Notes - Agroecology in Action - page 237

15. See Carter et al. 1996.
16. Busch and Lacey 1983. See also Busch and Lacey 1986. For a summary of
this early work on the sociology of agricultural scientists, see Buttel et al. 1990.
The organization and management of LGU scientists and science activities is a
specialized subfield but has produced a considerable amount of literature. Early
work by Isao Fujimoto and colleagues (Fujimoto and Fiske 1975; Fujimoto and
Kopper 1975) led to considerable controversy, although their findings hardly
seem controversial today.
17. Recall figures 2.1 and 2.2, which interpret these shifts.
18. The USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) also hosts scientists
conducting basic research, and they may have even more prestige than UC agri-
cultural scientists because they conduct fundamental, long-term, high-risk
research that may not produce practical knowledge. This mission is not compat-
ible with the applied nature of partnership research, and thus only three ARS
scientists have contributed to California's partnerships. Only one ARS scientist
led a partnership, and she reported it to be highly unusual for her position.
19. The University of California has historically had a greater role for specialists
than other state extension systems (Learn, Lyons, and Meyers 1987). Formerly
they were based in county offices and provided specialized assistance to Farm
Advisors, but they are now based on campus, required to have a PhD, and eval-
uated more by their scientific publications than their extension efforts.
20. According to California law, anyone who provides pest-control recommen-
dations concerning any agricultural use, offers himself as an “authority” on any
agricultural use, or solicits services or sales for agricultural use outside a fixed
place of business must hold a PCA license. See California Department of
Pesticide Regulation 2001a. Growers can, however, still apply pesticides on their
own fields and orchards without a PCA recommendation.
21. My demographic information about PCAs comes from the California
Agricultural Production Consultants Association's member surveys, which also
indicate that about half of PCAs work in agriculture (CAPCA 1999). There were
4,300 PCA license holders in 1977, and this number has remained stable for 25
years. According to Mac Takeda of DPR (personal communication), there were
4,418 licensed PCAs in the state as of June 26, 2003.
22. Agrochemical manufacturing and sales companies had sprung up across
California in the early twentieth century to provide pesticides for specialty-crop
agriculture (Stoll 1998). Specialized crops required specialized services, so sales-
men would travel the countryside offering them specialized agrochemicals. Some
of these salesmen were highly unscrupulous, and few had any scientific training.
In 1970, spurred by Silent Spring , State Senator Anthony Beilenson proposed leg-
islation that would prohibit salesmen from making pesticide recommendations,
which would sever the link between prescription and sales. This bill was side-
tracked by the agrochemical industry, but eventually a weakened S.B. 1020
passed in 1972, requiring pesticide salesmen to take a nominal test and receive a
PCA license. For a summary of the bill and its subsequent impact from an indus-
try perspective, see CAPCA 2003. For a description of how the “pesticide mafia”