The Rural Voice, 1983-04, Page 15Looking at agriculture,
chemically speaking
by Gregor Campbell
Organic farming may be fine as a
small scale romantic notion but realis-
tically, chemicals are on the farm to
stay. We can't get along without them.
This was the underlying message in
several speeches to the annual training
conference of the Ontario branch of the
Canadian Agricultural Chemical Asso-
ciation in London. The theme of the get
together was 'Crop Protection, Chemi-
cal's Role in Ontario Agriculture in the
1980s'.
Agriculture today is chemicals, a fact
some urban -based pressure groups find
difficult to fathom, said freelance writer
and Ontario Federation of Agriculture
public relations chairman Dianne Har-
kin. These "self-righteous do-gooders"
often don't follow their organic and
back -to -the -land ideals to their logical
conclusion, she added. For instance, to
achieve today's yields with 1920's meth-
ods would mean, among other things,
some 50 million people in the United
States would go hungry, or one-third of
that country's urban population.
Harkin, who is also a farmer, said
Canada's figures would be proportion-
ately similar if they were compiled. We
can't go back to the relatively chemical -
free 1920's, she said. If we tried it
would require an estimated 61 million
horses and mules, that would in turn
require something in the vicinity of 180
million acres of land, or about half the
farmland in the U.S.
Nevertheless, modern agriculture and
chemical companies are perceived as
bad guys, right up there with bankers
and government, Harkin said, "Cocka-
mamie headlines are accepted by a
generation of people who live twice and
three times as long as their ancestors
and who enjoy the lowest -priced, high-
est -quality, and greatest variety of
food."
All foodstuffs contain natural chemi-
cals, she said. Cherries contain cya-
nide, naturally. They also fight gout.
The simple potato contains 150 chemi-
cals, she said. And applied chemicals
are necessary to battle disease and
insect damage. "To end the negative
bombardment we are being subjected to
will mean educating and informing
cockeyed sensationalist journalists as
well as society's misinformed do-
gooders."
The Ontario public must recognize it
can't have it both ways, said Dr. Clare
Rennie, assistant deputy minister of
technology and field services for the
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and
Food. "Ontario agriculture needs pesti-
cides and so does the public that eats
the cheap food made possible by
pesticides and good crop production
techniques."
Some pesticides pose real health
problems if not used correctly, he said,
while others are less toxic than items in
everyday use such as aspirin, caffeine
and nicotine. Legislation recognizes the
distinction between these dangerous
and relatively safe chemicals, but the
public often doesn't and brands all
agricultural chemicals as bad:
"Without pesticides the yield of pota-
toes would be cut by more than half.
The potential loss to corn, a crop that
has expanded greatly in this province,
is set at 50 per cent. Without fungi-
cides, the production of fruit in Ontario
would probably disappear as a commer-
cial venture. Many cash crops like corn
and beans are treated almost 100 per
cent with herbicides."
Dr. Rennie said the battle against
pesticide residues in pork, beef, milk,
fruit, vegetables and oil-producing corn
and soybeans in Ontario has already
been won. However, the battle against
agricultural pests continues as a "never-
ending brushfire war on many fronts...
demanding the development of new
weapons and more sophistication."
There is an increased incidence of
biological resistance to pesticides here
and worldwide, he said. "It has become
abundantly clear that while some pesti-
cides have been effective for over 30
years, others have lost their effective-
ness in as little as three years."
The concept of integrated pest man-
agement (IPM) is the way of the future,
he said. It still recognizes pesticides as
indispensable tools in pest control, but
used to augment many natural factors
that can be used to control pests such
as biological control, promoting pest
death by natural causes. But biological
control testing is a slow process, he
added, releasing one or two new suc-
cessful biological controls per decade
is considered high performance. "The
integration of pesticides with other
techniques of control will be needed if
biological resistance is to be slowed."
The assistant deputy minister said
growers will see fewer new compounds
available for their production needs in
the coming decade. "The industry must
consider the aspect of use protection.
Also, the proper disposal of waste
pesticides and the application of ad-
vanced techniques for storage, handling
and cleaning of containers must be
encouraged. Inflation and the demand
for more testing to facilitate safe
handling are greatly increasing the cost
of developing new pesticides. This has
led to a decline in the number of new
active ingredients registered each year."
Scientist Ernie Frye expanded on this
theme in an interesting talk, outlining
the labyrinth of tests, procedures and
bureaucracy a chemical company that
wants to register a new compound for
the market in the 1980s must go
through. The bottom line for a develop-
ing company today is an estimated
investment of $20 million, and about 10
years of research and development.
Even then there is no assurance the
new compound will be registered. The
cost in dollars and years means bigger
companies are getting bigger, and fewer
new compounds are being marketed.
Frye said government regulations are
tough and inflexible, among the best in
the world, but the entire process is
needlessly slow. Government doesn't
work under deadlines like the private
sector must, he lamented. He also
expressed fear that a proposed govern-
ment freedom of information act might
involve the loss of corporate chemical
secrets developed at such high risk and
cost, and wondered out loud if this is
just. The biggest risk with agricultural
chemicals is misuse, he said, and
education is the key to combatting this.
The CACA is taking steps to ensure it
educates its own members, before
government steps in and does it for
them. Len Hawkins, a member of the
association's Ontario Provincial Council
outlined progress on a vendor certifica-
tion program that has been on the
planning board for the past two and
one-half years. It will be voluntary when
it begins this summer, but becomes
compulsory in perhaps as few as two
years.
The agriculture chemical educational
program would be a two-day seminar,
concluded with a two-hour, openbook
exam, with a required passing grade of
75 per cent for certification. The course
may cost in the vicinity of $75, and will
soon be required for "anyone giving
recommendations on pesticide use in
Ontario", an estimated 5,200 people.
The seminar and exam will deal with
such areas as pesticide background,
mechanisms, reference sources, safety,
and vendor's role. Final details remain
to be worked out by the implementation
committee, but Hawkins said the
course will allow Ontario to catch up
with programs already in place in other
parts of Canada and the United State% i'
THE RURAL VOICE, APRIL 1983 PG. 13