That IS a fascinating article, sort of a whodunit. The crime is the loss of
crops, but which is the real culprit - rotation, insecticides, test plot,
evolving beetles, migrating beetles - or was it a conspiracy? But what
really struck me were the following paragraphs, and the astonishing
conclusion.
<Fifteen miles south of Piper City, where it all began, Greg Pool said he did
not intend to take any chances. He farms nearly 1,400 acres in Melvin, Ill.,
and still rotates soybeans with corn. Only now he spends $16 to $17 an acre
for insecticides.>
<For three years Pool has set aside a 10-acre plot to participate in a
University of Illinois study, leaving untreated corn in scattered patches. The
scientists are watching the damage to the corn roots. He is watching the
effect on his yield per acre.>
<"The damage is still on the way up," Pool said. "In the first year, there
was a two-bushel difference. Last year, we were in the 8-to-10-bushel
difference. This year, it was 17 bushels.>
<"I guess I've learned my lesson," Pool added. "Next year I won't have the
plot, and I'll treat all my acres.">
<Dr. Kevin L. Steffey, an extension specialist in entomology in the department
of crop sciences at the University of Illinois, who has made some of the
estimates of possible damage, said he understood the sentiments of farmers
like Pool: "They don't have alternatives.">
They don't have alternatives? Why in $%^%#@ not?
Why can't they grow barley, oats, wheat, rape, sugar beets, whatever, for a
few years?
Why can't they diversify - don't 1,400 acres of any one crop invite trouble?
Is monoculture the real culprit?
Do the rules governing federal subsidies prohibit alternatives?
Are corn and soybeans the only crops that can yield profits?
$16 an acre for 1,400 acres = $22,400 cost for one insecticide each year - for
one farm. How much profit do the insecticide companies get out of that?
I guess these questions should really be addressed to Dr. Steffey, but maybe
some SANeters have answers to offer?
More than curious,
Betty Gras
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