=====================================
P A N U P S
***
Pesticide Action Network
North America
Updates Service
=====================================
California Passes Pesticide Reduction Bill
November 1, 1994
After passing unanimously through both the State Assembly and
Senate, a pesticide use reduction bill modeled on a
successful farmer-to-farmer training program was signed into
law by California Governor Pete Wilson on September 29, 1994.
Co-sponsored by the Community Alliance with Family Farmers
(CAFF) and supported by mainstream agriculture organizations,
environmental groups, state agencies and the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, the bill (AB 3383) offers
technical support and financial incentives to farmers to help
reduce their use of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers by
adopting biological farming systems.
In January 1995, the new program will provide at least
$575,000 through the University of California Sustainable
Agriculture Research and Education Program (SAREP) in Davis,
California through competitive grants open to all commodities
and farmers in the state. In 1995, $250,000 of this will
come from the California Environmental Protection Agency's
Department of Pesticide Regulation and $325,000 from the U.S.
EPA. These funds will support demonstration pilot projects
in five counties, in up to five commodities.
The new law is based on CAFF's Biologically Integrated
Orchard System (BIOS) program, an approach to farming that
encourages use of cover crops, compost, beneficial insects
and other biological controls, and additional ecologically
based methods, and stresses crop management as one part of a
whole farm system. BIOS is designed around farmers working
with a small team of assistants to develop and implement
biologically-intensive farm strategies in their fields. BIOS
programs are currently in place in almond and walnut orchards
in four central California counties and beginning in citrus
orchards in another. Widely praised by the Federal Crop
Insurance Program, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the
Almond Board of California, these programs allow farmers to
greatly reduce their reliance on synthetic chemicals while
maintaining yields. The BIOS program also fosters idea and
information exchange among farmers through farmer/scientist
collaboration that brings together growers and scientists
from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines to develop on-
farm research programs, and through the CAFF Lighthouse Farm
Network, a process of informal, ongoing discussions organized
on a crop and regional basis.
For the almond growers who participated in the initial BIOS
pilot project in Merced County, BIOS has proven effective in
providing alternatives to chemical pest controls. First year
survey results show that all participating growers eliminated
all use of organophosphate dormant sprays, cut synthetic
nitrogen use by at least 25% and stopped using pre-emergent
herbicides. Grower enthusiasm is high, and according to
Richard Reed of CAFF, many of the original farmer
participants will expand the acreage they manage within the
BIOS program next year.
Aware that they were developing a significant program, CAFF
staff worked with supportive members of the State Assembly to
develop legislation based on the BIOS approach. After these
Assembly members introduced AB 3383 in early 1994, CAFF then
developed an unusual support coalition to promote the
legislation, including the California Farm Bureau, the
Agricultural Council of California and many environmental
organizations. The legislation calls for projects it will
fund to be "patterned, to the degree possible, after the
successful Biologically Integrated Orchard Systems," and to
"extend integrated farming systems through the proven
technique of farmer-to-farmer communication."
Sources: CAFF Press Release, September 30, 1994; and Thomas
Nelson, Reggie Knox and Richard Reed of the CAFF staff.
Contact: Jill Klein, Richard Reed or Thomas Nelson, CAFF,
P.O. Box 464, Davis, CA
95617 USA; phone (916) 756-8518; fax (916) 756-7857; email
caff@econet.apc.org
===========================================================
| PANNA | for standard information |
| Phone:(415) 541-9140 | about PANNA send a short |
| Fax:(415) 541-9253 | email message to |
| email: panna@econet.apc.org | panna-info@econet.apc.org |
| gopher: gopher.igc.apc.org | |
| ___
| To subscribe to PANUPS send email to MAJORDOMO@igc.apc.org|
| with the following text on one line: subscribe panups |
===========================================================