There’s another Farm Bill on the table in Congress.
This time, Michigan Democratic Sen. Gary Peters wants the bill to include the SWAT Act. "SWAT" is short for Spotted Wing Abatement Trust.
The legislation would boost funding for research on the spotted wing drosophila. The small invasive fruit fly has largely affected soft fruit — cherries, blueberries, raspberries, and more — since it first appeared in Michigan 13 years ago.
As it currently stands, the SWAT Act would create $6.5 million of annual funding for research over the next five years. Congress is expected to consider a new farm bill in 2028.
So far, funding for spotted wing drosophila research has come from a patchwork of state and federal grants, plus money from commodity interest groups and growers’ associations. Peters hopes his measure will offer some consistency.
A threat to tart cherries
Juliette King-McAvoy is the vice president of sales and marketing at King Orchards in Antrim County. She says the arrival of spotted wing drosophila has rapidly and dramatically altered farming in northwest Michigan, especially with tart cherries.
“Tart cherries used to be a relatively hands-off crop,” said King-McAvoy. “But now … the life cycle of the fruit fly is seven days or less. So that means that we have to be putting … pesticides out in the orchard about every seven days.”
In addition to increased labor and chemical costs for farmers, the fly lays its eggs in soft fruit, making entire blocks of fruit unsellable in particularly bad years.
According to Peters’ office, spotted wing drosophila results in $700 million in losses each year for American farmers.
But King-McAvoy says the past decade of research has helped farmers learn to more cost-effectively and safely control spotted wing drosophila, and more long-term funding would reinforce that work.
“If cherries are only harvested once a year and your grant is only for one year, you don't really get that much research done,” said King-McAvoy. “[The SWAT Act] is specific to spotted wing drosophila, but that infrastructure and those learnings are going to be applicable for the next invasive species.”
What we've learned so far
Michigan State University and MSU Extension’s Northwest Michigan Horticulture Research Center have been hubs for spotted wing drosophila research in Michigan over the last decade.
Nikki Rothwell, an extension fruit specialist at the center, says funding from the SWAT Act will expand and bolster existing efforts.
Past research led to breakthroughs like the center’s predictive model for spotted wing drosophila spreading throughout tart cherries. Rothwell says she believes it’s one of the few in the country that predicts the spread of the insect across a specific crop each season.
Michigan researchers have also been part of a 16-year effort to study samba wasps, a tiny parasitic wasp that preys on spotted wing drosophila without harm to fruit or native fruit fly species. The center has already released hundreds of wasps this season.
Rothwell says funding from the SWAT Act would also provide support for spotted wing drosophila research into fruit crops beyond tart cherries, like sweet cherries.
Juliette King-McAvoy says growers and researchers in Michigan have a close relationship, and that discoveries in the lab translate directly into improvements at the orchard.
“When I plant a cherry orchard, I intend that investment to last for 40 years. We plant a tree and we won’t even get our first crop off of it for seven years,” she said. “We need the research, and the horticultural practices, and the chemistries to help us keep that investment going and stay in business.”
Peters says he expects the bill to move out of the Senate at the end of September, where Congress will work to pass the legislation before the end of the year.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the 2023 Farm Bill could be the most expensive one yet, around an estimated $1.5 trillion. That would make it the first trillion-dollar Farm Bill in history.
Things like horticulture and research are expected to account for only about 0.2% of the bill's overall pricetag.
