"Road map to IPM just released by <I>Consumers Union"</I>

"Road map to IPM just released by Consumers Union"
by Sally Schuff
AGRI-PULSE
Vol. 12, Number 23 October 28, 1996

Pest Management at the Crossroads, a new 288-page report study release by Consumers Union publisher of Consumers Reports, is a serious look at a serious subject for farmers. In it, Dr. Charles M. Benbrook and a team of CU staff define a program to reduce public health and environmental risks from pesticides at least 75% by the year 2020. The publishers claim "despite billions spent on regulation, the overall risk presented by pesticides in use today is no less than it was 25 years ago. Today, pesticide residues in food and drinking water put consumers at heightened risk for cancer, and affect human nervous and reproductive systems in ways that are still not fully know." Regulatory issues surrounding their use "siphon off billions of dollars to feed a research and regulatory apparatus that grows fatter, not better." The solution, CU says, lies in speeding the conversion to Integrated Pest Management. "We're on a 'pesticide treadmill " says Benbrook, who was the executive director of the National Academy of Sciences Board on Agriculture when it produced its study, "Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children". He says, "The motivation for undertaking this project, self-financed by CU, included the growing evidence of slipping efficacy of pesticide dependent pest management systems, frustration over the growing costs and intrusiveness of regulation and its failure to substantially reduce risks, and the encouraging progress made by farmer-innovators and pest management consultants working to bring biointensive IPM to the field." (Biointensive IPM refers to the highest level of IPM listed on the IPM continuum from low-use to high-use. High-use or "biointensive" means that reduced pesticides are used only when other, non-chemical measures fall short.)

The Consumers Union calls for:

Doubling the crop acreage under biointensive IPM -- currently about 6% -- by the year 2000
Bringing 100% of household and urban pest control under biointensive IPM by 2010
Bring 75% of all crop acreage under medium and high IPM by 2010, and 100% under high (IPM) by 2020

"While the book stresses that leadership and support for change must come predominantly from the marketplace and private sector, we also see important roles for government," says Benbrook.

Among CU recommended strategies are:

Federal funding for pest management research should be doubled over the next five years, with 75% of that supporting biointensive IPM.
USDA and Cooperative Extension should emphasize training field level pest managers in biointensive IPM.
USDA should offer cost-share incentives through crop insurance programs to help farmers adopt biointensive IPM. In investing in science and technology, reformulating the National IPM Initiative, the collection and dissemination of information, and in "priming the pump" through the procurement process and in managing pests on public lands.