Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
around management teams consisting of growers, professional entomol-
ogists, Farm Advisors, and research scientists. This became known as the
“BIOS model” or the “agricultural partnership model” of extension.
The first years of the Merced BIOS partnership demonstrated that this
approach was possible and could be profitable. It required more effort,
but it could be a more satisfying way to farm. CAFF developed a plan to
expand BIOS to other counties and commodities, and to advocate with
state and university leaders for more programs like BIOS. CAFF staffers
were able to stimulate the creation of a larger, Biologically Integrated
Farming Systems program at SAREP. They developed a strategic partner-
ship with the Almond Board of California to promote this ecologically
informed approach to agriculture, lending credibility to this approach.
Inspired in part by BIOS, the California Department of Pesticide
Regulation funded a program to help commodity boards conduct their
own partnership activities to reduce pesticide use.
California almond growers achieved what appears to be the greatest
volume of voluntary organophosphate pesticide use reduction in US
history. Winter dormant season organophosphate use fell from a high of
almost 500,000 pounds in 1992 to just over 100,000 pounds in 2000.
BIOS and the Almond Board of California played crucial roles in educat-
ing growers about alternatives. Annual variation in weather, the
economic advantage of new “softer” pesticides, and regulatory pressures
from pesticide environmental contamination were also important
factors, but they do not by themselves fully explain the scale of this
reduction. The extent of organophosphate reduction varies by region,
but counties with BIOS programs had the greatest reductions.
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Agroecological partnerships have demonstrated that commercial scale
monoculture can be substantially informed by ecological principles, if
the requisite social relations are cultivated.
Cultivating Quality
About the same time that Hemly and Weddle began to notice the worri-
some signs of pesticide resistance, a group of winegrape growers in
adjacent San Joaquin County began devising an even more ambitious
partnership. Located just north of Stockton, the Lodi area is the second
oldest commercial winegrape region in California, with some of
