I’m sure there are mixed feelings about this, but one takeaway is that it will probably get harder to grow fruit in CA as more invasive pests are introduced. With this ruling, the judge in essence eliminated any real means for the state to quarantine and eradicate new invasive insect pests.
I’m an organic farmer, and for me this is a good move. Chemical pesticides aren’t the only tool you can use against invasive insect pests. The Med fly infestations have been controlled with sterile males. There are many new developments now using genetically engineered versions of the pests that could wipe out their population without getting any chemicals on the food that you eat. Such is being done on mosquitoes for example, all without pesticides.
Biological and natural approaches are often the best way to keep insect pest population in check. They should also be studied.
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I won’t disagree with biological approaches. I don’t think anyone is suggesting they shouldn’t be studied.
Currently I know of no approval for the use of genetically engineered insects to control agricultural pests in the U.S., such as the use of gene drive in the control of mosquitoes. Personally I’m not against genetically modifying insects to control pests, but it considered a high risk technology, and there are critics of that too.
To my knowledge there is no approval to release genetically altered Asian Citrus psyllids, so essentially the state has no means to stop the spread of citrus greening.
I also think the U.S. should import the predators of these invasive pests, but the U.S. govt. has been very slow to do that. To this date, they have not released any natural imported predators of SWD, which has forced many organic berry growers out of business.
From an economic perspective, the CA ruling could have a slight positive impact on my business, so I’m somewhat detached from the emotional side of it. The harder California makes it to grow fruit, the more cost will be involved in growing it there, thereby losing some of their competitive advantage.
Personally though, I try not to look at things so selfishly. So on balance I think it’s a mistake to take away one of the eradication or control tools for your state’s fruit industry.
I don’t know what you grow organically, or if you depend on your farm operation as a major means of income, but in general I think folks who grow fruits organically there would probably be the first to suffer from the introduction of new pests.
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The law still allows the producers to spray pesticides, just forbids them from spraying on property that is not theirs (that is, private property.). I don’t think the idea of letting the homeowner have autonomy over what the government sprays in their yard is some progressive far-left agenda as the article implies.
Lol, well I am for property rights, so you sort of have me there. But I don’t think CA has been a big advocate of property rights for the last 50+ years, so there is certainly some duplicity on their part.
If you look at agriculture from a more community or national security risk, then property rights are perhaps a little bit secondary, but the state apparently doesn’t see it that way. The state certainly doesn’t have a problem pushing property rights to the back seat if an endangered species at risk.
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It’s quite the opposite from what I’ve seen from many of my organic farming friends. Their farms are more resilient to invasive insect pests and diseases as they have excellent diversity and keeps the population balance, both for the macro and micro biotas.
In UC Davis, some grapevine fields for example that herbicides wasn’t applied because of equipment mismatch, they have found to have way lower nematode infestations than those regularly sprayed.
We have studied that biodiversity increases stability and resilience to disruptions, such as an exotic pest and disease introduction. Unlike big blocks of monocultured fields of conventional farming, that one is just disasters waiting to happen in the event of such disruption.
I believe that in the way we are farming in California, majority are big monocultures of conventional farming for economies of scale. In such scenario, indeed, the residential homes will provide alternative hosting areas for various pests and diseases.
Come to think of it, the first greening disease spotted in California came from a residential tree that was grafted with a budwood from China that one of the ignorant person has brought with them their childhood favorite citrus variety, and it slipped through the customs inspections.
Well, the discussion is starting to turn to organic vs. conventional, which wasn’t my intention. Organic/conventional has been debated here so often, nothing new can be said on the topic.
It gets very complicated, and is easily oversimplified. For example, if there is a drastic drop in the citrus industry in CA, I suspect processing industry for juice could leave.
That is sort of what happened to the asparagus industry in the U.S. As part of the war on drugs the U.S. showed Puru how to grow asparagus cost efficiently, but in the end it helped bring about the demise of the U.S. asparagus industry. The canneries moved south, which drastically limits options of the remaining growers.
As always CA will be an interesting one to watch and see how this works for them.
It’s an injunction – so I agree with @Olpea that it will be interesting to follow the arguments presented in court and the final judicial ruling.
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