(A quick note of introduction: I've worked with owners of over a hundred small to mid-sized conventional, sustainable and organic farms in the northeast over the last thirty years. I’ve helped manage an organic nfp farm, picked bugs off of green beans and picked apples alongside Jamaican migrant workers and two guys I’d swear were the real life studies for Beavis and Butthead.)
This has been a difficult growing season in the northeast. Record cold in both June and July has kept crops from maturing, record rains have caused flooding and disease. As a farmer down the road from me put it, "It's enough to make you start talking to yourself". The mother of all fungal diseases, late blight, is making headlines this year. Exported from the New World to the Old (payback is a bitch), reaper of havoc across Europe, late blight is a killer of members in the solanum family including tomatoes and potatoes though it attacks everything from papaya to avocado. It moves quickly and can destroy a crop in a matter of days.
Last Wednesday, the NY Times article Northeast Tomatoes Lost, and Potatoes May Follow pointed out in passing how blight is affecting organic and conventional farmers:
Organic farmers, who have only a few approved weapons in their arsenal of pesticides, are absorbing much of the damage. Other farmers, whose tomatoes are already coming in late and stunted because of cool, wet weather, are waiting to see if pesticides, sunshine and luck will cooperate to prevent the infection from reaching their fruit.
This got my attention. Organic farmers should be faring better since plants are healthier and microflora more diverse. After researching and talking to growers in my area, it is apparently true: organic growers have been affected more frequently and more severely. For the organic locavore this means higher priced tomatoes (maybe no potatoes), for growers this means disaster. One grower mentioned in the article will absorb $40,000 in lost revenue.
There are very few organic controls for blight. My favorite contains probiotic bacteria which create a biofilm on the plant surface, outcompeting blight for a place to stake a claim. One of the most effective organic controls is also fairly toxic. Copper sulfate, a restricted use product, is toxic to soil organisms, humans (fair evidence of liver disease among French farm workers who applied Bordeaux mix on grapes) and is generally not good for animals, causing anemia and stunted growth. It must be reapplied after rain (which means every other day this year). Additionally, there are very few adjuvants approved for organic use. Adjuvants are additives to make pesticides more effective. Examples include sticking agents to keep a pesticide where you want it or spreaders to help apply the product evenly. (Conventional adjuvants range from inert to toxic, some synergistically toxic.) If this weren’t enough, most heirloom plant varieties favored by organic growers have little or no resistance to blight. Without good controls and with susceptible varieties, organic farmers are getting hit hard.
Is there another way?
"I try to live healthy. I eat right, I exercise. If I get a cold, I drink herbal tea and rest. If I get a fever, I'll take some aspirin. If I get pneumonia, I'll take antibiotics or whatever modern medicine has to fight it. I'm not going to risk dying because I don't like antibiotics."
- Long Island, NY farmer's philosophy towards pesticides
There is another method of farming which gets very little mention here that is quite effective in cases such as this: sustainable agriculture. Sustainable ag is based on a three principles:
-environmental health
-social and economic equity
-economic profitability
Like organic ag, sustainable agriculture attempts to get natural processes to do the heavy lifting. Biological soil fertility is paramount, though non-organic approved amendments may be used if necessary. Use of synthetic pesticides is minimized or eliminated if possible. When controls are needed, farmers follow the "least harm" principle. Larger issues such as biodiversity and water quality are addressed. Worker safety and equitable pay are likewise included in what makes a farm sustainable. Finally, the profitability of the farm is also given key consideration. An inability to pay bills, pay your help or yourself is extremely unsustainable.
This year sustainable ag farmers I know, including some who advertise themselves as non-certified organic, are using synthetic fungicides. These growers have nurtured incredibly fertile, living soils over the years. They are bad customers (or non-customers) of pesticides but in a year like this they’ll use what they need to, as necessary, to make sure their crop comes in.
Why sustainable ag is overlooked here is up for discussion. Perhaps it's because there is not one standard or certification (easy to greenwash), or it's confused with organic ag. It may be a matter of simplicity, it's easier to feel good about a method that never uses synthetic chemicals. Whatever the reason, it is foolish to overlook what many small farmers apply in daily life with considerable success and little downside.
Some thoughts about the future:
Very little money is spent on biological pest research in the US, far more should. Sustainable, organic and conventional growers would all benefit from continued research into controlling disease and insects through biological means. For blight, this will involve developing resistant varieties (biotech will help) and finding new, bio-based fungicides that stay where you put them. In the meantime, we're going to need synthetic pesticides.
More critically, this year’s outbreak was given life by record setting weather conditions. Climate change means we are seeing more outlier weather events as hardiness zones march northward in a general trend towards a warmer world. As farmers increasingly use sustainable or organic methods either for environmental concerns (including carbon sequestration), concerns over toxicity to humans and animals, or simply because high priced oil will make synthetic product use increasingly cost prohibitive; nature will be changing the ground rules and the players. Insect pressure will increase. Problematic species in the south are moving north bringing novel diseases with them. Farmers will have to contend with more generations of insects per season and overwintering of insect eggs without deep soil freezes. Weeds will be a far greater problem, both chemical and cultural controls (cultivation) will be challenged by aggressive weed growth promoted by increasing CO2. Last, but certainly not least, drought and flooding are expected to increase.
While organic methods mitigate some risks farmers face, not all will yield to this approach. This year's micro-disaster is only a reminder. Our ability to feed ourselves remains dependent on an open-ended "all hands on deck" approach to agriculture.