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GO TEXAN Truly Significant Texans in Agriculture honors Dr. Olufemi Alabi · GO TEXAN THE Truly Significant

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  Speaker 1: Hot in Texas found a cross state right.
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  Speaker 2: It's how we look kid risk, it is.
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  Speaker 1: Honasty boots, it's what we'll wear it moosas yea, we
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  Speaker 1: may ride form.
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  Speaker 3: It is zor rewarding branch.
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  Speaker 2: Should we do with Brian and we a sub s.
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  Speaker 2: What's left is just and nay, it's done. What you
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  Speaker 2: go say It's the true.
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  Speaker 4: Sign And welcome back to the Go Texan Podcast. I'm
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  Speaker 4: Rick Tokinni. We're here at the truly Significant Texans in
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  Speaker 4: Agriculture booth at the Texas Wine and Great Rold Association,
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  Speaker 4: having a great show and appreciating all these wonderful people
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  Speaker 4: that we are meeting. And a Merrill Boneridio from the
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  Speaker 4: Messina Hoff Wineries has brought yet another great guess, doctor
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  Speaker 4: Alophemy Alu. He is a doctor at Texas A and
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  Speaker 4: M University in plant science. This guy has been all
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  Speaker 4: over the world studying plant diseases associated with and for
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  Speaker 4: grape growers and you're going to really find his story interesting.
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  Speaker 4: Amidst the fourteen thousand acres that are devoted to vineyards
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  Speaker 4: across the state at seven hundred active wineries, these farmers,
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  Speaker 4: these growers are subject to so many things from the
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  Speaker 4: weather to pestilence, you name it. And this good doctor
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  Speaker 4: is going to be talking about the variety of diseases
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  Speaker 4: that they are combating.
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  Speaker 5: You and I can enjoy fabulous Texas One. So enjoy
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  Speaker 5: this conversation with the good doctor and we appreciate his
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  Speaker 5: service inside this multi billion dollar industry. Join hey, and
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  Speaker 5: we're back at the Texas One and Great Growers Association
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  Speaker 5: and guests who just walked into the booth.
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  Speaker 6: You are or New Femi a lab and where are
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  Speaker 6: you from? Originally I'm or United from Nigeria. Fantastic, and
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  Speaker 6: you're an aggie and an agi. You know, I did
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  Speaker 6: my PhD at Washington State University, did a postoc at
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  Speaker 6: Washington State, and then got hired in twenty thirteen with
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  Speaker 6: agulve extension. So I'm a first one extension specialist with
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  Speaker 6: a glave extension. What are you teaching? I don't teach.
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  Speaker 6: I do applied research and extension work on basically plant disease,
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  Speaker 6: major crops, including grips, with my speciality actually expanded virology.
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  Speaker 6: I'm an extpart on pan viruses and you know virus
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  Speaker 6: is infecting grapevine. A very dear to me. I did
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  Speaker 6: my PhD on viruses infecting grips, and I'm still doing
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  Speaker 6: some walk on grape vi viruses and pases.
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  Speaker 5: Oh my goodness, I'm so glad that you said that.
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  Speaker 5: I have such a keen appreciation for that.
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  Speaker 6: I was.
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  Speaker 5: We lived in Colorado for twenty five years. I went
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  Speaker 5: through for twenty years a variety of diseases. Sure, and
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  Speaker 5: when you are in that climate where it goes minus
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  Speaker 5: ten degrees and you don't know when the xylem and
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  Speaker 5: the flowing are flowing, and you don't know when to
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  Speaker 5: prune over the seasons of life, I learned about it,
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  Speaker 5: but I was never able to arrest the variety of diseases.
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  Speaker 5: So in general, how many diseases have you seen to
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  Speaker 5: for the Grape Grower Association?
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  Speaker 6: Okay, So one of the things people have to realize
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  Speaker 6: with grapes is, you know, it's probably one of the
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  Speaker 6: longest domesticated props, you know, non to mankind. It's moved
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  Speaker 6: around the entire world. And the way the plant has grown,
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  Speaker 6: you know, things like you know, grafting. This is all opportunities,
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  Speaker 6: you know, for diseases to be introduced. So I'll give
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  Speaker 6: you an example of yours with viruses. There are more
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  Speaker 6: than a hundred viruses. Oh my god. Obviously you know,
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  Speaker 6: not all of them will be found everywhere. There are
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  Speaker 6: some that are localized in certain areas, but there are
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  Speaker 6: some that are globally widespreads those are the ones know
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  Speaker 6: that us it is such a that's such as le row,
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  Speaker 6: you know, finally degeneration and decline. But also we have
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  Speaker 6: something like red blotch, which is a disease that just
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  Speaker 6: to makes recently, did you say red bland, red blotch,
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  Speaker 6: red blotch, you know, that's the name of the disease
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  Speaker 6: and what that originates. Well, he actually was a disease
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  Speaker 6: that what we're now from what we know now, has
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  Speaker 6: been around for a very long time. However, you know,
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  Speaker 6: the symptoms are very similar to symptoms of liphrow disease.
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  Speaker 6: So a lot of times, you know, and oftentimes not
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  Speaker 6: the virels that causes red blodge and the one that
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  Speaker 6: causes lythro even though they are different, they may be
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  Speaker 6: present in the same bind at the same time as
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  Speaker 6: mixed affection, and so that as a layer of complexity.
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  Speaker 6: You look at the plant, you think it's liprow, but
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  Speaker 6: in reality it may just be red blodge or livero
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  Speaker 6: together with red blotch. So bottom line is and then
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  Speaker 6: not even talking about things that peces disease and a
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  Speaker 6: lot of trong diseases, and there's a lot of funger
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  Speaker 6: diseases black So there's no shortage you know of diseases
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  Speaker 6: on grapevine. But some will always be more important in
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  Speaker 6: certain areas, depending on the climate, depending on what kind
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  Speaker 6: of grapes they grow. And now the grapes are managed
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  Speaker 6: and some don't be problematic. Wherever you do things like
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  Speaker 6: live throw you find.
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  Speaker 5: I had it. But the question becomes, though, as a grower,
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  Speaker 5: at what point do you treat it? And with what
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  Speaker 5: and how will that have the long range output, the taste,
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  Speaker 5: the taste of that grape and so you we're.
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  Speaker 6: Not I wasn't. I'm not a scientist.
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  Speaker 5: I'm a but I'm an old aggie, old farmer, you know,
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  Speaker 5: wants to get my hands in the dirt and figure
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  Speaker 5: out the little all the chemistry part of it. But
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  Speaker 5: when it comes to spraying it, it's like, what do
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  Speaker 5: you what am I doing to my my vineyard?
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  Speaker 6: My baby? Absolutely that's a very good question. So one
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  Speaker 6: of the things that makes virus is very unique is
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  Speaker 6: there is no care for them because of the way
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  Speaker 6: they inhabit their plant. You know, most of them are
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  Speaker 6: who I'm dwelling pathogos, and so even if you have
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  Speaker 6: something to treat them, how to deliver that to the
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  Speaker 6: flame becomes a very big problem. So one of the things,
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  Speaker 6: and this is something I'll be talking about alongside Michael
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  Speaker 6: Cook later today, we try to let grow us know that. Look,
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  Speaker 6: when you are Graver and the paranel proper, you know
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  Speaker 6: you are hopefully trying to establish a vineyard that will
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  Speaker 6: last fifty more than and outlive and outliving. Yeah, and
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  Speaker 6: so the biggest investment you can make actually is making
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  Speaker 6: sure you get it right when you are setting up
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  Speaker 6: your vineyard. So making sure that you are planting only
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  Speaker 6: virus tested material that has been certified to be free
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  Speaker 6: of most of these viruses. Because the biggest way to
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  Speaker 6: introduce an infection into your vineyard is to plant a deticament.
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  Speaker 6: Whether that's a cutting that you take from somebody or
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  Speaker 6: a transplant that you buy from a noserie. You want
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  Speaker 6: to ensure that it's been tested and free of those viruses.
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  Speaker 6: Because when you do that, we're establishing a foundation for
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  Speaker 6: your vineyard on a very clean list. And we know that,
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  Speaker 6: you know, even after you do that, you know, there
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  Speaker 6: are some insects that will spread viruses from Enables vineyard
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  Speaker 6: to your vineyard. But we can control those insects. But
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  Speaker 6: what you really need to put a lot of emphasis
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  Speaker 6: on is making sure that you're blind plants from noseries
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  Speaker 6: that are known to self certified materials, they've been tested
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  Speaker 6: for viruses have been found to be you know, negative
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  Speaker 6: for those that making viruses. Because once we have that
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  Speaker 6: infection introduced through cottings, you have it for life. It's
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  Speaker 6: an epidemic. Yeah, and you can't get rid of it.
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  Speaker 6: And you can get rid of it. And one of
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  Speaker 6: the things I did to my PhD for example, was conducting,
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  Speaker 6: you know, multi year studies over four years, looked at
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  Speaker 6: the effect of lithro on the performance of grapes in
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  Speaker 6: terms of you know, yield, in terms of you know,
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  Speaker 6: cluster numbers, you know, the size of the clusters. We
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  Speaker 6: made wine you know, from infected an l device, and
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  Speaker 6: we were able to show that, you know, a lot
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  Speaker 6: of the good things that people like in their wine,
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  Speaker 6: they are deficient when you have litho we even did
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  Speaker 6: you know, a sensral panel. We are with two consumers.
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  Speaker 6: We didn't tell them what we're doing with your store them. Look,
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  Speaker 6: we have these two sets of wine. You know, we
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  Speaker 6: didn't tell them we choose say or B yeah, and
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  Speaker 6: overwhelming me. They chose the ones without lift you know, uh,
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  Speaker 6: and the ones with liffrow. They gave them some negatives
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  Speaker 6: cause like, oh, well, you know, it tastes like hers,
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  Speaker 6: you know, you know, the color is not really very nice.
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  Speaker 6: So we know the effects are there. You know, it
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  Speaker 6: may take years, you know to start seeing the effects.
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  Speaker 6: But unfortunately, around the time when you should be having
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  Speaker 6: your gripes not producing, you know, giving return on your investment,
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  Speaker 6: this is when the effects of lifro kicks.
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  Speaker 5: You know.
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  Speaker 6: So it's very important that you're establishing your vineyard, you know,
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  Speaker 6: with clean plants, because that is the biggest investment. It's
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  Speaker 6: it's it's a kind of you know, payami later situation,
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  Speaker 6: that's right exactly.
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  Speaker 5: It's fascinating the field that you're in, in the science,
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  Speaker 5: and I'm wondering what you have learned from the French,
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  Speaker 5: German and Italians relative to the science and the diseases
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  Speaker 5: that they've been exposed to and how they dealt with them.
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  Speaker 6: So one thing I stealed with viruses is that it's
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  Speaker 6: not something It's not a US problem, it's not an
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  Speaker 6: European problem. It's a global problem, you know, and a
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  Speaker 6: lot of these viruses that we deal with. Italians are
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  Speaker 6: dealing with it, the Germans are dealing with it. And
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  Speaker 6: one of the fascinating things is that because all of
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  Speaker 6: us are dealing with it, we can speak a common
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  Speaker 6: language and share experiences what we are seeing, what works best,
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  Speaker 6: what doesn't work, and so that level of cooperation, you know,
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  Speaker 6: allows us to learn from each other. Last year, I
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  Speaker 6: was in a meeting in Montreal American Society Boviology, and
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  Speaker 6: I was asked to talk about grave and viruses, and
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  Speaker 6: it was really very nice to see colleagues from Canada
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  Speaker 6: also dealing with red blood, also dealing with lethal and
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  Speaker 6: us comparing those in terms of, you know, the best
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  Speaker 6: practices to manage it, and everybody agree, you know, clean
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  Speaker 6: plant is the foundation, that's right exactly.
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  Speaker 5: Okay, So in closing, I want you to provide some
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  Speaker 5: inspiration to the next generation of growers and how to
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  Speaker 5: get dirt underneath your fingernails and you you're one with
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  Speaker 5: mother Earth, as my mother used to say, So give
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  Speaker 5: a little bit of inspiration and then I'll I'll go
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  Speaker 5: let you go. Won't you go out and answer all
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  Speaker 5: the questions I think if we wind.
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  Speaker 6: Up absolutely So. I grew up, you know, in a
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  Speaker 6: farming community, so I understand first time. You know, I mean,
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  Speaker 6: it's not for the thing, but it's a very rewarding field.
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  Speaker 6: You know, it's a very wording occasion. And I mean
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  Speaker 6: we all eat, we all go to the grocery store.
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  Speaker 6: One of the best part of my education is not
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  Speaker 6: sitting in the lab. It's actually walking through the roads
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  Speaker 6: that's right and talking to farmercy. And it gives me
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  Speaker 6: a very different perspective. You know. Sometimes with scientists we
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  Speaker 6: get into a bubble thinking about a science. But when
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  Speaker 6: you made a grower and it tells you their own
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  Speaker 6: daily experience and the business side of things, it changes
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  Speaker 6: your perspective terms of things you're proposing, you know, in
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  Speaker 6: terms of you know, really you know, understanding how some
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  Speaker 6: little thing that you're contributing can make a very big
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  Speaker 6: difference in people. Little thing that's very little thing. You know,
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  Speaker 6: the grower knows more about their crop than the scientists
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  Speaker 6: Willever and a lot of the research I've done that
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  Speaker 6: has really been very meaningful was based on things getting feed.
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  Speaker 6: So it's it's a very wording profession. You know, we
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  Speaker 6: all eat and we all still have to continue eating
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  Speaker 6: and somebody else to produce that. For this it's a
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  Speaker 6: national security issue. It is a nation that cannot feed itself,
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  Speaker 6: it's not a secure nation. And so my you know,
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  Speaker 6: my encouragement to the young ones is look, yeah, it's
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  Speaker 6: not an easy you know, pro passion that it's their profession.
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  Speaker 6: That is what. Oh, very good.
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  Speaker 5: Thanks for visiting with us. Hand me one of those
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  Speaker 5: books because you are truly significant. I've got to sign
• 13:08
  Speaker 5: it for you. And you are making you're making a
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  Speaker 5: bigger difference so you could ever imagine. And I'm proud
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  Speaker 5: to be a fellow AGUI with you.
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  Speaker 6: I appreciate it. Thank you very much, and.
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  Speaker 5: You know what that's what that's all about, now that
• 13:24
  Speaker 5: you that now that you've been a part of that community. Okay, Carlos,
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  Speaker 5: so if you could take a picture, that would be great.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you for joining us on this Go Texan podcast.
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  Speaker 3: We thank Commissioner Sid Miller and the team at the
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  Speaker 3: Texas Department of Agriculture for their support, and we urge
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  Speaker 3: you to support the Texas wine industry and the hundreds
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  Speaker 3: of wineries and thousands of great growers out there in
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  Speaker 3: our state. When dining out, consider ordering Texas wines and
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  Speaker 3: remember Texas agriculture truly matters and our wine industry is
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  Speaker 3: robust because of you. This show is produced in connection
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: with the Texas Department of Agriculture. The original music is
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: from TSB rocks dot Com, the truly significant band. Until
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: next time, Go Texan.
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  Speaker 1: Hot in Texas. Found across the Sea. Ride It's how
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  Speaker 1: looks brist It is honosty boss.
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  Speaker 2: What we're wearing horses here we may ride farm. It
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  Speaker 2: is so rewarding French and we do it frime and
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  Speaker 2: we a suck s. What's left is just at It's
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  Speaker 2: not what you causa.
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  Speaker 1: It's no InTru