Personally, I believe that there is an option between conventional and organic products. That option is the use of the Integrated Pest Management System. For a number of years, I worked at the Guelph Farmer's Market selling apples and apple products for Brantview Apples and Cider. At Brantview, Jay Howell and his family use the IPM system to control pests and diseases in the orchard. I've heard Jay describe this program to customers a few times and I find it quite interesting.
On a weekly basis a person, often a university student, will go into the orchards to look for problematic pests and diseases. If the population of a pest exceeds a threshold (which is unique to each type of pest), then measures will be put into place to control its population. As long as a pest remains below its threshold they will leave it as pests will often become beneficial predators by eating more problematic pests later in the season.
To deal with pests that have passed their threshold there are different options. One unique method of pest control is the use of twist ties that are impregnated with female fruit moth pheromone. The ties are attached to the trees and the male moths who are searching for a female with whom to mate will find only a twist tie and will either leave or die. IPM uses various natural pest control methods, but if it is necessary Brantview will use pesticides to control pests that have gotten out of control. The interesting thing is that Brantview Apples is in the bottom 5% of pesticide spraying in the province- including organic apple growers!
What are your thoughts on organic growing? Is the use of a pest management system like IPM a viable option for our current food systems? Did you know that organic farming is not always the most environmentally friendly way of growing food? Try going to a farmer's market sometime and ask the vendors about their pest management strategies. You might hear some interesting responses!
I have also looked into the idea of IPM and have even talked to my dad about it. The idea of IPM is actually quite traditonal; farmers walking through a field, assessing the "trouble spots" of pests and then treating these particular spots.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it is also possible with large-scale and industrial farming methods, such as my family's. Using remote sensing technologies and other techniques, a farmer can obtain information about the same "trouble spots" without having to walk through a large field, and feed this information to GPS-equipped sprayers that will dispense only the necessary amount of pesticide for each unique location in the field. When I enquired why my dad didn't use this technology, the answer I got was money... These technologies require a large investment, even in cases such as his where his tractor is already equipped with GPS auto-steer.
Even though there are economic and environmental benefits to practicing IPM and using fewer chemicals, it can still be a large hurdle for mainstream adoption. I think, however, in coming years IPM will become more feasible and thus more common for industrial agriculture, which is a major source of pesticide use.
Thanks Jeannette!
DeleteIt's neat to hear another first-hand experience of IPM because I've never actually seen it in action myself. I would say that the idea of using GPS equipment to implement this program is definitely a good use of new technologies. It will definitely be interesting to see the way agriculture in Canada will move in the next five or ten years.