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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 5, 2002
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Curtis Petzoldt
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Contact: Mary Woodsen, 607-255-7783
By Mary Woodsen
ITHACA, NY: Curtis Petzoldt, who develops innovative programs for managing pests on New York's 211,200 acres of vegetable farms, recently received a service award from Epsilon Sigma Phi, the national honorary Cooperative Extension fraternity. Petzoldt is the vegetable coordinator and assistant director of the New York State Integrated Pest Management (NYS IPM) Program, which promotes non- and least-toxic ways of dealing with pests.
"When we give these awards, we look for people who are creative, who provide solid, trustworthy information that anyone in the field can use with confidence," says David Hawley, the executive director of Cornell Cooperative Extension in Rensselaer County and co-chair of the Professional Recognition Committee of Epsilon Sigma Phi.
Petzoldt has been a driving force behind the Northeast Weather Association, a service that gathers data from a network of portable weather stations in farmers' fields, then uses it to provide up-to-the-minute forecasts of diseases and insects of crops ranging from apples to zucchini.
Petzoldt has also helped to link growers, processors, supermarkets, and consumers in providing and promoting IPM-grown and -labeled foods. Foods with the IPM label meet carefully developed guidelines for environmentally sound practices for growing them. This IPM label was among the first in the United States and is found on fresh and frozen goods at Wegmans Food Markets across the Northeast.
"This award means a lot because it comes from my peers, both in IPM and in Cooperative Extension," Petzoldt says. He was honored at an awards dinner at the annual meeting of the Association of Cornell Cooperative Extension Educators held on Wednesday, October 16.
