EAST LANSING, Mich. — Matthew Grieshop is extremely excited about all things organic, and he’s looking forward to sharing that enthusiasm with his students, as well as producers in the field.

Grieshop was appointed an assistant professor of entomology at Michigan State University in October. MSU is the biggest campus he’s been at so far, and he is still getting used to the various departments and all of the links between them. His appointment is divided between his extension activities, the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences and the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station, a place he describes as “like a college unto its own.”

Grieshop was most recently at Washington State University, where he served as a postdoctoral research assistant, beginning in 2005.

He received his doctorate from Kansas State University that same year, and a master’s degree from Montana State University in 1999. He started his higher education at the University of California at Santa Cruz, with a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies. Grieshop is originally from Davis, Calif. Bugs – especially those that bother producers and threaten their livelihood – are Grieshop’s specialty, but his approach is totally organic.

“Organic is interesting because it suggests you should be handling pest management problems on a systems level,” he said. But what does that mean for a producer? For Grieshop, ideally it means that producers won’t use toxic pesticides, if at all possible.

An example of an organic approach to pest control, he said, is when a producer with a large grain field is able to break it up with a stand of trees that can serve as a kind of break, or even some woods. Research shows that breaking up a very large field inhibits the movement of pests across an entire crop.

Grieshop acknowledges that the practicality of such practices is a matter of some debate and research. Yet, in general, he believes “organic is an up-and-coming thing. It seems to be gaining momentum. Within Michigan, the farmers have been on the forefront of developing these systems.”

Grieshop hopes to sell organic as an up-and-coming thing to the MSU community. “One of the goals for my position is to create a more cohesive voice for organic farming at MSU,” he said.

Doing interesting things with bugs instead of toxic chemicals is where it’s at for this 34-year-old newly-minted professor. As a postdoctoral research assistant, he studied the effectiveness of using a tiny wasp to get rid of the codling moth, a tree fruit pest that likes to get into the food supply.

The trichogramma wasps are tiny parasitic creatures barely visible to the naked eye. They attack the eggs of the codling moth when released into an area where the moths are propagating.

“It works incredibly well,” Grieshop said of the mating disruption technique.

Another new addition to MSU is Janet Lewis, who became an assistant professor of crop and soil sciences in October. She’s also affiliated with the experiment station. “I’m primarily interested in improving wheat varieties for adaptation to the state of Michigan and the surrounding region,” Lewis said. “The research and the improvement of the crop are priorities that go hand in hand for me.”

In particular, Lewis is interested in increasing wheat’s resistance to fusarium head blight, in part by lowering the levels of mycotoxin, a toxin produced by a fungus. “Fusarium head blight has caused regular problems in Michigan, and is a major concern for producers and processors of wheat,” she said.

Although Lewis doesn’t have an official extension appointment, she wants to maintain “good lines of communication” with producers and growers.