SUSTAINABLE INSECT PEST MANAGEMENT: A TOTAL SYSTEMS PERSPECTIVE

Authors: Lewis, Wallace; VAN LENTEREN, J - AGRIC UNIV. WAGENINGEN; Tumlinson Iii, James

Submitted to: Biological Control
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/13/1997
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Plant-feeding insects are costly pests of agricultural crops. Environmental and food safety issues, coupled with a decreasing effectiveness of conventional pesticides, have heightened the need for alternative ways to control insect pests. We advocate a change in the central operating philosophy of pest management strategies. The historical intervention to remove a pest's presence rather than to bring it into acceptable environmental equilibrium violates fundamental principles and cannot be sustainable. We describe the need for further work to move pest management toward a better understanding of how farming practices interact with ecosystems, and how the design of cropping systems influences how insects become pests. We further argue that if we will but understand and work in harmony with Mother Nature's checks and balances, we will be able to enjoy safe, sustainable, and profitable agricultural production.

Technical Abstract: Plant feeding insects are costly pests of agricultural crops. Environmental and food safety issues, coupled with a decreasing effectiveness of conventional pesticides, have heightened the need for alternative ways to control insect pests. The authors argue herein that in our search for alternatives we have limited our scope too much to a matter of replacing toxic chemicals with more sophisticated biologically based products that are still delivered within an interventionist approach. They emphasize the need to go beyond just the issue of the kind of products we are using and reexamine the entire paradigm surrounding why and how we are making interventions. They stress the need for our primary line of defense consisting of a better understanding of the inherent strengths of cropping systems and designing them in ways so that pest populations are naturally kept within acceptable bounds.