Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
engaged them in outreach to other growers. The WWF pledged to work
with the Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Association to gain
marketplace recognition once the association had achieved certain toxi-
city reduction goals with 11 “high-risk” pesticides.
The association leaned heavily on its long standing relationship with
the University of Wisconsin, and the Potato IPM Team at the Madison
campus officially joined the partnership in 1999. The university and the
association had begun collaborating on IPM in the early 1980s after
aldicarb, a carbamate pesticide, was found in drinking-water wells in
rural Wisconsin. These two institutions recognized that nearly everyone
claimed to be using IPM, but not all were in fact defining it the same
way. When the university and the association wanted to examine
detailed, specific information about pesticide use for their partnership,
these growers were willing to share data about their farming practices
and pesticide use.
The partnership struggled to define a meaningful measure of progress
because “pounds of active ingredient” is not an accurate measure of
hazard. In addition, while the focus was on 11 high-risk pesticides, the
partners needed to find out if growers would compensate by increasing
their use of other high-risk pesticides. They concluded there is no one
correct way to measure pesticide risk, and that every approach has
advantages and disadvantages. In the end they worked with Benbrook to
develop an approach for balancing acute mammalian toxicity, chronic
toxicity, ecotoxicity, and disruption to bio IPM, and calculated a “toxi-
city factor” for every pesticide used in Wisconsin potato production.
4
They established a baseline of 1995 use levels from USDA data, and then
surveyed association growers.
The 1997 survey showed a 28 percent reduction in toxicity units, and
the 1999 survey 37 percent reduction since 1995. Some growers had sub-
stituted other high-risk pesticides, but many used new, softer materials
instead, even though they are more expensive than older, more haz-
ardous and effective pesticides. As a part of this project, University of
Wisconsin researchers discovered that by increasing the distance of
potato fields from the previous year's planting to 400 meters reduces
damage by the Colorado potato beetle 90 percent, reducing the need for
insecticides.
5
Wisconsin potato growers (unlike those in the West)
already used a three year rotation with vegetables and grains, meaning
