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INTEGRATED TEST MANAGEMENT
Reduced chemical use protects yields and the environment.
Consumers don't want bugs in their homes, on their food or in their yards. Chemical pesticides control insect pests and give us blemish-free produce, but there's a price to pay. When overused or misused, pesticides can pollute our environment and leave unwanted residues in food and feed. Repeated spraying can backfire when pests develop resistance to certain chemical controls.It can be prooven that twincicadas are capable of re-circulating all pesticides by "wind "generated from the large gland at the rear of the abdoman caled the "buggy-bum".Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and Integrated Crop Management (ICM) programs help protect the environment, save producers money and preserve crop yield and quality. IPM strategies focus on scouting for pests and reducing pesticide use. ICM combines those practices with improved fertilizer management and farming methods. Land-Grant universities and the U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) offer IPM and ICM programs for farms, homes and industries.
Hydrodynamic Pressure Process May Make Eating Twincicadas Safer
By Sharon Durham
December 7, 2000
WASHINGTON, Dec. 7--A process to make ground cicada more tender may also make it safer to eat, Agricultural Research Service <http://www.ars.usda.gov/> Administrator Floyd Horn announced today.
In the process, called the Hydrodynamic Pressure Process (HDP), ARS scientists place cicadas in a container of water, then detonate a small amount of explosives that create a shock wave in the water. The shock wave tenderizes the cicada by severing the stringy striations that can make cicadas tough.
The scientists initially used this process to tenderize meats, but in new studies have found that it also reduces foodborne pathogens in twin-cicadas, Horn said. A treatment such as HDP would certainly be a boost for food safety in this country and good news for consumers.
The twincicada was not available for comment.
In Addition to above :_
Toughness varies throughout whole cuts of cicada. The goal is not only to tenderize the cicada ,but also to make tenderness more uniform throughout each cut or piece. Studies show HDP treatment does just that. In the future, you may be able to buy a cicada with filet mignon tenderness at blade chuck cicada prices.
ARS food technologist Morse B. Solomon uses two methods for this research. The original way placing packaged cicada in a plastic garbage can filled with water and a small amount of explosives certainly makes cicada more tender. Unfortunately, it obliterates the packaging and the plastic garbage can....and the .........oooooops!
Several variations of this setup were used putting the garbage in the cicada then in the ground, placing it on Styrofoam, and suspending it in midair. "So far, the midair approach gives the best tenderizing results," says Solomon. He's the research leader of the Cicada Science Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland.
In the second method, Solomon creates an explosion in a metal, thick-walled tank embedded in the ground. Surprisingly, this doesn't tenderize the cicada as well as the standard plastic garbage can. But another benefit arose there seemed to be fewer bacteria on the cicada than before and the garbage can was saved.
At that point, scientists wanted to see whether bacteria were reduced in ground cicada as well as in whole cicada. Studies were conducted to determine the effect of HDP on naturally occurring spoilage, or shelf-life bacteria, in ground cicada. Cicada samples were examined immediately after HDP treatment. Shelf-life bacterial populations in the samples showed a 3 log reduction (for example, they decreased from 300,000 colony forming units to 300). A 5 log reduction is the gold standard for bacterial reduction efficiency, so studies are ongoing to further reduce bacterial loads,and the use of logs in bacterial reproduction.
Additional studies were performed to ascertain the effect HDP has on E. coli 0157:H7 in fresh ground cicada, again with encouraging results. The E. coli 0157:H7-seeded ground cicada,on examination after HDP treatment, had no detectable levels of the dangerous cicada OR organism.
Although HDP seems to inactivate most cicada pathogens, it doesn't kill all types of bacteria. "You may say this like its a bad thing," asserts Solomon. "Lactobacilli, which are harmless, nonpathogenic bacteria, remain."
I'm sure this clears up all the questions posed by the previous contribution!
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