Agriculture is ripe for change

Farming is about to undergo its biggest change since the end of World War II.

After nearly half a century of reliance on chemicals to fertilize soil and keep crops free of bugs and weeds, many farmers are now cutting back, trying non-toxic alternatives. Some are cutting out all chemicals, going "organic".

The new direction, in farming got government approval and a promise of more than moral support last month in a joint announcement by the Environmental Protection Agency, the US Department of Agriculture. No specifics were given, but USDA officials say efforts will be made to find alternatives to chemicals and get information already available to farmers who want it.

Environmentalists and consumers are pleased by the turn of events, especially in the wake of a Rational Academy of Sciences report on the possible danger of pesticides in children's diets. It's an idea whose time has come - but it won't come easily, says Frederick Kirshenmann, who raises grains and livestock organically. "All of us are going to rethink the way things are going. We are going to make fundamental changes" – he says

One of the most difficult will take place in farmers' heads, says Paul Buchsman, a peach grower- near Kingsburg, Calif. "The whole psychology behind farming is in flux," says Buchsman, who converted to organic methods when his son, now a healthy 13-уеаг-old, contracted leukemia in 1982.

Although there's no way of knowing how many farmers are moving away from pesticides, "it's a. revolution that's occurring," Buchsman says. "There's definitely a reduction in pesticides, but there's a lot of struggle to hold onto them, too. Most farmers know they will change. They don't all like it".

Farmers who use chemicals spray or dust crops on a schedule and harvest a predictable crop, he says. "It's precision. You always knew how many boxes to order. You knew how many pickers you needed. It was a factory, and you had just the right amount of everything. It made sense. Now we enter an era of biological control, with nature calling the shots. It's very fickle. It's a friend, then it's a foe."

"Change is coming, though, like it or not", says Joe Sheridan - apple grower. Sheridan sprays his 3,500 apple trees, but he uses fewer and less toxic chemicals than he once did. Now he's experimenting with biological methods, such as bat houses to encourage colonies of the bug-eating creatures, and pheromones, natural hormones secreted by insects,, to trap coddling moths. "That works for a little guy like me who has a small commercial orchard," he says, "but for larger growers, there are drawbacks. Hormone traps cost about twice the $150 per acre of commercial insecticide sprays." Farmers are ready for change, Buchsman says, because they know "a lot of these chemicals are not working as well as they did. It's not unlike if you take almost any medication. It loses its effectiveness over time. Finally, it just doesn't work." Buchsman describes "the typical farmer":

"He has a sneaking hunch that some of the chemicals he's using might be harmful. He won't say it, but there's growing suspicion that something may not be right..."

"Second, they know the stuff isn't -working right. So when the -chemical salesman says you have to mix another chemical in that tank, because that old stuff isn't working, the cost to the farmer goes up. Wow instead of $25 an acre, it's $50 an acre. Then, that doesn't work. So you add a third chemical. We don't know what happens when they are mixed. We don't know if a new chemical is produced; we don't know if they cancel each other out; we don't know if we're creating nuclear waste."

Third, Buchsman says, is this typical farmer "has heard there are successful farmers protecting their crops without these things. He thinks, they might be lying, or it's a cruel hoax, but he's not sure. He's also going broke and has consumers who think farmers are using poisons".

Therefore, he says, "We're now ripe for change."

That requires courage, information, money for new equipment and time to make the transition, Buchsman says. Most farmers won't be able to suddenly stop using chemicals. "A farm takes time to reach its ecological balance," he says. "I bit the bullet and nearly lost the farm. Others don't need to do that."

"It's not going to take more money - just a reorganization of priorities," he says-.."And it won't take new technology, not even the highly- touted genetically engineered vegetables with their own built-in immunities. Genetic engineering might have an application somewhere, but not in farming."

Instead, he advises: "Use more natural fertilizers. Build the soil. Don't spray with disruptive poisons, bet the grasses grow. Let the flowers bloom. That's it."

WRITING PRACTICE

HIGHLIGHTING a text is, as you already know, reading it carefully in order to identify its key points and the relationship of one point to another. Highlighting is necessary if you are going to make an oral report in class or write a paper.