Delaware growers first on East Coast to get new tool to help with pesticide drift

Apr 14, 2014

DOVER — Delaware growers are the first on the East Coast able to take advantage of a new online tool that helps protect sensitive crops from pesticides that may drift due to wind or weather.

Delaware is the newest participant in the DriftWatch program, which allows growers of certain crops or commercial beekeepers to alert pesticide applicators of sensitive areas before they spray.

“Proper pesticide use is an important part of agriculture, and we are pleased to provide this new tool to help applicators and growers communicate and share information,” said Delaware Secretary of Agriculture Ed Kee.

The Delaware Department of Agriculture regulates pesticide applicators through a rigorous training and certification process, registers all pesticides used in Delaware, and investigates complaints about pesticide drift or improper application. Drift on to neighboring parcels of land can occur because of high winds, certain weather conditions, or application errors.

The free DriftWatch program applies to such uses as commercial beehives, certified organic crops, fruits, grapes, nursery crops, greenhouses, pumpkins, melons, tomatoes and vegetables. The program is not designed for homeowners or for sites smaller than a half-acre.

Once the locations are registered online, pesticide applicators can then check the DriftWatch site to map out sensitive areas near their application sites and take precautions to avoid drifting onto those areas. Enrolling a sensitive site does not guarantee that pesticides are not sprayed near a property, but instead aims to improve awareness of pesticide use and reduce instances of drift exposure.

“The best way to reduce pesticide drift is for pesticide applicators and growers to communicate, and we hope the DriftWatch tool will open up dialogues,” said Dave Pyne, the Department of Agriculture’s environmental program administrator and pesticide compliance director.

Pyne said DDA handles a handful of drift complaints each year, with most dealt with amicably between applicators and growers or landowners.

“This mapping program will provide an easy-to-visualize tool to help reduce any incidents,” Pyne said.

Developed by Purdue University staff members, DriftWatch is now run by a Purdue-created nonprofit organization. Ten states are participating in the program, with most in the Midwest and West.

Source: Delaware Department of Agriculture

Video: Why Your Food Future Could be Trapped in a Seed Morgue

In a world of PowerPoint overload, Rex Bernardo stands out. No bullet points. No charts. No jargon. Just stories and photographs. At this year’s National Association for Plant Breeding conference on the Big Island of Hawaii, he stood before a room of peers — all experts in the science of seeds — and did something radical: he showed them images. He told them stories. And he asked them to remember not what they saw, but how they felt.

Bernardo, recipient of the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award, has spent his career searching for the genetic treasures tucked inside what plant breeders call exotic germplasm — ancient, often wild genetic lines that hold secrets to resilience, taste, and traits we've forgotten to value.

But Bernardo didn’t always think this way.

“I worked in private industry for nearly a decade,” he recalls. “I remember one breeder saying, ‘We’re making new hybrids, but they’re basically the same genetics.’ That stuck with me. Where is the new diversity going to come from?”

For Bernardo, part of the answer lies in the world’s gene banks — vast vaults of seed samples collected from every corner of the globe. Yet, he says, many of these vaults have quietly become “seed morgues.” “Something goes in, but it never comes out,” he explains. “We need to start treating these collections like living investments, not museums of dead potential.”

That potential — and the barriers to unlocking it — are deeply personal for Bernardo. He’s wrestled with international policies that prevent access to valuable lines (like North Korean corn) and with the slow, painstaking science of transferring useful traits from wild relatives into elite lines that farmers can actually grow. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But he’s convinced that success starts not in the lab, but in the way we communicate.

“The fact sheet model isn’t cutting it anymore,” he says. “We hand out a paper about a new variety and think that’s enough. But stories? Plants you can see and touch? That’s what stays with people.”

Bernardo practices what he preaches. At the University of Minnesota, he helped launch a student-led breeding program that’s working to adapt leafy African vegetables for the Twin Cities’ African diaspora. The goal? Culturally relevant crops that mature in Minnesota’s shorter growing season — and can be regrown year after year.

“That’s real impact,” he says. “Helping people grow food that’s meaningful to them, not just what's commercially viable.”

He’s also brewed plant breeding into something more relatable — literally. Coffee and beer have become unexpected tools in his mission to make science accessible. His undergraduate course on coffee, for instance, connects the dots between genetics, geography, and culture. “Everyone drinks coffee,” he says. “It’s a conversation starter. It’s a gateway into plant science.”