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Tomato Detox
Farmers under pressure to deliver unblemished, worm-free tomatoes to the big canning companies may find an alternative to conventional pesticides in an environmentally friendly program now being offered to growers in the Dixon area.
The Dixon package offers everything from tips on beneficial insect use to crop insurance and represents a coordinated thrust toward pesticide reduction on the part of major government ag agencies. Everyone is in on it. The EPA gave the nonprofit Bio-Integral Resource Center (BIRC) a $200,000 grant to advise the tomato farmers on Integrated Pest Management (IPM), an approach that minimizes petrochemical use and maximizes natural pest control. The local Resource Conservation District is backing up BIRC. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is offering a $20/acre incentive for a 20 percent pesticide reduction under its 1994 Integrated Crop Management Program (SP-53). And the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) carved out the nation's first-ever crop loss policy for growers using IPM.
"We're asking them to make a psychological shift from farm practices that date back to World War II," says FCIC's Bill Murphy. "Their comfort zone with this is where crop insurance comes in."
"The biggest change is that we're recognizing this as a legitimate farming practice, so that even if crop damage occurs under IPM, we'll call it insurable," says Larry Heitman of a major insurance company.
The pilot project will enable up to ten farmers of processing tomatoes to place 25-50 acres apiece in an IPM program. They can go as far as they want - from basic pest monitoring to an all-out effort involving cover crops, transplanting, pest-resistant tomato varieties, microbial insecticides and beneficial insect releases.
"We can't keep harping on the farmers to change without changing our institutions too," says EPA's Paul Feder. He says government has historically pushed farmers down the road to chemical dependence. That dependence is now increasing chemical threats to wildlife, water quality and human health. Half a million pounds of pesticides are applied to California's processing tomatoes each year. The Sacramento area, meanwhile, grows 90 percent of the nation's processing tomatoes. "This is where everyone gets their ketchup," says BIRC's Sheila Daar, who adds that the potential health risks to children - who lap up ketchup, tomato soup and spaghetti sauce - are one reason they chose this particular crop for the pilot.
Feder says the chemical question comes full circle back to consumers. "We're so plasticized, we want everything to look perfect," he says.
But the environmental cost of perfection may be too high. A recent University of California report projects that 150 pesticides will be declared off limits in the next five years. And the Clinton Administration has vowed to put 75 percent of the nation's farms into healthier pest management programs by the year 2000, an about-face in federal agricultural policy.
"We're asking farmers to do a 180-degree turn and to take all the risks," says Daar, who made a major effort to bring all the vested interests together to figure out a productive approach. "The farmers' initial reaction ranged from curious to skeptical to hostile, especially with EPA at the table," she says, and commends Feder's cooperative demeanor. "It's taken us a year to build some trust and develop the implementation program now underway."
"We've tried to put a little security out there for those willing to experiment," sums up USDA's Tim Hatten.
Contact: Paul Feder (415)744-2010 or BIRC (510)524-2567
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