 THE POTENTIAL IMPACT OF ICE-MINUS BACTERIA AS A FROST PROTECTANT IN NEW YORK TREE FRUIT PRODUCTIONJohn M. Love and William H. Lesser Northeastern Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 1989, vol. 18, issue 01, 9 Abstract: Ice-nucleating bacteria, which are known to occur naturally on many crops and have been associated with frost damage, may be subject to control with genetically engineered bacteria, dubbed "ice-minus" bacteria. Ice-minus technology is designed to depress the critical temperature at which frost damage begins by displacing the natural population of ice-nucleating organisms. A trial product has been tested in the field with strawberries. Although tests with bacteriacidal compounds have suggested other mechanisms for controlling the critical temperature in deciduous fruit crops, ice-minus may prove to be effective. This analysis examines the possibility of ice-minus being adopted by New York tree-fruit growers and the likelihood of it causing a major economic impact on the state's fruit industry. Based on the climatology, phenology of fruit trees, and the record of actual frost damage in New York, the need for ice-minus is apparently not great enough to conclude that its adoption would cause a significant impact on New York fruit production. Keywords: Crop; Production/Industries (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:nejare:28801 Access Statistics for this article More articles in Northeastern Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics from Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association Contact information at EDIRC. |
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