⁣⁣ @lashcast @thelashconference.con⁣⁣⁣ Join our free Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/lashcastpodcast/⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Contact: paul@lashcast.com

ASMR UV Light Triggers and Semi-inaudible whispersAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

If you are joining us on our UV Light Series, please go back to the previous two episodes and listen to those before moving forward with this episode. You'll want to get those episodes under your belt before moving into this one. :) In today's episode, we have Dr. Warren Stout joining us in the studio. We have been referring to him almost since your first episode aired over six years ago. He was our unofficial medical director when we had a salon and has spoken at every LASHCON since 2019. He has been a wealth of information and support for the lash industry. Today Dr. Stout shares his thoughts on whether or not we should be concerned about using UV lights in the lash room. I think some people will be surprised by his thoughts on this topic. Dr. Stout did some research for us and shares his findings on how many cases of injuries have been reported with UV lights. As a bonus we also talk what you can do if you get lash adhesive in a client's eye. LASHCON TICKETS GO ON SALE MARCH 26, 2024 We have been working on LASHCON 2024, and we are excited to announce tickets will go on sale on March 26, 2024. We have sold about 50% of our VIP tickets! BTW...we are upgrading the VIP experience this year...details to come. If you want to get notified when tickets go on sale, please become a LASHCAST INSIDER: https://mailchi.mp/lashcastpodcast.com/lashcon-give-away We'll be posting more details as well as doing a podcast on what we have planned for 2024. JOIN THE AMERICAN LASH ASSOCIATION TODAY Save 25% off the year membership fee by using our discount code. Discount code: LASHCAST25 https://americanlashassociation.org/ JOIN OUR LASHCAST INSIDER CLUB:⁣⁣⁣ Join the coolest club in the lash industry. You'll get discount codes to our webinars, trainings, LashCon, and our upcoming coaching program. ⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Go here to sign up: https://mailchi.mp/lashcastpodcast.com/lashcon-give-away ⁣⁣⁣ IG: ⁣⁣⁣ @lashcast @thelashconference.con⁣⁣⁣ Join our free Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/lashcastpodcast/⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Contact: paul@lashcast.com

In this groundbreaking interview with world expert Dermatologist Richard Weller, we discuss sunlight, skin cancer and the profound findings of large population-based studies that INCREASED ultraviolet (UV) light and greater sunlight is associated with LESS all cause mortality, less cardiovascular mortality and less cancer mortality, including skin cancer mortality  K Biobank analysis, Stevenson et al. 2023 (pre-print)]. Professor Richard Weller is a UK dermatologist, researcher and world expert on the effect of ultraviolet (UV) light on systemic health. His discovery of nitric oxide (NO) release in the skin on UV-A exposure was pivotal in understanding the cardiovascular benefits of sunlight. This interview is key in overturning the unreasonable sun-phobic narratives that disproportionately weight sun melanoma avoidance (misguided in causal model) while failing to appreciate the systemic and whole body, life extending benefits of UV light. Enjoy and share this episode!--------------------------------------------------------------LEARN how to GET HEALTHY SUN EXPOSURE  - PRESALE Offer !✅ Dr Max's Solar Callus Course

In our last episode, physicist Todd Harris explained what we need to look for in a UV light system. We learned we need to look at three things: the wavelength, irradiance, and exposure time to the light. In today's episode, Todd provides some more clarity on what type of lights are safe and answers some new questions, like whether we need to wear eye protection with UV lights. He also shares if the European CE standard is a safe standard for us in the States. If you haven't listened to the episode before, please go back and listen to that one before jumping into this episode. LASHCON TICKETS GO ON SALE MARCH 26, 2024 We have been working on LASHCON 2024, and we are excited to announce tickets will go on sale on March 26, 2024. We have sold about 50% of our VIP tickets! BTW...we are upgrading the VIP experience this year...details to come. If you want to get notified when tickets go on sale, please become a LASHCAST INSIDER: https://mailchi.mp/lashcastpodcast.com/lashcon-give-away We'll be posting more details as well as doing a podcast on what we have planned for 2024. JOIN THE AMERICAN LASH ASSOCIATION TODAY Save 25% off the year membership fee by using our discount code. Discount code: LASHCAST25 https://americanlashassociation.org/ JOIN OUR LASHCAST INSIDER CLUB:⁣⁣⁣ Join the coolest club in the lash industry. You'll get discount codes to our webinars, trainings, LashCon, and our upcoming coaching program. ⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Go here to sign up: https://mailchi.mp/lashcastpodcast.com/lashcon-give-away ⁣⁣⁣ IG: ⁣⁣⁣ @lashcast @thelashconference.con⁣⁣⁣ Join our free Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/lashcastpodcast/⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Contact: paul@lashcast.com

To kick off our series on UV lights and UV light-curing adhesives, we are excited to have physicist Dr. Todd Harris join us on the show. Todd worked with the lash robotics company LUUM and helped them develop their UV light curing process that the robot uses to apply lashes. We are very honored and excited to have Todd on our show as he understands the science of how these UV lights work and what can make them dangerous to use. In this episode, he gives a good foundation on which our other episodes will build on. In future episodes, we'll have a doctor, chemist, engineer, manufacture, as well as a distributor share what they know about this exciting new tool that is causing quite a stir in our industry. LASHCON TICKETS GO ON SALE MARCH 26, 2024 We have been working on LASHCON 2024, and we are excited to announce tickets will go on sale on March 26, 2024. We have sold about 50% of our VIP tickets! BTW...we are upgrading the VIP experience this year...details to come. If you want to get notified when tickets go on sale, please become a LASHCAST INSIDER: https://mailchi.mp/lashcastpodcast.com/lashcon-give-away We'll be posting more details as well as doing a podcast on what we have planned for 2024. JOIN THE AMERICAN LASH ASSOCIATION TODAY Save 25% off the year membership fee by using our discount code. Discount code: LASHCAST25 https://americanlashassociation.org/ JOIN OUR LASHCAST INSIDER CLUB:⁣⁣⁣ Join the coolest club in the lash industry. You'll get discount codes to our webinars, trainings, LashCon, and our upcoming coaching program. ⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Go here to sign up: https://mailchi.mp/lashcastpodcast.com/lashcon-give-away ⁣⁣⁣ IG: ⁣⁣⁣ @lashcast @thelashconference.con⁣⁣⁣ Join our free Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/lashcastpodcast/⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Contact: paul@lashcast.com

Over the last year, there has been a massive shift in our industry. More and more people are trying UV light-curing adhesives, and it's ruffling some lash artist's feathers. As a result, we have seen lash artists go online and share their concerns about this new way of lashing. A week doesn't go by where someone doesn't ask us what we think about the light-curing adhesives. After seeing so much concern and controversy on this subject, we decided to do a deep dive and talk to a lot of experts who could help guide us on how safe or unsafe this procedure is. We talked to a chemist, a doctor, an engineer, a physicist who specializes in this field, a manufacturer, and a distributor with the hopes we'll be able to provide you with a comprehensive look into this new trend. In today's episode, we set the table on this subject, and over the next 6-7 weeks, we'll unpack everything you need to know so you can make an informed decision on whether you want to give this new lashing trend a try. LASHCON TICKETS GO ON SALE MARCH 26, 2024 We have been working on LASHCON 2024, and we are excited to announce tickets will go on sale on March 26, 2024. We have sold about 50% of our VIP tickets! BTW...we are upgrading the VIP experience this year...details to come. If you want to get notified when tickets go on sale, please become a LASHCAST INSIDER: https://mailchi.mp/lashcastpodcast.com/lashcon-give-away We'll be posting more details as well as doing a podcast on what we have planned for 2024. JOIN THE AMERICAN LASH ASSOCIATION TODAY Save 25% off the year membership fee by using our discount code. Discount code: LASHCAST25 https://americanlashassociation.org/ JOIN OUR LASHCAST INSIDER CLUB:⁣⁣⁣ Join the coolest club in the lash industry. You'll get discount codes to our webinars, trainings, LashCon, and our upcoming coaching program. ⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Go here to sign up: https://mailchi.mp/lashcastpodcast.com/lashcon-give-away ⁣⁣⁣ IG: ⁣⁣⁣ @lashcast @thelashconference.con⁣⁣⁣ Join our free Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/lashcastpodcast/⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣ Contact: paul@lashcast.com

In episode 40 of The Road to Wisdom Podcast Chloe & Keshia have an insightful conversation with Nikko Kennedy, a perinatal quantum biology practitioner and certified labor and postpartum doula with a B.S. in Biopsychology from the University of Oregon and is the creator of Brighter Days, Darker Nights. Nikko discusses the importance of circadian rhythm and quantum nourishment in pregnancy and motherhood. She explains how melatonin and oxytocin play crucial roles in birth and postpartum well-being. Nikko emphasizes the significance of natural light exposure for both mothers and babies, and the potential negative effects of artificial light and non-native electromagnetic fields.  Overall, this conversation highlights the importance of aligning with nature's rhythms for optimal health and well-being during the perinatal period. Exploring the importance of sun exposure and building a solar callus we discuss the benefits of photobiomodulation and the significance of morning sunlight. The role of UV light in melanin production and the concerns about sunscreens are also addressed. The connection between folate and melanin protection is explored, as well as the concept of quantum hydration and its relation to mitochondria. The conversation concludes with a discussion on alternative the importance of building a community and mainstreaming a healthy lifestyle. Key points to remember: Circadian rhythm and quantum nourishment are vital during pregnancy and motherhood. Hormones like melatonin and oxytocin significantly influence sleep, birth, and postpartum well-being. Natural light exposure is crucial for both mothers and babies, while artificial light and non-native electromagnetic fields can have adverse effects. Developing a solar callus can protect against sun damage and support healthy sun exposure for children. Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Perinatal Quantum Biology 06:29 Understanding Quantum Nourishment 08:02 Sleep and Circadian Rhythm in Motherhood 13:38 The Importance of Circadian Rhythm in Pregnancy 22:20 The Role of Melatonin and Oxytocin in Birth 39:31 The Impact of Light and Melatonin on Baby's Sleep 45:00 Building a Solar Callus for Children 49:28 Solar Callus and Sun Exposure 51:12 Photobiomodulation and Morning Sunlight 52:09 UV Light and Melanin Production 54:05 Concerns about Sunscreens 56:26 Folate and Melanin Protection 56:49 Quantum Hydration and Mitochondria 59:44 Macrobiotic Eating and Water Intake 01:05:09 Alternative Halloween Celebrations 01:06:24 Building Community and Mainstreaming Lifestyle   If You loved this episode and would like to work with Nikko for virtual and in-person doula services, 1-1 coaching, and online and in-person presentations and workshop you can contact her below.   Substack: https://www.brighterdaysdarkernights.com Website: https://nikkokennedy.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/brighterdays.darkernights Email: nikko@brighterdaysdarkernights.com Nikko is generously giving our listeners 15% off the first year! Follow the link: https://www.brighterdaysdarkernights.com/theroadtowisdom    Loved what you heard in this episode? Your support means the world. Make sure to hit that subscribe button, spread the word with your pals, and drop us a review. By doing so, you're not just tuning in – you're fueling our community's growth and paving the way for more incredible guests to grace our show. As the week rolls by, we're already cooking up more tantalizing content for your hungry ears. Keen to stay in the loop with the latest episode releases? Follow our journey on Instagram at @theroadtowisdom.podcast and catch behind-the-scenes action on our YouTube channel @theroadtowisdompodcast. Don't miss out on a thing – also, snag the freshest updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletter over at ⁠⁠https://www.theroadtowisdompodcast.com/⁠⁠. It's your VIP ticket to all things The Road To Wisdom      

In episode 40 of The Road to Wisdom Podcast Chloe & Keshia have an insightful conversation with Nikko Kennedy, a perinatal quantum biology practitioner and certified labor and postpartum doula with a B.S. in Biopsychology from the University of Oregon and is the creator of Brighter Days, Darker Nights. Nikko discusses the importance of circadian rhythm and quantum nourishment in pregnancy and motherhood. She explains how melatonin and oxytocin play crucial roles in birth and postpartum well-being. Nikko emphasizes the significance of natural light exposure for both mothers and babies, and the potential negative effects of artificial light and non-native electromagnetic fields.  Overall, this conversation highlights the importance of aligning with nature's rhythms for optimal health and well-being during the perinatal period. Exploring the importance of sun exposure and building a solar callus we discuss the benefits of photobiomodulation and the significance of morning sunlight. The role of UV light in melanin production and the concerns about sunscreens are also addressed. The connection between folate and melanin protection is explored, as well as the concept of quantum hydration and its relation to mitochondria. The conversation concludes with a discussion on alternative the importance of building a community and mainstreaming a healthy lifestyle. Key points to remember: Circadian rhythm and quantum nourishment are vital during pregnancy and motherhood. Hormones like melatonin and oxytocin significantly influence sleep, birth, and postpartum well-being. Natural light exposure is crucial for both mothers and babies, while artificial light and non-native electromagnetic fields can have adverse effects. Developing a solar callus can protect against sun damage and support healthy sun exposure for children. Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Perinatal Quantum Biology 06:29 Understanding Quantum Nourishment 08:02 Sleep and Circadian Rhythm in Motherhood 13:38 The Importance of Circadian Rhythm in Pregnancy 22:20 The Role of Melatonin and Oxytocin in Birth 39:31 The Impact of Light and Melatonin on Baby's Sleep 45:00 Building a Solar Callus for Children 49:28 Solar Callus and Sun Exposure 51:12 Photobiomodulation and Morning Sunlight 52:09 UV Light and Melanin Production 54:05 Concerns about Sunscreens 56:26 Folate and Melanin Protection 56:49 Quantum Hydration and Mitochondria 59:44 Macrobiotic Eating and Water Intake 01:05:09 Alternative Halloween Celebrations 01:06:24 Building Community and Mainstreaming Lifestyle   If You loved this episode and would like to work with Nikko for virtual and in-person doula services, 1-1 coaching, and online and in-person presentations and workshop you can contact her below.   Substack: https://www.brighterdaysdarkernights.com Website: https://nikkokennedy.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/brighterdays.darkernights Email: nikko@brighterdaysdarkernights.com Nikko is generously giving our listeners 15% off the first year! Follow the link: https://www.brighterdaysdarkernights.com/theroadtowisdom    Loved what you heard in this episode? Your support means the world. Make sure to hit that subscribe button, spread the word with your pals, and drop us a review. By doing so, you're not just tuning in – you're fueling our community's growth and paving the way for more incredible guests to grace our show. As the week rolls by, we're already cooking up more tantalizing content for your hungry ears. Keen to stay in the loop with the latest episode releases? Follow our journey on Instagram at @theroadtowisdom.podcast and catch behind-the-scenes action on our YouTube channel @theroadtowisdompodcast. Don't miss out on a thing – also, snag the freshest updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletter over at ⁠⁠https://www.theroadtowisdompodcast.com/⁠⁠. It's your VIP ticket to all things The Road To Wisdom    

Today, I am blessed to have here with me Alastair Bostwick. He is a New York City Journalist with a multifaceted career that spans various media outlets and industries. With a passion for video production, Alastair has made a significant mark in the world of journalism, capturing attention with his engaging and insightful content. In this episode, Alastair dives into the intricate interplay between UV light and opioid receptors. Alastair takes us through the nuanced connections between light exposure and mood disorders, shedding light on the intriguing parallels between sunlight and opioid experiences. We address opioid addiction and the dualities surrounding tanning beds, challenging conventional approaches with the potential of UV light as a substitute. Lastly, we cover the controversy surrounding sunblocks, navigating discussions involving dermatologists, and emphasizing a balanced perspective on skin cancer prevention and vitamin D synthesis. Free Detox Masterclass. Reserve Your Spot Here: http://www.toxinsmasterclass.com / / E P I S O D E   S P ON S O R S  Wild Pastures: $20 OFF per Box for Life + Free Shipping for Life + $15 OFF your 1st Box! https://wildpastures.com/promos/save-20-for-life-lf?oid=6&affid=132&source_id=podcast&sub1=ad BonCharge: Blue light Blocking Glasses, Red Light Therapy, Sauna Blankets & More. Visit https://boncharge.com/pages/ketokamp and use the coupon code KETOKAMP for 15% off your order. Beam Minerals: BEAM Minerals products are the perfect support for the keto/carnivore/fasting way of living as they won't break your fast, PLUS they taste just like water and will help you keep carb cravings at bay as you move into a fat-adapted state. Give BEAM Minerals a try today for an enhanced keto experience. Head to http://www.beamminerals.com and use the coupon code AZADI for a sweet discount!  [06:15] Exploring the Impact of UV Light on Opioid Receptors -       Alastair based his hypothesis on research papers he uncovered, particularly focusing on UV light's effects on opioid receptors in the brain. -       He spoke to a doctor at Mass General who was conducting research on this topic, primarily with mice. The hypothesis suggested that UV light could affect opioid receptors in human brains. -       Alastair took a proactive approach to test his hypothesis by exposing himself aggressively to UV light. Living in New York City, he deliberately spent two hours in the sun every day during the summer, in addition to using a tanning bed vigorously. The goal was to maximize exposure to UV light. -       Alastair was strategic about the timing of UV exposure, going out between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., which is considered the highest UV index. He aimed to expose himself during the peak hours of UV intensity to enhance the effectiveness of the experiment. [08:30] Narcan's Swift Action and Alastair's UV Light Experiment -       Narcan rapidly detaches substances that bind to opioid receptors in the brain. It acts quickly, causing not only a reversal of the respiratory effects but also inducing withdrawal symptoms if the person is not breathing. This mechanism serves as the basis for Alastair's experiment. -       Alastair hypothesized that if there is a correlation between UV light and the opioid effect in the brain, Narcan, known to work on normal opioid usage, should have a similar effect in the presence of UV light. This led him to experiment by exposing himself to UV light and then taking Narcan, resulting in a full withdrawal experience. -       According to him, the consistent results indicated that UV light does indeed affect opioid receptors in the brain. -       Alastair's experience lends support to the notion that UV light has a significant and consistent impact on opioid receptors in the brain. [12:30] An Exploration of Light, Mood, and the Subtle Opioid Influence of UV Rays -       Alastair decided to dig deeper into the connection between light exposure, particularly visible light, and mood disorders like SAD. -       He discovered that, separate from the positive effects of visible light seen in SAD treatment, there's another aspect involving UV light, which is not visible to the human eye. -       UV light, distinct from visible light, has effects on the body, including replenishing vitamin D levels and influencing opioid receptors. -       Alastair explained that UV light, over time, subtly affects human opioid receptors, similar to substances like heroin, morphine, fentanyl, and Vicodin. -       While the response is not as strong, prolonged exposure to sunlight can lead to feelings of tiredness or reinvigoration, akin to experiencing a mild opioid stimulation. This sheds light on why people may enjoy spending a day at the beach or using tanning beds to achieve a subtle opioid effect. [19:20] Addressing Opioid Addiction and Tanning Bed Dualities -       Alastair suggests that one approach to address opioid addiction is to ensure individuals receive enough sunlight and vitamin D throughout their lives. By maintaining adequate levels of vitamin D, the brain may be less likely to respond to prescription painkillers in an addictive manner, potentially preventing addiction from the outset. -       Researchers are exploring an alternative approach for individuals already abusing or dependent on opioids. Instead of traditional methods like methadone clinics, where individuals are gradually tapered off opioids, there is evidence suggesting that ultraviolet (UV) light could serve as a substitute. -       Alastair discusses the dual nature of tanning beds. While he initially doubted the concept of tanning bed addiction, he acknowledges that there is compelling evidence from esteemed researchers suggesting that tanning beds, with their potent UVA light, can be as addictive as synthetic opioids like Vicodin or Oxycodone. -       However, he also highlights the potential use of tanning beds as a tool to help individuals transition off synthetic opioids. [23:45] Sunblock Controversies: Balancing Skin Cancer Prevention and Vitamin D Synthesis -       The use of sunblock is a controversial subject, particularly in discussions involving dermatologists who often focus on skin cancer prevention. -       Overexposure to ultraviolet radiation, especially from the sun, is known to cause skin cancer. While some doctors recommend avoiding UV light and using vitamin D supplements, Alastair suggests a more relaxed approach, emphasizing the benefits of an active lifestyle and time spent outdoors. -       Some doctors advocate for sunblock as a means to prevent skin cancer, while others, like Alastair, express concerns about its potential negative impact on vitamin D synthesis. -       Alastair expresses skepticism about the marketing behind sunblocks, suggesting that it may not always be honest. [48:00] A Journey through Mood Changes and Tanning Bed Seeking Behavior -       As the seasons changed, Alastair noticed a shift in his mood and described feeling a compulsion in the back of his mind. This compulsion led to what he referred to as "tanning bed seeking behavior." -       He experienced a sense of low-level gloom and a compulsion to seek out tanning, akin to textbook drug-seeking behavior. -       Alastair was mindful of the behavioral changes he observed in himself, characterized by a compulsion to seek out tanning beds. -       He noted that the compulsion to seek out tanning eventually went away. While he initially felt the urge to address the low mood through tanning, with time, the compulsion subsided. AND MUCH MORE! Resources from this episode: ●      Website: https://www.bostwiki.com/ ●      Watch the Opiod Documentary: here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHh3qU5XYsw&t ●      Follow Alastair Bostwick ●      X: https://twitter.com/BostWiki ●      YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/bostwiki ●      LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alastairbostwick/ ●      Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bostwiki/ Free Detox Masterclass. Reserve Your Spot Here: http://www.toxinsmasterclass.com / / E P I S O D E   S P ON S O R S  Wild Pastures: $20 OFF per Box for Life + Free Shipping for Life + $15 OFF your 1st Box! https://wildpastures.com/promos/save-20-for-life-lf?oid=6&affid=132&source_id=podcast&sub1=ad BonCharge: Blue light Blocking Glasses, Red Light Therapy, Sauna Blankets & More. Visit https://boncharge.com/pages/ketokamp and use the coupon code KETOKAMP for 15% off your order. Beam Minerals: BEAM Minerals products are the perfect support for the keto/carnivore/fasting way of living as they won't break your fast, PLUS they taste just like water and will help you keep carb cravings at bay as you move into a fat-adapted state. Give BEAM Minerals a try today for an enhanced keto experience. Head to http://www.beamminerals.com and use the coupon code AZADI for a sweet discount!  Text me the words "Podcast" +1 (786) 364-5002 to be added to my contacts list.  *Some Links Are Affiliates* // F O L L O W ▸ instagram | @thebenazadi | http://bit.ly/2B1NXKW ▸ facebook | /thebenazadi | http://bit.ly/2BVvvW6 ▸ twitter | @thebenazadi http://bit.ly/2USE0so ▸clubhouse | @thebenazadi Disclaimer: This podcast is for information purposes only. Statements and views expressed on this podcast are not medical advice. This podcast including Ben Azadi disclaim responsibility from any possible adverse effects from the use of information contained herein. Opinions of guests are their own, and this podcast does not accept responsibility of statements made by guests. This podcast does not make any representations or warranties about guests qualifications or credibility. Individuals on this podcast may have a direct or non-direct interest in products or services referred to herein. If you think you have a medical problem, consult a licensed physician.

PANCAKE ROBOTS! UV LIGHT! ASTRONAUT PIZZA PARTY! What do these all have in common? They are all part of the amazing science and history behind INVENTING THE 3D PRINTER! Join our inventor team and be the first to know about our activities, events, partnerships, inventor store and more! Sign up on pennyandluck.com. Written + Produced by Claire Karwowski Sound Designed by Igor Cujic

The Dude Grows Show 1578

The Dude Grows Show 1578

CLIP- we've only had it for one day and it's already causing problems 

This hour everyone is late, we blame it on the UV light and try to give away some of Ally's money 

CLIP- Ally's wife thought we needed a gift for the studio 

The Turd Herder calls in to speak about UV light and water treatment. Agent 907 asks about the Mandela effect. Anonymous describes issues with Google Maps, and GPS overall. Elijah and several other sources ask for more information about the accelerating potential -- and potential for conspiracy -- surrounding research into AI: What if something 'wakes up'? All this and more in this week's listener mail segment.They don't want you to read our book.: https://static.macmillan.com/static/fib/stuff-you-should-read/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

mike, travis and drunk discuss the following topics.... ape fest was quite the party.... homer simpson update.... the king of cola tries olipop vintage cola: 1.6 the kc soda company.... after the break, we talk to chad ferrin. he wrote, directed and produced a new movie called "pig killer" about serial killer willy pickton, available now on demand. the chiefs kid.... dream did what? potw: robocop/old dads/BARBIE well, bye.

Welcome to this weeks episode of Educated Artistry!  Today I am joined by Olivia Knight and Anne Frehner the owners of Lash Apothecary and creators of the Opal UV light system.  We cover:  The difference between UV and LED The Light spectrum and safety for artist and client  Research of UV light exposure over long time periods The importance of knowledge and the chemicals in adhesive  Humidity and Temparture with the UV system  UV light and the truth about sensitivities  Benefits for lash artist and client when using the Opal UV light system  15% OFF SITEWIDE with code: EDUCATEDARTISTRY at checkout   www.lashapothecary.com Follow Lash Apothecary on IG: https://www.instagram.com/lash_apothecary/ WATCH ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnu8__OGLOC2clnvkq13ehQ  

If you're feeling frustrated and exhausted from following strict diets, exercising religiously, and practicing stress-reducing techniques, but still struggling to achieve optimal hormone balance and restful sleep, then you are not alone! Despite your diligent efforts, there may be a critical factor that you've been overlooking: light exposure. While you may be doing everything else right, the lack of awareness about the impact of light on your body's delicate hormonal balance and sleep patterns could be hindering your progress. By understanding and optimizing your light exposure, you can finally experience the improved hormone balance and better sleep quality you've been desperately seeking. In this episode, Carrie and Sarah: - Unearth the essential relevance of circadian rhythm in maximizing your health. - Illuminate the powerful impact of light interaction on your hormone equilibrium and sleep cycle. - Dive into the crucial contribution of sunlight on your circadian rhythm and overall wellbeing. - Go through how to simplify your health journey through lifestyle alterations and reducing dependence on tests and supplements. - Increase your awareness about the transformative attributes of consistent, moderate exposure to sunlight. 00:01:32 - Importance of Circadian Rhythm 00:06:13 - Impact of Light on Cortisol and Melatonin 00:09:12 - Hormonal Imbalances and Optimizing Light Environment 00:14:37 - Importance of Morning Light 00:15:23 - Circadian Rhythm and Bedtime 00:15:59 - Sleep Quality and Circadian Rhythm 00:19:30 - Avoiding Data Trackers 00:22:13 - Circadian Rhythm as a Lifestyle 00:29:39 - Syncing Circadian Rhythm with Natural Light 00:30:35 - The Impact of Different Wavelengths of Light 00:32:48 - Historical Perspective on Heliotherapy and Sunlight Therapy 00:36:17 - Misconceptions about Sunlight and UV Light 00:44:11 - The Importance of Vitamin D from Sun Exposure 00:45:23 - The Role of Light in Circadian Rhythm 00:46:16 - The Impact of Modern Life on Light Exposure 00:47:37 - Practical Tips for Light Optimization 00:50:19 - Adapting to Light Optimization in Various Situations Connect with Sarah: Get Sarah's Guides: Build Your Perfect Quantum Day https://www.sarahkleinerwellness.com/opt-in-9d5f6918-77a8-40d7-bedf-93ca2ec8387f Sarah's 30-page document giving you the answers to her most frequently asked questions: https://www.sarahkleinerwellness.com/faq-skw Blue Blockers Guide: https://www.sarahkleinerwellness.com/opt-in-076457e7-a017-4435-bcea-f40557086a1c Sarah's product recommendations: https://s3.amazonaws.com/kajabi-storefronts-production/file-uploads/sites/2147573344/themes/2150788813/downloads/cf41f3-fe8-1f53-a840-c04fde401a76_Copy_of_SKW_Affiliate_Guide.pdf Explore Sarah's courses (and get 10% off when you sign up for the shop): https://www.sarahkleinerwellness.com/courses Follow Sarah on Instagram for more free content: https://www.instagram.com/sarahkleinerwellness/ Explore Sarah's website: https://www.sarahkleinerwellness.com/ Follow Sarah's main channel for more information on quantum health, fertility, nutrition, and more: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd1xxofTziySu0F9oG7G67g?view_as=subscriber Tune into the Evolving Wellness Podcast for more content on circadian health, hormone health, fertility and more: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sarahkleinerwellness Carrie & Sarah's co-taught Fertility course that has helped clients get pregnant easily: https://www.sarahkleinerwellness.com/quantum-fertility-on-demand Connect with Carrie: Get Carrie's free resources to start improving your quantum health right now: https://www.carriebwellness.com/start?sk Follow Carrie on Instagram for more free content: https://www.instagram.com/carriebwellness/ Learn all the foundations of quantum health in Carrie's signature course: https://www.carriebwellness.com/offers/KeR8qXen/checkout/sk Find Carrie's other courses, including how to fix your adrenal fatigue: https://www.carriebwellness.com/store