We Don’t Leave Footprints Behind - Rob

When I was younger I was an avid backpacker and hiker, hiking the Long Trail in Vermont and many sections of the Appalachian Trail. The hiker’s mantra was and is, “Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints.” That was the woodman’s creed to leave nothing behind but your footprints and pack out ALL of your trash.

The older I get, the more the lessons of my youth become stronger. This early life experience of hiking the trails gave me a lifelong commitment to try to live up to the creed.

Today I run a company that develops and markets environmentally responsible products for a variety of industries including agriculture, horticulture, aquatics and retail Home and Garden. BioSafe Systems lives the creed. Our products Leave No Foot Prints Behind.

All of the products developed and marketed by BioSafe Systems adhere to this simple requirement. Our products are 100% biodegradable, and within days of application it is almost impossible detect that they ever existed.

When we started BioSafe Systems in 1996, the idea of marketing pesticides that had no residual was counter to the prevailing standards. Growers and applicators wanted long-lasting and toxic residuals, so that they would have to spray less often to kill and suppress the target.

Sixteen years later society and the market have finally caught up to our vision. The market is demanding effective and powerful pest control products that do the job, but do not leave behind any residual that could affect the health of people, animals and the environment.

It makes me proud that our BioSafe Systems team is helping to make our world a better place. For every pound of product that we make available to our customers, we are replacing a pound of more toxic and residual pesticides.

Spring Cleaning & SaniDate - Kelly

Just when we thought spring was on its way - snow falls in CT. For those of you who want to get an early start on their spring cleaning here are are some places around your home that sometimes get overlooked (it's not just about dusting and vacuuming people!)

• Refrigerator
• Oven
• Microwave
• Trash & Recycling Containers

SaniDate Ready to Use Hard Surface Sanitizer can easily take care of cleaning up the aforementioned spots in your house. SaniDate works great at eliminating odors as well. Hopefully none of you have foul smelling furniture, but if you do - give it a few sprays. Helps with pets too, my mother-in-law is currently potty training two beagle puppies. She uses SaniDate on "accidents" because it removes the odor and we know the area is sanitized and clean as well. Below is a picture that I took of one of the beagles, Dixie. Isn't she a cutie?

Downy Woodpecker - Kelly

This Downy Woodpecker has managed to get himself seated on the feeder. I guess it beats hanging on! The trees and flowers may be dormant and brown - but there is still a ton of life hustling and bustling in winter.

Killer Cantaloupes - Rob

“Cause of death: Eating a cantaloupe.” Do you want to have that placed in your obituary? 

This summer, 29 people died after eating cantaloupe grown from Jensen’s Farm in Rocky Ford, Colorado. Federal investigators determined that the cantaloupes grown and packed at Jensen Farm were contaminated with Listeria. 

Later in the investigation officials disclosed that just prior to the outbreak, the farm and packing operation had been audited by a third party auditor and were given a very high rating, no problems found. Tell that to the families of the victims.

To bring this into perspective, there were no deaths of US servicemen in Iraq during the month of Aug 2011 when the outbreak in Colorado first broke. It was more dangerous to eat a melon than to be a US marine in Iraq in the summer of 2011.

Consider this: you are less likely to get sick from any hot dog stand anywhere in the country. The meat that is served has been packed and inspected by a FDA inspector on not just a once a year basis, but on a continuing inspection cycle.

Your local vegetable farmer, on the other hand, has no local, state or federal inspector checking on his operation. He is free to use whatever practices he chooses as long as his commercial pesticide is registered by the US EPA and the individual state authorities. However, no one is actually inspecting what they do.

The organic establishment is not any better, because the majority of organic growers never met organisms that they didn’t like. Many growers practice using “teas” of composted waste. This can be an effective practice when done correctly but can go wrong when done poorly.

So the road stand can be more deadly than the local hot dog vendor. Our recent Food Safety Act has exempted most small farms but they can as easily pose a real danger as any large farm.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m a card-carrying advocate of small government and have a severe distrust of any government official that says they are going to help. I do know that this problem is an industry-wide issue that will involve the coordinated effort by the growers, packers, brokers, transporters and most importantly the retailers.

The American public has indicated that they are willing to pay more for food safety. Our food retailers are going to have to accept some of the responsibility and not try to squeeze the farmers and brokers by putting the risk on them. This will be a shared expense that includes service providers, such as BioSafe Systems, who provide chemical agents and equipment. This is something that we will all have a responsibility to make right.

Looks are Deceiving! -Kelly

This candy-striped leafhopper may look pretty, but it feasts on your plants creating tiny holes in foliage! I managed to capture this photograph in the summer. Little did I know it was eating up my garden! 

Apples, Oh Boy! - Kelly

Have you gone apple picking yet? It seems as if facebook and other social media sites are being bombarded with pictures of people and their adventures to local orchards. I myself have joined the apple harvest craze when I visited Scott's Orchard in East Lyme, CT last weekend. My boyfriend is often tempted to eat apples right off the trees. I discouraged him when I warned him of the chemicals and pesticides that they might have sprayed as well as bacteria carried from animals and insects that could be on the fruit. Personally, it's worth waiting the drive home to wash and sanitize the apples before consuming them. SaniDate Ready to Use Fruit & Vegetable Wash is a product I use to ensure the apples I bring home are actually clean, it puts this germaphobe's mind at ease. Enjoy some pictures of my apple adventure below!

Lettuce in the Fall - Kelly

Have you thought about planting your lettuce already? With fall approaching some of us are getting excited for cooler temperature crops! 
Lettuce is an easy crop to grow in the fall since it does well under cooler conditions. Plant when temperatures are around 40-60 degrees to ensure it's survival, but be aware that a hard freeze will damage your lettuce. In most cases lettuce can survive light freezes. It's still in the low 80's here in CT so we'll be waiting a little while to start planting.