05/11/07 Less Pesticides

Less Pesticides. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Okay. In a perfect world you as a ag producers would get your crop in the ground and it would grow to it's fullness, you'd harvest it and everything would be hunky-dory. But since there are all sorts of curves in the road and things like disease and bad weather and insects  that perfect world is just a pipe dream. But instead of pouring more and more pesticides onto your crops, wouldn't it be nice to back off&a lot? First it would save you a lot of money and second, there's the whole environmental issue. Kim Kaplan with the USDA's Agricultural Research Service says states like California and Florida have been pouring a lot of money into the eradication of things like fruit flies. KAPLAN: If fruit flies became established in the U.S., med fly, oriental, fruit fly, melon fly; it could do untold damage and require the use of a lot of pesticides to control. So states like California and Florida which are very hospitable to tropical fruit flies, eradicate every infestation they find of these fruit flies. Growers in these states used to use massive amounts of pesticides at the highest concentrations. KAPLAN: And of course that introduces a huge burden of pesticides into the environment. Kaplan says these states have invested 25 to 30 years into research to try and relieve the heavy use of pesticides. KAPLAN: We're talking 8000 fold cut. A huge cut in pesticide use. So what is the secret? KAPLAN: A lot of it is most recently ARS has developed very specific baits and lures  pheromone lures that draw in just these specific fruit flies, but very well and therefore they don't escape the immediate area where they're being found so that they don't have to spread the pesticide over as wide an area and we've found better pesticides that kill off these fruit flies along with these baits and lures and traps so that we're eradicating them before they spread. So both specifically in each treatment we're using less pesticide and we're having to treat less area and less times. So how does all this help the growers in the Northwest? KAPLAN: ARS itself doesn't go to each state and treat each stat differently. What it does is work with the state so that they're aware of the latest technology and then the state itself applies it. ARS is also working to develop new biological based pesticides that can easily replace current pesticides that may be marked for a phase out by the EPA. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.