I began my career almost 30 years ago. The kinds of research you suggest had been taking place already for decades. An incredible amount of progress has been made since then in understanding the ecology of agriculture. I think you're wrong about the "scale of effort" being much higher toward chemical control. It's just isn't as simple as you'd like it to be. Perhaps the balance of nature (harmonious world) we like to refer to is not as benevolent as our "Disney-esque" culture would believe.
William H. Shoemaker Sr. Research Specialist, Food Crops University of Illinois - Crop Sciences St Charles Horticulture Research Center 535 Randall Road, St Charles, IL, 60174 630-584-7254, FAX-584-4610 [email protected] Some things that can help with the application of either organic or chem materials would be monitoring, understanding the disease/pest life cycle,, implementing and enhancing biological controls. These have come a long way, but the scale of the efforts is much higher on the end of the paradigm that wants growers to keep putting out chemicals whose ultimate cost is much more then the $ amount paid. Robert Kuljis Thomas Paine Farms -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The 'Apple-Crop' LISTSERV is sponsored by the Virtual Orchard <http://www.virtualorchard.net> and managed by Win Cowgill and Jon Clements <[email protected]>. Apple-Crop is not moderated. Therefore, the statements do not represent "official" opinions and the Virtual Orchard takes no responsibility for the content.
