Robert Van Den Bosch: Stop the Pesticide Conspiracy
(Page 8 of 12)
July/August 1979
By the Mother Earth News staff
PLOWBOY: While it's clear that a college professor can be vulnerable to the malicious efforts of the pesticide mafia, such men and women are-in part-protected by their positions. But what sort of damage could be done to the career of a just-graduated student who's been through the training that your department provides? If that young person goes out into the world to fight for integrated pest control, will he or she be in for a lot of trouble?
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VAN DEN BOSCH: There have been some isolated instances in which that's been the case. By and large, however, our students usually manage to find suitable positions . . . although many of the available jobs—in agricultural experiment stations or with the USDA—fall far short of the ideal for folks who want to push integrated control ideas. But, despite some drawbacks, getting our students placed does help spread ecological pest management ideas around.
PLOWBOY: Of course, the successes of the few integrated control programs that are already in existence help to get the word out, too.
VAN DEN BOSCH: Definitely. And we've had some pretty spectacular "winners".
" The signs of breakdown and backlash are becoming very apparent . . . and some of us who have been screaming warnings for a long time are beginning to see our predictions come true. "
For instance, the cotton growers of the San Joaquin valley were, not long ago, involved in about the nastiest pesticide treadmill imaginable. Some farmers were actually bankrupted as a result of it! The problem was caused by indiscriminate crop spraying . . . which was supposed to control the population of lygus bugs. However, the excessive use of pesticides brought about a secondary outbreak of the cotton bollworm. And, not only were these infestations devastating, but little could be done to contain the bollworms, because they had developed resistance to many poisons . . . and since the worms bore into cotton plants, they are thus protected from sprays.
After some extensive research on the subject, my colleague Louis Falcon and I—with the help of other entomologists were able to come up with an integrated solution. Basically, we adjusted the lygus-bug spraying so it would only be done at those times and places that such action was really necessary. This allowed the bollworm's natural enemies to stage a comeback. The solution was so effective that I recently had to send one of my graduate students to Mexico to finish his thesis on the bollworm.
PLOWBOY: Because there weren't sufficient numbers of the insects left in the San Joaquin valley?
VAN DEN BOSCH: That's right. And as an added bonus, the per-acre insecticide costs for that region dropped from $11.97 to $4.94, while crop yields actually went up from $247 per acre to over $270!
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