by Pat Tigges, Administrator
PNAAA Education Foundation
Talking to urbanites about Integrated Pest Management always make me nervous. Not because I disagree with the concept, but because I was afraid of where we were going. My worst fear has been confirmed. IPM is headed exactly where the advocacy groups want it to go.
The city of San Francisco has banned the use of synthetic pesticides on all city-owned property, including parks, golf courses, rights-of-way, etc. The new law will be phased in over three years with the complete elimination by the year 2000. In explaining the law, city officials stated they were adopting IPM practices.
Beg your pardon, but doesn’t IPM mean combining all available tools to minimize economic, health and environmental risks. Well, that’s not what it means to the public. The public perceives IPM as a way to eliminate chemicals and, in case you hadn’t noticed, public perception becomes reality.
Am I surprised? No! Anyone who follows environmental issues could see it coming.
IPM is not new. Agriculture has practiced it for decades. But, several years ago it became a big thing with anti-pesticide groups. They began talking it up, pushing for universal adoption, and touting it in literature as something wonderful.
Overnight, our universities, researchers, EPA, state agencies, and chemical companies jumped on the bandwagon. Even the President mentioned it in both his Inaugural and State of the Union addresses four years ago. Producers climbed on the wagon too, thinking that this would prove to the public that they too wanted to “save the environment”.
When will we ever learn that the enviro-nuts are much better at fighting this war. They knew where they were going. If you can’t get where you want in one big step, take two small ones.
The first step was to get everyone on the IPM wagon. Get industry to acknowledge there are other tools available. Then, when everyone’s aboard, it’s only one more step to elimination of a tool. After all, we’ve already admitted there’s a whole tool kit available. The loss of one can’t be too bad.
It was easy! The public didn’t know what IPM was in the first place. All they know is what they’re told in the press and green group literature. It was touted as a new ‘silver bullet’ to get rid of all those nasty chemicals. IPM was never their goal. It was merely the first step. And agriculture walked along with them, hand-in-hand.
Will it stop with San Francisco? Don’t bet on it. Goaded by success the greens will pressure other cities. Unfortunately it will take a while for the public to realize that a million people crammed into a small area, living on top of each other, is not Mother Nature’s idea of natural. The varmints will have a heyday!
And who will suffer? Not the affluent neighborhoods. They can afford to keep their homes safe and clean. At most they will suffer weedy roadsides and playing golf on bumpy greens.
The real damage will fall on the poor, as the rats and mice multiply in rundown neighborhoods and tenements. As in the Third World, the fat and affluent will again get to “feel good” at the expense of the poor.
Reprint permission given by AgAir Update, P.O. Box 850, Perry, GA 31069 - an international agricultural aviation publication.
Return to Spreading the Facts