Environmental Issues: Health
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 | |||||||
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