Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 3.1
Independent Pest Control Advisor and BIOS participant Cindy Lashbrook
inspects an almond leaf for pest damage.
To fund almond BIOS, Reed contacted Augie Feder, a new USEPA staff
member in the San Francisco office, fresh out of a master's program
in Environmental Science. The agency hired Feder because its analysis
had identified agriculture as the top source of California's unmitigated
pollution. Regional USEPA leadership recognized that their traditional
existing media (air, water) and category (pesticides, solid waste) pro-
grams were not sufficient, so they wanted to try a new approach. Feder
had heard of Hendricks's study and recognized it represented the kind of
systems-based pollution-prevention approach the USEPA needed to
support.
Feder encountered BIOS with knowledge of the latest science policy for
addressing agricultural pollution, but also the power of the problem of
the organophosphate diazinon. Originally registered as a pesticide in
1956, diazinon became one of the leading causes of acute pesticide poi-
soning for humans and wildlife nationwide in the 1980s. A granule is
enough to kill a small bird. It is highly toxic to beneficial insects and hon-
eybees. It has the second highest number of bird kills reported killed by
pesticides. It was and is a priority pollutant in the western United States.
 
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