As most know from experience, summer sun can take its toll on your skin. Like people, fruits and vegetables can also suffer damaging effects from the sun. With climate change and drought facing several of the world’s major centers for agriculture, sun-damage is beginning to affect the quality, production quantity, and price of produce on a global scale. In response to this phenomenon, the California Company Purfresh is developing an SPF 45 “Sunscreen” product for fruits and veggies. The Sunscreen, known as Purshade, is currently being tested in Australia, Chile, and California, including Amador County‘s Shenandoah Valley. The product is composed of multi-crystalline calcium carbonate crystals, and is engineered to deflect ultraviolet and infrared light from the plants and trees on which it is sprayed. “We are where Silicon Valley meets the Central Valley,“ said Purfresh chief executive David Cope. “We are using technology to address food and water availability, which affects consumer prices.” Plants react to sun stress in a similar way to humans- they perspire. Plant perspiration, a process called transpiration, means that the more temperatures rise, the more water plants need. Sunspots on a fruit or vegetable can be the deciding factor on whether a farmer will sell the product for the lowest price to be made into juice, or will send it to the more lucrative fresh fruit market. In the Shenandoah Valley, Dick Cooper of Cooper Vineyards has been growing 100 acres of premium wine grapes since the 1980s. He normally uses vine canopies to shade his grapes, but this year is the second year he has sprayed Purshade sunscreen on several of his blocks of white grape varietals. Cooper says that during the crush the calcium carbonate crystals drop to the bottom of the fermentation tanks, so the delicate taste of the wine is not affected.
Tuesday, 05 August 2008 04:29
Shenandoah Valley Tests New Plant Suncreen
As most know from experience, summer sun can take its toll on your skin. Like people, fruits and vegetables can also suffer damaging effects from the sun. With climate change and drought facing several of the world’s major centers for agriculture, sun-damage is beginning to affect the quality, production quantity, and price of produce on a global scale. In response to this phenomenon, the California Company Purfresh is developing an SPF 45 “Sunscreen” product for fruits and veggies. The Sunscreen, known as Purshade, is currently being tested in Australia, Chile, and California, including Amador County‘s Shenandoah Valley. The product is composed of multi-crystalline calcium carbonate crystals, and is engineered to deflect ultraviolet and infrared light from the plants and trees on which it is sprayed. “We are where Silicon Valley meets the Central Valley,“ said Purfresh chief executive David Cope. “We are using technology to address food and water availability, which affects consumer prices.” Plants react to sun stress in a similar way to humans- they perspire. Plant perspiration, a process called transpiration, means that the more temperatures rise, the more water plants need. Sunspots on a fruit or vegetable can be the deciding factor on whether a farmer will sell the product for the lowest price to be made into juice, or will send it to the more lucrative fresh fruit market. In the Shenandoah Valley, Dick Cooper of Cooper Vineyards has been growing 100 acres of premium wine grapes since the 1980s. He normally uses vine canopies to shade his grapes, but this year is the second year he has sprayed Purshade sunscreen on several of his blocks of white grape varietals. Cooper says that during the crush the calcium carbonate crystals drop to the bottom of the fermentation tanks, so the delicate taste of the wine is not affected.
