At the request of our administrative team at IR-4 headquarters, I am resuming my quarterly letter to keep you updated on the latest news and happenings here at the IR-4 Project. If you haven’t done so already, I encourage you to sign up for our email distribution list to receive the latest information as it is announced. I also encourage you to visit our website and check out our recently redesigned homepage. This is one of many website improvements we are launching in an effort to improve our communications.

Dr. Simon Zebelo, Ph.D is one of four recipients nationwide of the 2021 FMC New Investigator Award. Zebelo, who serves on IR-4's Project Management Committee representing the Northeast Region, is an assistant professor with the Department of Natural Sciences and Department of Agriculture, Food and Resource Sciences at University of Maryland Eastern Shore.

This award was launched by FMC in 2020 to recognize the research of early career professors. FMC honored Zebelo for his background in plant and environmental ecology, agricultural entomology and dry land farming, stating, "His research focuses on a broad-based multidisciplinary approach to develop and evaluate ecologically-based integrated pest management programs and to deliver practical programs to growers."

Registration is now open for the 2021 Food Use Workshop! Research priorities for food residue studies, efficacy and crop safety research, as well as integrated solutions projects for 2022 will be identified during this four-day virtual workshop. Research requests must be submitted by no later than August 13 in order to be considered at this event.

Registration is now open for the 2021 Environmental Horticulture Priority Setting Workshop! Regional and national priorities for IR-4 environmental horticulture research in 2022 and 2023 will be established during this biennial event.

The IR-4 Environmental Horticulture team is currently accepting responses to the Grower and Extension Survey.This biennial survey is the best way to tell the team what disease, pest and weed problems you have difficulty managing due to insufficient pest management tools. Information gathered will help shape the biennial priority setting workshop taking place September 28 - 30. Click the below button to start the survey.

Presentations from the 2021 Industry Technology Session are now available on our event webpage. Recordings of the presentations have been posted along with their corresponding slide decks for download.

The 2021 Industry Technology Session took place on Tuesday, July 20. Approximately 300 participants registered for the virtual event that featured updates from 13 registrants on products already in IR-4 research, as well as new technologies.

The following tolerance success was received during the month of July:

Our partners at the Minor Use Foundation (MUF) recently upgraded their website and made it available in both French and Spanish. The addition of multilingual functionality is one way the MUF hopes to increase engagement and encourage involvement from audiences in key regions where many of its residue programs are located.

Visit the MUF website for more information on current residue trial projects and the 2021/22 crop protection priorities, which reflect input received during the third Global Minor Use Priority Setting Workshop held in September 2020.

This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under award number 2021-34383-34848 and 2020-34383-32455 with substantial cooperation and support from the State Agricultural Experiment Stations, USDA-ARS and USDA-FAS. In accordance with Federal Law and U.S. Department of Agriculture policy, this institution is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability.