The farm portion of Bishops orchards has started a Community Supported
Agriculture program this year. And as part of that program our subscribers
are sent weekly farm updates. One of the most important issues addressed
by the program director has been the topic of IPM or Integrated Pest
Management, organics and how the two relate and how they differ. Based
on the type of questions we get from our store customers in regard to
pest management and the “why aren’t you organic” issue,
we feel an overview of the topic would be excellent to provide for our
customers and employees.
The definition of organics is very simple: the use of only products
derived from natural sources, thereby using no synthetic chemicals or
fertilizers. The definition of IPM is not so simple.
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The following are 3 IPM definitions:
From the
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations:
IPM is an ecosystem approach to crop production that combines
different management strategies and practices to grow a healthy
crop and minimize the use of pesticides. FAO promotes IPM as the
preferred approach to crop production and regards it as a pillar
of sustainable crop production.
California Department of Pesticide Regulation:
IPM is a pest management strategy that focuses on long term prevention
or suppression of pest problems through a combination of techniques
such as monitoring for pest presence and establishing treatment
threshold levels, using non-chemical practices to make the habitat
less conducive to pest development, improving sanitation, and
employing mechanical and physical controls. Pesticides that pose
the least possible hazard and are effective in a manor that minimizes
risks to people, property, and the environment, are used only
after careful monitoring indicates they are needed according to
pre-established guidelines and treatment thresholds.
Environmental Protection Agency: IPM is an effective
and environmentally sensitive approach to pest management that
relies on a combination of common sense practices. IPM programs
use current, comprehensive information on the lifecycles of pests
and their interaction with the environment. This information,
in combination with available pest control methods, is used to
manage pest damage by the most economical means, and with the
least possible hazard to people, property, and the environment.
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Early farming was obviously all “organic.” Pest control
for Nathan Hale’s family, farmers in the Coventry, CT area in
the mid-late 1700’s, was to send crews of people out in the orchard
and pick bugs from the trees! Organic co mpounds
continued to be the backbone of most farms into the mid 1900’s.
Unfortunately, some of those “organic products” contained
lead, nicotine, arsenic, and mercury. Synthetics came fast and furious
in the middle of the century without a strong concern for long-term
ramifications. Thankfully, things began to change, and in the 1960’s,
researchers first used the term IPM, by 1975, the United States Department
of Agriculture (USDA) cooperative extension service had an IPM program
in every state. The writing was on the wall; constant spraying of pesticides
to maintain orchard sanitation was not a sustainable way to go. This
is also around the same time the “organic movement” took
hold in small pockets through out the country. Both ideas took hold
around the same time, both made substantial progress over the next forty
years and both had a goal of long term sustainability as it related
to farming and land stewardship. One, however, was a simple, easy to
understand and highly marketable program, while the other was almost
unknown beyond agricultural and university circles and was a more difficult
concept. The main difference between them is one chooses organic only
products, while the other can, when needed, incorporate synthetically
produced products.
An Organic program is easier to follow in vegetables than in fruit trees,
and from a commercial standpoint, easier in the west than east. The east’s
humid
wet summers make for conditions that make large scale organic farming
economically unviable for us. IPM lets us manage our crops in the most
prudent fashion while maintaining an economic viability that allows us
to keep an ongoing stewardship of the land. We, in addition to our own
scouting, employ an independent pest advisor that surveys the orchard
once a week. We look for predators (good bugs) as well as harmful insects.
What does this mean in terms of what we do? Let’s look
at a few examples:
Pear psylla is, potentially, one of the biggest problems we face with
pears, but by monitoring for egg hatch in the spring and spraying oil
(organic product) at the time of egg hatch, we can get season long control.
Peach tree bore is a serious problem, and in the past the only control
was to spray. Now with newer technology we use mating disruptors. They
look like twist ties, but have a pheromone that confuses the insects
into not mating. Sprays are no longer required.
Many growers use fumigants to prevent soil borne problems with strawberries.
We use Sudan grass which has natural fumigant properties.
Cucumber beetles are a big problem with squash. Crop rotation will minimize
the problem, but we have gone further. By planting a perimeter of Hubbard
squash (which attracts Cucumber Beetles) around their green and yellow
squash, then, using a backpack sprayer, only spray the Hubbard squash,
thereby reducing or eliminating sprays on the squash they harvest (and
you eat). The Hubbard squash is not harvested, but
only used as a tool.
Mites used to be a huge problem (and still are for many growers),
but by maintaining predator numbers in the orchard we no longer need
to spray for them (and probably have not for over ten years). We achieve
this by judicious use and selection of the products we use for other
pests.
We are proud of the significant effort we employ to minimize our environmental
footprint while balancing the need to be economically viable. We have
achieved this using a sound, structured IPM program. I am confident
in our products, our safety, and our long-term future as a farm here
in Guilford, CT.
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Brad
Isnard, our Warehouse Manager, hails from the West Coast, and grew
up and worked on an orchard before moving to CT. He has worked for
Bishop's since 1990, involving farm production, packing, cider making,
quality control and wholesaling. He proposed and is managing our 
