inger wilt, caused by a bacterium known as Ralstonia solanacearum (Smith) Yabuuchi, is the most limiting factor in the production of culinary gin- ger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) in Hawaii. The disease was responsible for a 45 percent statewide production loss of the ginger crop in 1993. It is a complex and dif- ficult disease to control, infecting the ginger crop through all phases of a production cycle. It is present systemi- cally in seed rhizomes as both an active and latent in- fection that contaminates seed-pieces when they are cut and prepared for field planting. In open-field production, even when disease-free starting materials are used in a clean field, it is difficult for a grower to prevent introduction of the disease from nearby diseased fields by means such as water runoff (as described by Trujillo, 1964) and human, equipment, and animal traffic. In fact, it is becoming more difficult for ginger farmers in the eastern part of the Island of Hawaii to find suitable planting areas that are not al- ready contaminated by the ginger wilt bacteria. The availability of methyl bromide for use as a pre-planting soil fumigant against this pathogen is gradually being phased out by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Alternative disease management approaches have to be sought for ginger production to remain vi- able in Hawaii. The greenhouse production system we describe in this publication was inspired by a "noncirculating hy- droponic method" (Kratky 1998). Tissue-cultured gin- ger plantlets produced at PBARC in Hilo provided clean,

The course will consider the relationship between discourse and nature. Through a variety of readings, lectures, discussions, interactive exercises, written work, and presentations, the course will explore the scope and character of a wide range of public discourses around environmental affairs. Combining theoretical material with examples, it will address the following topics: the cultural and social contexts of environmental discourse; the social construction of nature and environmental issues; theories of communication; approaches to the analysis of a variety of forms of environmental discourse; and the representation of nature and environmental issues in a variety of fora covering a range of environmental viewpoints. Emphasis is on the analysis and understanding of the rhetoric of environmental texts.