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A reliable and sustainable food supply is perhaps the most
important underpinning of a stable society. We need only
look to other parts of the world to see the economic and
political instability and human misery associated with an unreliable food supply. Because food is plentiful, of high quality, and
affordable, it is taken for
granted in America. Yet,
insect pests, and diseases
transmitted by insects
remain a constant threat to
our food production. Even
with modern technologies,
crop losses attributable to
insects of 10-20% or higher
are common. Disruption of
the food supply threatens
consumer health and happiness, as well as our nation's
economic fabric and national security.
Insuring sustainability of our national food supply has economic, social and biological dimensions. Mitigating direct
and indirect damage by insects to our crops and livestock
must take all three into consideration.
Economic sustainability - In a world that increasingly fosters international trade, it is imperative that American producers of foodstuffs and fiber remain competitive, or their
outputs will be replaced by
imported materials.
Dependence on foreign
food supplies would be
disastrous to us in times of
international crisis or of
unfavorable growing conditions in other parts of
the world. Our high standard of living puts
American producers at a
disadvantage in terms of labor costs in agricultural production. However, for many commodities, this has been offset
by our emphasis on knowledge-based technologies, such as
mechanization and improved pest and disease management
that allow us to achieve higher yields per unit of land area
in production. Entomologists contribute significantly to
maintaining the economic viability of farmers and food
processors through pre- and post-harvest protection of
crops from losses caused by insects. Every effort has been
made to identify effective and economical methods of pest
suppression that reduce production costs and/or increase yields, but more needs to be done.
Biological sustainability - Many pest management practices still rely heavily on pesticides. The broad-spectrum
nature of insecticides and adverse effects on non-target
organisms have raised concerns about the sustainability of this approach. Thus,
entomologists must continue
to promote and seek integrated pest management
(IPM) and biologically-based
approaches that are less
environmentally disruptive
in order to protect humans,
wildlife, pollinators, and
other elements of biodiversity. Improved use of natural
enemies and insect diseases,
disruption of mating by use
of sterile insects or
pheromones (the chemicals
insects use to find mates), and resistant host plants are
examples of more sustainable pest management practices.
Biological sustainability requires considerable knowledge
about pests and pest environments and is a much more knowledge-intensive approach than the reliance on chemicals alone to suppress insect pests.
Many current pest suppression practices are reactive, being
triggered when pests appear or surpass a damage threshold.
This is less desirable than a preventative approach to pest
management, wherein crops or crop systems are designed to
prevent pests from reaching damaging levels. Prevention of
pest problems can be accomplished through techniques such
as modification of planting date to avoid having susceptible
stages of crops present when pests appear, development and
use of genetically resistant crops, use of conservation tillage
to preserve beneficial insect predators and parasites, and
many others. Thus, entomologists seek ways to redesign the
crop environment to
forestall damage from insects.
Another important trend
in biological sustainability is area-wide pest
management. Instead
of individual farmers
making independent
pest management decisions -- resulting in a mosaic of
treated and untreated fields -- area-wide approaches provide uniform, consistent pest suppression, thereby depriving
pests of the refuges that can be sources of re-inoculation.
This approach requires not only entomological knowledge,
but cooperation by producers. Although this approach is
challenging to implement, it sometimes is the only effective
approach for pests that move easily from site to site. Even
though these techniques
have been proven in
specific pest/host situations, developing and
applying them to a
broader array of crop
and livestock pest problems offers a wide range
of very unique challenges to entomologists
to achieve sustainability.
A large, strong, and highly innovative body of entomologists in public, governmental, and private institutions -- networking with scientists from many other disciplines -- is already in place in the United States. This complex of scientists has developed technologies, insect management tools, and systems that have moved us toward more sustainable productivity in most of our food commodities. By building on past and current approaches, as well as new technologies currently under development and those yet to be discovered, entomologists are poised to move agricultural sustainability to dramatically higher levels. This cadre of scientists has the
knowledge base to improve management of pests of our
food commodities, as well as to respond rapidly to deal with new threats by insects to our productivity with techniques that will promote long-term agricultural sustainability.
As entomologists, we are ready to advance sustainability of
our Nation's food supply by:
- Expanding research and development of proven sustainable technologies such as biological control, host plant
resistance, cultural systems, sterile insect releases, mating disruption -- and to apply these tools to emerging
pest problems as well as to a wider array of existing pests and commodities
- Developing better understanding of sustainable
approaches to pest management in both simple and complex agroecosystems through application of systems approaches, including geographic information systems (GIS), spatial analysis, and related technologies
- Partnering with the agricultural pesticide industries to
discover, develop and effectively use highly target-specific pesticides that promote rather than disrupt sustainability and biodiversity in our agroecosystems
- Developing new, highly targeted methods of pest management via genetic manipulation of pest species, host crops, non-target alternate host plants, and natural enemies of the pests to disrupt or destroy the ability of pests to survive in agricultural systems
- Partnering with economists, sociologists and producers to better determine the economic and social factors that will influence the successful application and
acceptability of more sustainable technologies by the agricultural sector
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