De-Bugging Your Food

Reported January 2007

DAVIS, Calif. (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- Before your food makes it to your refrigerator or even the supermarket, it often starts on a farm. And with the lay of the land comes a farmer's worst nightmare! They're creepy. They're crawly. And you want 'em gone. We're talking about bugs, and if they get under your skin, just imagine how farmers feel.

It's a never-ending battle to save their crops, but pesticides are proven to hurt the environment and our health. Five-million pounds of pesticides a year are used to zap bugs and insects that burrow down on fruits and veggies. But these colorless, odorless gasses pose a threat to the environment and to you.

So before biting into another apple, check out a new, safer alternative. Physical Chemist Manuel Lagunas-Solar, Ph.D., is creating a new pest control system called Metabolic Stress Disinfection and Disinfestation, or MSDD.

"This method that doesn't use chemicals but uses forces and controls the air to achieve the same objective," Dr. Lagunas-Solar tells Ivanhoe.

After the food is harvested, it's put into a chamber where a vacuum is applied, reducing air pressure by about 90 percent. Repeating this cycle kills bugs, their eggs, and controls microbes that spoil food.

Dr. Lagunas-Solar says, "We eliminate the oxygen, and at the same time we replace it with carbon dioxide, which is a toxic chemical."

Unlike most pesticides used today, MSDD is non-toxic to humans and is entirely safe for the environment, making it a simple fix to a pesky problem. The next challenge is to apply MSDD on a commercial level. Dr. Lagunas-Solar believes the chambers will be easy to develop on a large enough scale for farmers to use.

The American Society for Microbiology contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Manuel Lagunas-Solar, Ph.D.
University of California-Davis' Crocker Nuclear Lab
(213) 341-0732
solar@crocker.ucdavis.edu

American Society for Microbiology
Washington, DC 20036-2904
(202) 737-3600
http://www.asm.org

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