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February 28th, 2002
To: IPM Institute Board of Directors: Jim
Cubie, David Holewinski, Barry Jacobsen, Bob Kallen, Curt Petzoldt, Jim Tette
Cc: John Santacrose, IPM Institute Counsel
Re: IPM Institute annual report
Dear Board Members and Supporters:
This past August marked the third year
since our founding in 1998. Over the past year, I believe we have
firmly established our organization as the leading resource center for
IPM-based certification and marketing. During the preceding 14
months we have:
- Secured our provisional non-profit,
501(c)(3) status as an educational and scientific research
organization with the Internal Revenue Service. Our status
will be revisited in five years as per IRS procedures.
- Completed the IPM Standards for
Schools, a 128-page IPM practice and resource compendium for
schools. Collaborated with more than 40 IPM experts from Land
Grants and non-governmental organizations. Fulfilled print
orders for more than 300 copies in the U.S., including requests from
as far away as Spain and Japan. More than 2000 copies of the
web-based PDF document have been downloaded from the IPM Institute
web site since February 2001.
- Established the IPM Institute web site
as the primary national resource for IPM-based certification news.
The site receives more than 500 hits per day.
- Managed the CORE Values Northeast
(CVN) tree fruit eco-label program from January of 2001 to present.
Certified 16 tree fruit growers and 1257 acres. Completed a
business plan for CVN, presented it to the Conservation Law
Foundation (CLF). As a result, secured a new organizational
home for CVN with CLF, including office space, computer, telephone
and oversight on a gratis basis for one year. Managed
recruitment and hiring process for a new program director for CVN;
Cathleen Lane is officially an IPM Institute employee operating out
of the CLF headquarters in Boston.
- Created an IPM certification program
for conventional growers supplying Whole Foods Market.
Unfortunately, Whole Foods decided to cancel the program after
concerns vigorously expressed by organic growers and consumers about
the potential erosion of organic sales. Margaret Wittenberg,
Vice-President for Governmental Affairs, acknowledged the
Institute's work as follows:
- "Your work was and is
outstanding. ...working with you was one of the highlights of
the program development because of your expertise,
professionalism, as well as passion for sustainability."
- Provided services to Food Alliance
(FA), a rapidly growing eco-label based in Portland, OR. FA
is expanding nationally and currently has an affiliate established
in Minnesota for the north central states. We provide crop and
region-specific IPM evaluation criteria for FA.
- Responded to requests for quotes from
two additional organizations to create and/or manage certification
programs. Both of these requests remain pending; we expect to
be involved in at least one of those projects this coming season.
- Interviewed by the US General
Accounting Office investigators report on IPM published by GOA in
September, 2001. IPM insurance project cited in final report.
- Reviewed two USDA-ARS manuscripts by
request as part of the internal review process for this agency.
- Participated in a review of the
Cornell IPM Program led by Mike Fitzner, USDA IPM Program Leader,
October 21-25, 2001.
- Participated by invitation on the USDA
North Central Pest Management Center Advisory Board and the field
corn strategic plan development group formed by the Center.
- We completed our work this past year
with the help of our fist employee, Gina Walejko, with us part-time
since May of 2001.
We obtained the following funding,
which allowed us to satisfy all of our outstanding obligations,
including our start-up loans:
- USDA CSREES IPM Program. Support
for IPM-based eco-labels, including developing service capability to
assist IPM eco-label programs, building awareness of IPM-based
marketing efforts, building consumer awareness of IPM through school
IPM. Renewal of $25,000 award, October 2000 through September
2001.
- US EPA Pesticide Environmental
Stewardship Program. National IPM in Schools Week: Homework.
Award of $15,000 to develop materials to support student application
of IPM techniques in the home. Project dates May 2001 through
April 2002.
- USDA CSREES Small Business Innovative
Research Program. IPM Insurance. Award of $70,000, June
2000 through September 2001; award of $270,000, October 2001 through
September 2003. Note: Award was made to IPM Works, our
consulting affiliate.
- Whole Foods Market, Inc.
Contract to develop policies, procedures and materials for an
in-house, IPM-based eco-label.
- CORE Values Northeast. Contract
to manage transition of program following closing of Mothers &
Others for a Livable Planet.
- Gerber Food Products.
Contribution of $1000 to our school IPM program.
- We were unsuccessful in obtaining
funding for proposals submitted to the US EPA Environmental
Education grants program and the Initiative for Future Agriculture
and Food Systems (IFAFS).
We presented by request at the
following meetings:
- November 30, 2000. Canola IPM
Forum Meeting, Saskatoon SK. An IPM Eco-Label: Challenges
and opportunities.
- December 2000. Joint Annual
Meeting of the Entomology Societies of America and Canada, Montreal
QC. IPM insurance: Protecting the players from injury.
Symposium; Designing an ecologically grounded IPM game plan:
Development, Adoption and Implementation.
- January 2001. US EPA PREP, School and
Urban IPM Education Program, E. Lansing MI. Marketplace
incentives for IPM Adoption.
- February 2001. US EPA, Crystal
City VA. Marketplace incentives for IPM adoption.
- April 2001. Ontario Food
Processors Association. Marketing IPM to consumers.
- August 2001. US EPA PREP, School
and Urban IPM Education Program, E. Lansing MI. Marketplace
incentives for IPM Adoption.
- We will present by initiation at the
international IPM Conference, Toronto, in March of 2002.
Finally, we published the following:
- Green, T.A. 2001.
"The use of pesticides in your IPM program." GEMPLER'S
IPM Solutions 6 (3).
- Green, T.A. 2001.
"Wisconsin potatoes to bear World Wildlife Fund panda."
GEMPLER'S IPM Solutions 6 (2).
- Green, T.A. 2001.
"Sampling: A key to IPM success." GEMPLER'S IPM
Almanac.
- Green, T.A. 2001. "Pest
Management in schools: An opportunity for IPM." GEMPLER'S
IPM Almanac.
- Green, T.A. 2001. "Areawide
pest management: Pooling resources against pests." GEMPLER'S
IPM Almanac.
- Green, T.A. 2001.
"Crossing the threshold to increased profits." GEMPLER'S
IPM Solutions 6 (1).
- Green, T.A. 2000. "Selling
IPM to consumers." GEMPLER'S IPM Solutions 5 (6).
- Green, T.A. 2000.
"IPM is part of program, but not this label." GEMPLER'S
IPM Solutions 5 (5).
- Green, T.A. 2000.
"IPM gains in the marketplace." GEMPLER'S IPM
Solutions 5 (4).
- Two editions of the IPM Institute
newsletter
Plans for the next year include:
- Review our progress and plans with our
board of directors via conference call.
- Fulfill our responsibilities under the
funded projects for US EPA and USDA SBIR. Continue to manage
certification for CORE Values.
- Continue to put our financial house in
order. Pursue additional funding opportunities and ensure we
have sufficient overhead built into these proposals so that we can
develop a budget for a full-time director of the Institute. We
believe we now have the established track record and degree of
organizational development to be successful with foundations in
addition to government sources.
- Obtain funding for and finalize hiring
of a community IPM certification coordinator. This individual
will manage our school IPM program including school certification
and the National IPM in Schools Week.
- Explore the potential to create an
IPM-based eco-label for non-food agricultural products, including
nursery crops and ornamentals, and for structural and landscape pest
management professionals. Examine the prospects of linking to
the school certification program, or existing food product
certification programs, to maximize consumer recognition. We
believe we can develop foundation support for this work, based on
our track record and the success of IPM-based certification in
agriculture.
- Explore the potential to create a
collaborative pesticide risk-ranking system with members of the
IPM-based eco-label community. How can we identify least-risk
options, and provide incentives for adoption of those options?
- Explore the potential for a project
with members of the organic community: How does the presence
of IPM-certified product impact same-store organic sales? How
can IPM-certified product be positioned to complement rather than
cannibalize organic sales?
- Continue to build our organizational
capabilities and strengthen our administrative procedures.
Best regards,
Thomas A. Green, Ph.D.
Board President
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