Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
in which agroecological partnerships have emerged, but do not by
themselves explain their advent. Partnerships have emerged because par-
ticipants were convinced alternative practices could be viable, and they
committed their time, talent, and resources to make them successful.
As with any shared mental model, different actors find different com-
ponents of it more appealing than others. Growers are attracted to it
because they can save money while improving their stewardship,
although the relative emphasis on these goals varies widely by grower.
Independent PCAs participate in agroecological partnerships because
they believe they can learn how to better serve their growers while ful-
filling their professional interest in increasing IPM adoption. Affiliated
PCAs participate to learn about new products and how to better serve
their growers, although they generally resist new practices that threaten
to reduce their commissions on pesticides. Recognizing the increasing
environmental regulatory pressure growers face, Farm Advisors partici-
pate in partnerships to serve growers' needs while safeguarding their
economics, even if they do not advance professionally by doing so. The
scientists who participate enjoy applied research. Commodity organiza-
tion leaders have to negotiate the tensions between serving the growers'
expressed economic interest while sustaining a positive image of their
commodity's growers to regulatory agencies and the public. Regulatory
agency staff welcome the concrete demonstration of alternatives to haz-
ardous or toxic practice and the sense of positive engagement with
“stakeholders” that partnerships offer. Partnerships succeed at multiple
goals in part because they bundle them together to attract and satisfy
multiple participants.
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The next chapter discusses partners' motivations
in greater detail.
Assessing Success
The agroecological partnership phenomenon marks a $10 million exper-
iment by public agencies and private foundations to help California agri-
culture reduce pollution. BIOS demonstrated the viability of alternative
practices to many almond growers, and to the Almond Board, but also
showed that specialized pollution-prevention initiatives could work.
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Relative to almond BIOS, all subsequent California partnerships—
with the exception of that in winegrapes—have been modest in their
