Environmental Sustainability: Beyond Pesticides

Environmental sustainability is on the forefront of most organic consumers' minds these days. One of the best tools we have at our disposal today is the Internet, with its watchdog group websites and readily available information at our fingertips. Combined with public libraries, there's little a person can't learn independently in today's technological landscape.

In a discussion sparked by one of my recent posts, I became aware of the group, Beyond Pesticides, a website that is dedicated to environmental sustainability without, obviously, the use of pesticides in agriculture; but it goes further than that. They have articles explaining the use of potentially dangerous chemicals that have moved from commercial markets into consumer markets.

From their mission statement:

Beyond Pesticides produces two informative newsletters. Pesticides and You (PAY), published quarterly, provides in-depth articles and is a voice for pesticide safety and alternatives. Technical Report is published monthly, it provides the most current information on pesticide issues. Beyond Pesticides has available publications to assist you with pest and pesticide related issues.  Every year, the Beyond Pesticides National Pesticide Forum brings together scientists and activists from around the country.

The site is very well-managed. It has a fairly extensive list of pesticides with "links to factsheets, basic chemical, alternatives, health and environmental effects, regulatory status, key studies and more" using a leaf icon to chemicals that are least toxic.

Once a chemical is chosen, the information page is very detailed and is cross-referenced with other fact sheets, including Pesticide Action Network (PAN) and more sources where they are available. They have apparently authored or gained permission to publish a number of articles discussing alternatives to using chemicals in the soil, even discussing invasive weeds, which truly are a problem. In the Invasive Weeds article, for instance, David Pimentel, from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University suggests using animals as a method of organic weed control. This is a perfect match for certain kinds of invasive weed control like Japanese Knotweed, which, when left to its natural state will take over an entire field within one season.  Additionally, goats can eat poison ivy without effect, so they are a wonderful, viable option to rid of plants that are problematic in public areas.

I think everybody understands that there are times when pesticides and herbicides are necessary in extreme cases. I think it would be foolish to suggest otherwise, but what concerns me most is that in industrial agriculture, chemicals are used as part of the practice and not as a last resort. Beyond Pesticides is a great resource to help make organic farmers make decisions that will help us on the path of environmental sustainability.