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Fields of Change

A New Crop of American Farmers Finds Alternatives to Pesticides

Table 2. Alternative Pest Management Methods Used and Extent of Pesticides Reduced

Farmer	Location	Crop(s)	Principle Pest Problems	Alternative Pest Management Strategies	Reductions in Synthetic Insecticide Use	Reductions in Synthetic Herbicide Use	Reductions in Synthetic Fungicide Use
Philip and Dorathy Barker	Oxford, NC	fresh market tomatoes, mixed vegetables, tobacc	tomato fruitworm, early and late blight, weeds	hot pepper sprays, Bt, cover crop during fallow period, crop diversity and rotations, black plastic mulch, drip tube irrigation	100% in tomatoes and mixed vegetables	0	0
Floyd Dahlman	Forsythe, MT	wheat, peas, livestock	weeds	legume, wheat, and cereal rotation	NA	66%	NA
Jerry Dobbins	Woodland, WA	raspberries	orange tortrix, oblique-banded leaf roller, mites, root rot	scouting, monitoring, beneficial insect releases	Costs for insecticide use reduced 30-40%	0	Costs for fungicide use reduced 30-40%
Jim and Deborah Durst	Esparto, CA	organic fresh market and processing tomatoes, mixed vegetables	tomato fruitworm, weeds, root rot, vascular wilts, powdery mildew	crop diversity and rotations, cover crops, scouting, early season planting, Bt, insecticidal soaps, pyrethrum, mechanical cultivations, hand hoeing, flame weeder, resistant cultivars	100%	100%	100%
Chris Edmonds	Sodus Bay, NY	apples	plum curculio, red mites, oblique- banded leaf roller, scab	scouting, monitoring, predatory mites, petroleum oil, mowing, cover crops	55%	80%	50%
Doyle Fleming	Orando, WA	apples	codling moth	dwarf tree plantings, tower sprayer, scouting, monitoring, pheromones, Ryania, Bt, petroleum oil	60%¹	0	0
Bunny and Peter Flint	Tunbridge, VT	dairy cows	weeds, flies	intensive rotational grazing, chickens for fly control	100%	100%	NA
Wayne Fussel	Ambrose, GA	cotton, peanuts	bollworm, budworm, beet armyworm, lesser corn stalk borer, leaf spot, white mold, weeds	cover crops, monitoring, scouting, Bt, minimum tillage	80% in cotton 100% in peanuts	76% in cotton and peanuts	58% in peanuts
Dennis Holbrook	Mission, TX	organic grapefruit	rust mites, armored scale, mealy bugs, leaf cutter ants, greasy spot, weeds	controlled growth of native vegetation, scouting, monitoring, sulfur, pyrethrum, diatomaceous earth	100%	100%	NA
Willard Jack	Belzoni, MS	rice, soybeans, cotton, corn	weeds, rice water weevil, sheath blight	precision grading of fields, winter flooding, minimum tillage, scouting, crop rotations	NA	66% in rice and soybeans	NA
Jackie Judice	Franklin, LA	sugarcane, soybeans, winter wheat	weeds, sugarcane stalk borer, wire worms	soil analysis, soil amendments, crop rotations	75% in sugarcane	56-79% in sugarcane	NA
John Ledbetter	Lodi, CA	wine grapes	variegated leaf- hopper, grape leaf- hopper, spider mites, powdery mildew, botrytis bunch rot	cover crops, prune trees, yellow sticky tape, low-volume shrouded sprayer, careful trellising, pruning, and leaf pulling	52-67%	52%	10%
D.C. McClure	Palmetto, FL	fresh market tomatoes	sweet potato white- flies, pinworm, southern armyworm, late blight, bacterial spot, weeds	scouting, monitoring, Bt	56-81%	0	50%
Craig McNamara	Winters, CA	walnuts	weeds, codling moth, walnut blight	cover crops, flame weeder, monitoring, scouting, pheromones	100% on organic acreage	acreage, 33% on remainder	NA
Paul Mugge	Sutherland, IA	corn, soybeans, hogs	weeds, northern corn rootworm	ridge-tillage, crop rotations, scouting	NA	46% in corn, 25% in soybeans	NA
Francis Otto	Suttons Bay, MI	tart cherries	plum curculio, cherry fruit flies, cherry leaf spot, brown rot, weeds	monitoring, scouting, alternate row spraying, border sprays, tower sprayer	60-70%	0	40-66%
Tyler and Cindy Perkins	Bernie, MO	cotton, soybeans, sorghum	weeds, thrips, cutworms, boll- worms, root knot nematodes	ridge-tillage, monitoring	33% in cotton	21% in cotton	NA
Clark Reeder	Parrish, FL	processing oranges	citrus red mite, spider mites, white- flies, greasy spot, post-bloom fruit drop, scab	scouting, monitoring, petroleum oil	79%²	0	See note 2
Tim and Jelaine Scannell	Eden, WI	dairy cows	weeds	intensive rotational grazing	NA	100%	NA
Mike and Darra Strohm	West Union, IL	corn, soybeans, wheat, sunflowers	weeds, cutworm	minimum tillage, crop rotations, cover crops, scouting	NA	25%	NA
John Wallendal	Grand Marsh, WI	potatoes	Colorado potato beetle, potato leaf- hoppers, aphids, early and late season blights	resistant seeds, monitoring, scouting, crop rotation, computer-controlled irrigation, WISDOM computer program	75%	0	33%
Jimmy and Susan Wedel	Muleshoe, TX	cotton, corn	weeds, cotton bollworm, thrips	irrigation manage- ment, mechanical cultivations, scouting, Bt	100% on organic acreage, 46% on remaining cotton acreage	100% on organic acreage	NA
Notes NA (Not Applicable) = This type of pesticide has not been and is not used. 1 This reduction applies to codling moth insecticide use only. 2 This figures includes a reduction in fungicide use since some compounds are applied to control both insects and diseases.