Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
13. Schaffer's (1997) guidebook describes how CAFF set up BIOS partnerships
in various counties and strategies for enrolling growers. Roughly half were
recruited by independent PCAs and Farm Advisors, and half through meeting
announcements (Pence 1998). According to Schaffer's book, BIOS expected
growers to (1) wish to reduce the use of chemicals, especially hazardous pesti-
cides, (2) dedicate 15-30 acres of almonds for BIOS experimentation paired with
a “conventional” orchard block of equal size, and (3) gather data and share
information learned in this process with management team members, other
participating growers, and the broader agricultural community at field days.
14. Partnership leaders perceive pest-control advisors as shaping existing farm-
ing practices, although they hold a range of opinions on their relative importance
as an audience for partnership activities. This diversity of views is reflected in the
variety of strategies for enrolling PCAs. In some cases the partnership's manage-
ment team enrolls an independent PCA as an applied scientific expert, and in
others, the PCA is enrolled along with the grower. In twelve partnerships some
blend of these occurred. The management team PCA can model agroecological
pest-management skills, but may be perceived as a threat by affiliated PCAs.
Partnership leaders have not, in general, fully enrolled the PCAs of partnership
growers. Generally, leaders report that these PCAs have kept their distance.
15. For growers in the four local winegrape partnerships, joining a partnership
simply added a dimension to existing relationships of cooperation. See Warner in
review (b).
16. For a discussion of the environmental complex in agroecology, see
Gliessman 1998, pp. 167-175.
17. “Pesticide” refers to any material used to kill pests, be they insects, diseases,
weeds, or vertebrates. Partnerships have focused chiefly on insects, and second-
arily on weed pests. Plant disease management uses less hazardous materials, and
fewer opportunities to deploy agroecological techniques exist to treat them.
18. Field-crop (“Westside BIFS”), rice, and dairy BIFS partnerships focused
more attention on soil and nutrient management.
19. For an analysis of the changes resulting from organophosphate removal in
15 California crops, see the appendix to Metcalfe et al. 2002. See also Steggall
2003.
20. Some growers and consultants use the term “cover crop” to refer to resident
orchard vegetation. This may on the whole offer more advantages than disadvan-
tages to the grower, especially in terms of water infiltration and dust (and mite)
control, but for the purposes of this study I do not consider this to be a cover
crop. I do not consider it an agroecological strategy because it is not a manage-
ment action.
21. Daane and Costello (1998), who investigated the relationship between cover
crops and leafhopper damage levels, concluded that cover crops attenuated late
season vine vigor, which indirectly reduced pest pressure.
22. Even though the University of California has promoted the use of cover
crops for decades, it has not been a research priority. According to Fred Thomas:
