| Researchers and scientists' efforts to devise new | | | | sensitive to animal welfare issues so that much of |
| and more sustainable farming methods are a | | | | the UK's wildlife, for example, is now legally protected |
| response to pressure from retailers and consumers | | | | - leaving the farmer to find some "humane" means of |
| for healthier, chemical free food. Financial pressures | | | | protecting his livelihood from pillage! |
| have also increased on farmers all over the world, | | | | Scarecrows don't work all that well these days, birds |
| whether they are small producers or large | | | | gradually become immune to bird scarers and plainly |
| agribusinesses, leading to a search for ways to | | | | guns and poisons won't be acceptable to most |
| increase their land's productivity. Up to an estimated | | | | people as a humane crop protection measure! |
| one third of global agricultural production is destroyed | | | | Here's where innovation comes in - someone's |
| by more than 20,000 species of field and storage | | | | invented an acoustic hand-held device that works by |
| pests. Worries about food scarcity add to the mix as | | | | broadcasting a digitally stored distress call to create a |
| the planet's population continues to grow. | | | | hostile environment in the problem area, which causes |
| All this takes place in the context of growing concern | | | | the birds to sense danger and fly away. It's reported |
| about the environment, about the effects via our | | | | to be almost 100% effective. |
| food of excessive chemical fertiliser use on our own | | | | In the growing emphasis on integrated pest |
| health and on the quality of the land we all depend | | | | management and a whole-system approach to |
| on. In a way it's irrelevant whether the motivator is | | | | controlling pests and increasing crop production the |
| fear, finance or famine or whether it's based on | | | | new generations of biopesticides currently being |
| ethics, concern for the planet and for inequalities | | | | developed can therefore also be seen as an |
| between peoples. | | | | innovative new way of providing the agricultural |
| It's unfortunate that it's human nature that we are | | | | products farmers and growers need for pest and |
| prompted to innovation only when situations reach | | | | disease control, yield enhancement and preserving |
| near-crisis point but it's also encouraging that once | | | | their land's quality. |
| we've reached that point human ingenuity can, if it | | | | Biopesticides are generally specific to the pest or |
| tries, come up with solutions. | | | | disease they're designed to deal with and replace the |
| The result is a greater openness to innovation in the | | | | toxic chemicals used in the past with more |
| research and development of agricultural products for | | | | sophisticated biologically based agents. They are |
| pest and disease control, yield improvements and | | | | derived from natural materials like animals, plants, |
| sustainable farming. | | | | bacteria, and certain minerals. |
| This has given rise to a new approach to tackling | | | | They also remain in the crop and the soil for a |
| pests and diseases which includes biological control, | | | | shorter time so there is less risk of contamination of |
| integrated pest management and biotechnology. | | | | subsoil and water and they do not on the whole lead |
| The approach stresses a more ecologically aware, | | | | to the development of higher levels of resistance as |
| whole system approach based on the study of | | | | the previous generation of chemical pest control |
| population biology at the local farm level. It involves | | | | agents did. |
| using a combination of science, renewable | | | | There are obstacles, of course. They're expensive to |
| technologies such as host-plant resistance and natural | | | | produce and have a smaller market because they are |
| biological control, which can be made available to | | | | pest and location-specific. There is not yet a |
| even the most resource-poor farmers. | | | | globally-agreed system of testing and registration for |
| Take birds, for example. To a flock of hungry birds a | | | | these new products and they can therefore take up |
| ripening cornfield is an "all you can eat" free buffet. | | | | to seven or eight years to come onto the market. |
| To the farmer they're freeloaders, literally eating into | | | | The question is whether we can be equally innovative |
| his profits from the field. | | | | in removing the obstacles to getting on with a job |
| However, another dimension of the whole issue of | | | | that is plainly urgent. |
| concern for the environment means we are all more | | | | |