RE: Consider the Potato
Bob MacGregor (RDMACGREGOR@gov.pe.ca)
Thu, 12 Sep 1996 11:54:37 -0400
I am more comfortable as a "lurker", but I felt impelled to respond to Bill
Duesing's article in my earlier submittal. I was gratified to see that other
people shared my concern for a more balanced, levelheaded approach
to the push for a more sustainable agriculture. Several people who
responded seemed to be asking "who is this guy, anyway", (albeit very
politely).
I am a resource economist currently working for the Prince Edward
Island Department of Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry. I became a
resource economist in the hopes of being better able to give nature its
due when development decisions were being made. For eight years I
was a wildlife biologist doing environmental consulting work in Ft. Collins,
CO. During that time, I saw, time after time, decisions being made by
accountants and engineers who had little discernable appreciation for
the value of natural systems (as opposed to extractable natural
resources). A blind defense of natural systems as being "priceless" is
not very effective; I wanted to be able to estimate the dollar-denominated
value of resources, and environmental amenities for which there is no
established market. It is a daunting task -- and one which is, to my
regret, peripheral to my current job. I spend half my work time
evaluating risk in agriculture -- for insurance purposes -- and the other
half doing miscellaneous policy analyses for the Department.
I own and live on a 250ac farm, but I am not a farmer. The neighbour
who rents my cleared land for grain/hay/pasture is about as close to
chem-free as I've seen a "conventional" farmer get -- though for
economic, not philosophical, reasons. If a potato grower asked to rent
my land to grow potatoes, I would refuse (even though the going rate is
10 times what I get now). I do not like what conventional potato culture
does to the land, both in terms of soil erosion/degradation and also the
chemical use.
Farmers do not use all the chemicals they use just for fun. We had
organic potato growers who were completely wiped out this year by late
blight (the organism behind the Irish potato famine). This happened also
to a lot of conventional growers. Potato growers who successfully
fended off the blight were spraying fungicides two -- sometimes three!--
times per week. Many farmers topkilled (herbicided) their potatoes early
-- before they had reached full size -- as a sort of salvage operation,
rather than risk losing it all to blight. With all this extra spraying and a
small crop too, it will be hard to make money in potatoes here this year.
These farmers would be delighted to be able to let the sprayers gather
dust in the barn and keep the extra money in their pockets. The truth is
that there are some pests and diseases which -- with current
technological alternative -- do not permit commercial scale, chem-free
agriculture. Rich, well-managed LIVING soils may provide crops with
the best chance of staving off diseases, but this is no panacea.
Finally, I was almost ready to back off from my claim that 19th century
Irish potato farmers were farming organically. I am a stubborn fellow,
however, and am willing to stick to my guns on this one. I am not
convinced that the organically-approved chemicals, like rotenone and
blue stone (copper sulfate) are any more benign than a lot of the
manmade pesticides in use today. More noteworthy (in reference to Bill
Duesing's comments) I know of many organic home gardeners who lost
all their potatoes AND tomatoes to blight this year.
The perennial closing comment of the scientist is "we need more
research" -- I think all of us on the list can agree with this pressing need.
I would also contend that the most important and productive researchers
in sustainable agriculture right now are wearing overalls and workboots,
not lab coats.
Right now, I believe the exchange of practical information -- the
discoveries and observations of these field "researchers" -- is much
more helpful than continuation of these philosophical meanderings.
(especially contributions from overly-verbose ex-lurkers)
Bob
rdmacgregor@gov.pe.ca