New publication: Organic and IPM Partnership is needed to address food production challenges
A new publication, "Organic Agriculture and Integrated Pest Management: Synergistic Partnership Needed to Improve the Sustainability of Agriculture and Food Systems", details the challenges, opportunities for collaborative pursuit of solutions, and recommends institutional and policy reforms to accelerate progress.
Society faces enormous challenges to meet the food needs of a rapidly growing global population, while addressing the adverse impacts of food production on human health, air and water quality, greenhouse gas emission, soil health, pollinators and biodiversity.
Improvements are also critically needed to improve the economic viability of farming, and to recruit new farmers and the next generation of researchers and extension scientists to support farmers’ efforts to improve sustainability.
Common priorities of IPM and Organic practices
Shared interests include promoting and improving environmental quality, farm economic viability, social equity, and soil and human health. Organic is wholly compatible with advanced, biologically based IPM and most IPM principles and tactics will work in organic systems.
Despite shared interests and tactics, few leaders and practitioners actively participate in both the IPM and organic communities, foregoing the synergies that could come from exchanging thoughts and ideas, and joint pursuit of common priorities.
“Meeting current food needs is a necessity, no doubt, but we also need to take a long view.” declares Dr. Brian Baker, co-editor of the document. “The threats current agricultural technology pose to future productivity and resilience must be addressed if we are to meet the needs of future generations.”
Dr. Thomas Green, president of the IPM Institute of North America, based in Madison Wisconsin, adds, “While many farmers, scientists, food companies and others are working hard on solutions - collaboration among leaders and supporters of organic agriculture and Integrated Pest Management is a missed opportunity that can help us move towards more sustainable practices.”
Integrated Pest Management, or IPM, is a common-sense approach where pests are monitored and action is taken only when needed. Pest control options are evaluated and selected to minimise harm to health and environment. Certified organic producers are required to use IPM, as are growers in many other eco-labels that consumers can find in stores, including Rainforest Alliance, Forest Stewardship Council and others.
Organic and IPM practices fall far below their potential, with less than 10% of US cropland benefiting from these opportunities to reduce impacts. “Public and private investment in research, development, technology transfer and demonstration of organic, IPM and other sustainable farming systems has not kept pace with the demands of the global food system’s economic, ecological and social imperatives” states Dr. Baker.
“While organic and IPM have some differences, we have much more in common and have opportunities to work together to fulfill these shared priorities.”
Additional recommendations include eliminating publicly funded programs that encourage unsustainable practices, and increasing incentives including pesticide registration improvements for product and service providers to develop, formulate and market more options that are compatible with organic and advanced IPM systems, including biologically based pesticides.
More about the report
The publication is an effort of members of the Organic and IPM Working group.
Authors include:
Dr. Daniel Cooley, University of Massachusetts Amherst; Susan Futrell, Red Tomato; Lyn Garling and Dr. Edwin Rajotte, Penn State University; Grace Gershuny, GAIA Services; Jeff Moyer, Rodale Institute; Abby Seaman, Cornell University; and Dr. Stephen Young of the Northeastern IPM Center.
The work is supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, North Central IPM Center projects AG 2012-51120-20252 and AG 2014-70006-22486.
Download the report:
Organic Agriculture and Integrated Pest Management:
Synergistic Partnership Needed to Improve the Sustainability of Agriculture and Food Systems
It is also available at [https://organicipmwg.wordpress.com/documents-and-publications/]
Contacts
Brian Baker, bpb33@cornell.edu, 541 228-0876
Thomas Green, ipmworks@ipminstitute.org, 608 232-1410