Dad and I had a chance to slip away this week to go to a grower meeting in Adams\u00a0 County.\u00a0\u00a0 Events like this are a good opportunity to see what other growers are doing, and learn from the Extension and Agriculture staff at Penn State.<\/p>\n
One of the entomologists observed that it is much harder for growers today than it was 30-40 years ago.\u00a0 Back then, there were a few standard sprays that could be applied on a fixed period, and as long as the period was maintained, they did a pretty good job of killing most of the pests.\u00a0 But they were “broad spectrum” insecticides that killed most of the insects in the field.\u00a0 Regulations enacted in the 90’s forced us to consider not only human health, but “environmental” considerations as part of the pesticide approval process.\u00a0 Long story short, most of those insecticides are gone and were replaced with the idea of Integrated Pest Management (IPM).<\/p>\n
We subscribed to IPM early on, because it decreases the total cost of pest management while maintaining good quality.\u00a0 The basic idea is that you monitor the bugs in your field, only treat when projected damage reaches an economic threshold, and then try to treat only the pests that are causing problems while maintaining as many predator insects as possible.\u00a0 This requires a lot of vigilance by scouting for problems, and laying traps for the bad insects so that we can determine their populations.\u00a0 It also requires a great deal of care in selecting sprays that target exactly the right pest at the right time, in order to do the least damage to the beneficial insects.\u00a0 So where we used to have a half-dozen go-to sprays, we now have many more.<\/p>\n
Which brings me back to the problem of progress.\u00a0 In the “green revolution” of the 50’s and 60’s, the average extension agent may have projected that science would make\u00a0fruit growing\u00a0a lot easier by the next century.\u00a0 But I don’t think it has turned out that way:<\/p>\n
Where we used to have a few sprays, we now have many.\u00a0 And we need to rotate their use so that they continue to maintain their effect on bugs that are always trying to evolve resistance.\u00a0 And not only the bugs evolve, but so do people’s tolerance for anything synthetic.\u00a0 Where there used to be a belief that science was advancing humankind, many people now are skeptical of anything man-made\u00a0used to improve the quality of their food.<\/p>\n
Our sprays are definitely safer (for the environment and for people).\u00a0 But despite that,\u00a0the regulations to use them are far more stringent, and some would say, inane.\u00a0 It takes a good deal of work to figure out exactly how to comply with the constraints of re-entry period, pre-harvest interval, and maximum seasonal application quantities, all of which may differ by type of fruit even for the same chemical (don’t ask me why).\u00a0 In other words, we have federal rules that say that a particular fruit with a particular\u00a0spray is so safe, it\u00a0can be eaten immediately after treatment, but it is unlawful for a worker to enter the field within 24 hours after treatment.\u00a0 Say what?<\/p>\n
And all of those regulations make the development cycle of new treatments very expensive.\u00a0 It takes millions of dollars and many years to prove a new chemical is safe (for people and the environment) and effective.\u00a0 And it needs to be proven on every crop that will be treated, which means lots of replication.\u00a0 So many companies just skip the odd fruits because the cost is more than the benefit\u00a0– which can lead to situations where there is no (legal) way to treat unusual fruits or vegetables against pests, which leads to continued monoculture.\u00a0 (The Farm Bill provides some funds to help with this problem, which is another good reason to support that legislation.)<\/p>\n
Future posts will examine the new complexities brought about by invasive species and pathogens.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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