Imagine good-looking produce grown without pesticides, or with environmentally friendly biopesticides that disrupt insect mating.

Predator insects are let loose to mop up pests.

Conventional pesticides are kept in reserve and used only after all else fails.

Growers, using laptop computers and new software, figure out strategies to combat pests without resorting to blanket spraying. Fields are constantly "scouted" to determine the presence of pests and their populations.

This scenario is far along on Washington consultant Chuck Benbrook's continuum toward intensive integrated pest management

It's the direction one groups, the Wisconsin potato industry, is headed.

The Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Association Inc., Antigo, Wis., working with the World Wildlife Fund, has embarked on this new venture.

It might be the first time an environmental group and growers have joined in such a collaborative effort. Benbrook, one of the key players behind the Food Quality Protection Act is serving as a consultant on the project.

Dean Zuleger, executive director of the Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Association, says growers want to move away from pesticides, but "they don't want to risk going to the poorhouse."

Zuleger said bankers and lenders don't want to loan money to produce fruits and vegetables if they fear the crop will be lost to pests. Using conventional pesticides has been the traditional way to protect investments.

"We've got to educate the lenders," Zuleger said.

Polly Hoppin of the World Wildlife Fund said growers and environmentalists agree on the ultimate goal: To clean up pollution of the Great Lakes.

Benbrook sees the Wisconsin effort as a kind of test case to see whether produce can be grown and marketed profitably while the industry moves away from conventional pesticides and toward intensive IPM.