Biocontrol Agents for Organic Farming… the terminology
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Article Title: Biocontrol Agents for Organic Farming& the
terminology
Author: A.O. Kime
Category: farming/gardening
Word Count: 1,180
Format: 65 characters per line
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Biocontrol Agents for Organic Farming& the terminology: by A.O.
Kime
If you haven t been keeping up on the latest developments in
biocontrols& wait a minute, what are biocontrols? Oh, shoot, you
know, environmental friendly products which aren t agricultural
chemicals that are used for controlling crop pests. If you
haven t, then this article may surprise you. During the past 15
years, the latest in biotechnology, along with ancient
pest-control methods, now provide a respectable arsenal of
weapons in, well, you know, biocontrols .
What are biocontrols exactly? Is it stuff you use for organic
farming, like ladybugs, sulfur and maybe soap-spray? Right on
folks, but much-much more. Things change fast nowadays, ya know.
The biotechnology which produces many of the relatively new and
growing list of biocontrols for the American farmer (and
gardener) has ushered in the next era of pest-controls& at least
as a viable alternative anyway. It s growing so fast however,
it s the new terminology, not the technology, which you have to
contend with first. I think we need a quick review.
To begin with, the term biocontrols is slang for biocontrol
agents' and defined as biological derived or identical to a
biological derived agent . That means the term covers all types
of environmentally safe products. Watch out though, some of the
terminology might get confusing. Biological control agents is a
more specific term& meaning only beneficial insects, nothing
else, although these bugs are often just referred to as
beneficial insects' or 'beneficial organisms , somewhat slangy
terms. Within that, there are sub-categories, insects which might
be classified as predators , parasites or weed-eating
invertebrates which are living organisms used for controlling
the population or biological activities of another life-form
considered to be a pest . If you noticed, the industry prefers to
say control instead of kill & a hedge maybe?
Today, there are about 30 commercially available predators, like
spiders, mites and beetles, which seek out and kill other bugs.
They are hatched, raised and sold by companies called
insectaries . The number of parasites put to work has grown
also, about 60 of them critters, the likes of tiny wasps, flies
and a myriad of other parasites, parasitoids (host-killer
parasites) and also a few protozoan. Parasites live on (or in)
various hosts (their victims) which impede the host s
development or generally causes them injury. A protozoan,
however, is a microbial control agent , a different kind of
agent, which are not to be confused with biological control
agents.
There are about 25 biological control agents (good bugs) which
control weeds although they re often just called 'beneficial
insects', the most common slang term which farmers use. By
whichever term, even though they don t eat or live off other
bugs, they go around doing good deeds by controlling weeds.
Anyway, these weed-destructive bugs consist of moths, weevils,
beetles and flies. A fungus or two are also available for the
control of weeds a
vegetarian nematodes
that are non-selective, they just want bug eaters. From here on,
it starts to get more complicated and scientific sounding.
Microbial control agents, like fungi and protozoan, also mean
other teeny-tiny microscopic things like bacteria and viruses.
Farmers use about 25 different kinds to control undesirable bugs
and fungi.
The use of viruses and bacteria can sound kinda scary but don t
worry, microbial control agents in Arizona are regulated by the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Environmental Services
Division of the Arizona Department of Agriculture, the Animal and
Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and the Plant Quarantine
Act (PQA) but you still need permits from the State of Arizona,
USDA, APHIS and from Biotechnology and Environmental Protection
(BEEP). Only then can a farmer apply the stuff& if his crop ain t
already ate up. We re not done yet, we still have biochemical
control agents . These are semichemicals such as plant-growth
regulators, hormones, enzymes, pheromones, allomones and
kairomones which are either naturally occurring or identical to
a natural product that attract, retard, destroy or otherwise
exert a pesticidal activity . Impressive, huh?
But that s still not enough already& the EPA wants to push a
stupid term called biorational pesticides'. And this is where
they get picky& you can use the term if you re (1) not talking
about bugs or (2) not talking about synthetic-made stuff they
don t think is identical enough to a given product of nature.
Anyway, I hate that term, there is nothing rational about causing
more confusion. In all, there are over 200 biocontrols of which
some have multi-use applications which equates to about 300
specific uses and there are at least 400 of these 'products' on
the market. Competing companies supplying the same product
accounts for this discrepancy.
A lot of biocontrols have hard-to-pronounce, stuffy-sounding
scientific names, which, I think, are thought-up by
laboratory-shackled scientists who jealously hate farmers and
like to see them get tongue-twisted and embarrassed. One such
case is bacillus thuringiensis , a bacteria widely used and
marketed in different variations but to spoil their fun, farmers
just call them B-Ts . Another thing farmers can use are made of
nuclear polyhedrosis viruses but they don t sound very
environment-friendly to me.
What I really think is dumb are those goofy brand-names the
distributors use for these biocontrol products such as Doom ,
Condor , Futura , Grandlure and so forth. I think they hired
the same marketing guys that work for the car companies& they
think brand names gotta sound cool .
Farmers also use juvenile hormones and behavioral modifiers.
Juvenile hormones keep bugs from maturing, thus denying them
their adult and reproductive cycle. It should be obvious what
behavioral modifiers do... it makes them less destructive.
Agricultural firms sell plant-growth regulators too, made from
cytokinins and gibberellic acid. There are also sex hormones on
the market to confuse and attract bugs. Confusion and bugs I
don t need.
In summary, these biocontrols are incredibly diverse but they
don t include genetically engineered plants which have disease or
insect resistant qualities, but that s another story. See
Genetically Modified Food (external link) or else genetically
modified organisms (GMOs) (external link)
Well, that sorta brings you up-to-date, so consider yourself
bio-informed . Remember though, you can t go around saying
biological anymore because people might think you re talking
about bugs. If you re still confused, talk about something else
or you could end up getting mighty embarrassed. Some words might
even sound organic when they're not. I knew a farmer who, when he
first heard
Resource Box: © A.O. Kime (2003) A.O. Kime is an author of two books plus some 70 articles on ancient history, spiritual phenomena, political issues, social issues and agriculture which can be seen at http://www.matrixbookstore.biz
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