Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
he had been skeptical of the pesticide-reduction goals of the almond
PMA partnership, he had agreed to cooperate with the Almond Board's
initiative. After several years participating in the almond PMA, he
concluded that it was in fact possible to dramatically reduce reliance on
dormant organophosphates, and in some cases eliminate them. When I
related this to Anderson, he gave me a look of bewilderment. He could
not understand why this scientist was only now coming to the conclusion
that organophosphates were not essential to almond production, 10
years after Hendricks's study and the launch of BIOS. His orchard was
20 years old, had never received an organophosphate treatment, and was
profitable. Why did the implications of agroecological knowledge seem
so slow to penetrate the UC agricultural science institutions?
BIOS was the best funded and the most provocative agroecological
partnership. It wove together all the components that came to define the
agroecological partnership model: grower-generated agroecological
knowledge, supportive PCAs and Farm Advisors that facilitated social
learning, applied scientific research to support alternative practices, sup-
portive work by grower-oriented organizations, and emphasis on less
hazardous technologies. Most perennial crop growers in California had
heard of “the BIOS model” or “agricultural partnerships” by the end of
the decade, especially as their commodity organizations jumped in to
partnership activities.
Agroecological partnership leaders developed their model informed by
the circulation of ecological knowledge. BIOS creators built the model
based on critical, comparative agroecological knowledge emanating
from Glenn Anderson's orchard, verified by grower experimentation
replicating his success. BIOS was based on selectively emphasizing this
knowledge to provide superior grower satisfaction in comparison to the
conventional, chemically intensive practices recommended by most UC
Farm Advisors. BIOS parlayed initial success into a working model and
promoted it broadly, competing with and criticizing conventional UC
extension. BIOS set out to prove wrong assumptions about the
inevitability of chemically intensive agriculture. California has a greater
diversity of agroecological partnerships due to its diversity of crops, and
the uncertainties posed by the FQPA. Other states have independently
developed initiatives with many of the same partners, funders, character-
istics, and goals.
