Clean Light, Arne Aiking’s boyhood dream
UV plant protection, a worldwide breakthrough
Perhaps ‘world-class inventor’ is the best way to describe Arne Aiking. The Canadian with Scandinavian and Dutch roots said goodbye to Canada and came to the Netherlands to research and market his ideas on plant protection using UV light. Just one year later, Aiking turned the world of fungicides on its head. He made it possible to sustainably fight fungi on various greenhouse crops and the notorious phytophthora, or potato blight, without using chemical fungicides and without leaving any residue on the crops. The story of one pioneer who made a world of a difference…
Aiking: “In Canada I was a forester for a Swedish engineering firm. In 1992 I was supposed to pick up some trees from a nursery for reforestation, but due to circumstances they were picked up later than they were supposed to be, and fungus had begun to grow on them. The supplier said: ‘Arne, if that Swedish company you work for could come up with a system that puts a bit of UV light under those trees, my fungus problems would be over’. That idea kept floating around in my head. So thanks to that supplier’s cynical joke when I came to pick up some trees, I was inspired with the idea of fighting fungi with UV light.”
Reliable research climate
It would take another 13 years before Aiking would dust off and develop the idea. “I wanted to develop the technique in the Netherlands. A baby is dependent on the goodwill and reliability of the people around him. Wageningen researchers have relatively secure jobs. In America, researchers never know whether they will have a job the next year. They might steal your idea or ask a colleague to request a patent. Besides, they wouldn’t have wanted me at Cornell University in New York. At Cornell you see awards from all the biggest chemical companies hanging in every office. If I‘d told people there that my idea would enable them to drastically cut down on the use of their fungicides, I’d never have made it this far. In Wageningen, I did.”
Breakthrough on phytophthora
Originally, Aiking thought his product would only be suitable for greenhouse horticulture. But UV light has also been proven effective against phytophthora: “Dr. Geert Kessel has shown that with 10 mJ of UV light per cm2, and that is a very safe dosage, the spores are more or less unable to germinate. If you don’t take any measures, 25 percent of spores do germinate. The same dosage is needed to kill fungi. So UV light is an attractive method for greenhouse tomatoes, cucumbers, spring onions and peppers, but it is even more valuable for use on potatoes. About 80 percent of all chemicals in Europe are used to combat phytophthora.”
Out of his own pocket
Clean Light has developed rapidly. “I was able to incorporate my company within a year, and 12 months later I had EU and TCP patents, licensees and working equipment. And some of the big growers’ chains are already working with us. They’re interested in us because they can support their growers with this method while imposing stricter standards. The Dutch horticultural sector is interested, they’re open to new ideas. And there is a certain mood in the Netherlands right now, making innovation a must. It’s almost like it’s magic, the solution for everything. And there’s also an awareness that artificial fungicides are bad. The Netherlands wants its entrepreneurs in research to succeed. So the stars are aligned well here. I strolled into town, like a foreigner. That a foreigner with ‘just an idea’ is tolerated in this country, even though he didn’t have a shred of evidence that the idea would work, is very nice. I had no network whatsoever here. But I came knocking on the door in Wageningen, where the food industry network is based, and in no time I was welcomed into that network. A single innovation is fragile. You can always fall flat on your face. But bit by bit I am becoming convinced that Clean Light will make it. A boyhood dream come true? Yes, that’s the way I see it.’
Winner of the AgroVak Agriculture Award
Fungi on tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, but also on gerberas, lettuce and flower bulbs, and even mildew on roses: all of these can be eliminated by Clean Light’s UV plant protection method. Research Report no. 395 from the Applied Plant Research institute at Wageningen University has confirmed that the UV plant protection method is also very effective at killing spores of Phythophtora Infestans at a dosage of just 10 mJ per cm2. Aside from the savings on costly chemical fungicides, it is also a method that can be applied in close proximity to people, animals and surface water, even if it is raining or windy.
Moreover, the UV plant protection method is sustainable. European agriculture’s strictest regulatory body, SKAL, has confirmed that the method meets its standards. Organic farmers who protect their plants using the UV method do not jeopardize their EKO certificate. Non-organic farmers know that “if SKAL says it’s ok, then other certifying institutions will allow it too.” The UV plant protection method is protected by a European patent. Together, Clean Light and Dubex (which developed the equipment) won the 2006 AgroVak Award in the agriculture category.