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WHOA- what about neem? I try to be as organic as
possible, and used neem last year for CB and peach leaf curl.
Dianne Stephany
zone 5, western NY- watching it snow on my crocus
and daffys
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2007 12:16
PM
Subject: [NAFEX] Boron and other
things
My point is that there are some apple growers that
have no choice in using chemicals because some pests are just too prolific in
their geographic area to sucessfully use organics. To say that this
choice is superstition and utter bilge is the same as saying those
who grow organically are just a bunch of long haired hippie freaks. (None
of you are long haired hippie freaks, are you?!?) I greatly admire those
who are able to grow fruit entirely organically. Provived they do not
use any pyrethrum, neem, sabadilla, and rotenone, as well as insecticidal
soaps and sprays such as kaolin that are certified "organic". As we all
know, there are some organic sprays that are more toxic than organo-phosphates
or neonicitinoids and that's my other point.
First, it is important to address the common
misperception that organic farming ispesticide-free. Organic farmers are
allowed to use a number of toxic chemical pesticides, and many organic crops
are routinely sprayed with pesticides.
The fundamental difference
between organic and synthetic pesticides is not their toxicity, but their
originwhether they are extracted from natural plants, insects, or mineral
oresor are chemically synthesized. In fact, some organic pesticides have
mammaliantoxicities that are far higher than many synthetic
pesticides. Consider the warning label text on the label of
a neem-based organic insecticide. While organic farmers promote
their use of non-chemical pest control strategies, such as crop rotation and
beneficial insects, they still can and some do use chemical pesticideswhen
pests threaten their crops.
The most heavily used pesticide on organic
farms is the toxin from the soil bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis, commonly
referred to as Bt. However, because Bt sprays are a formulation of living
bacteria, they cannot be measured in pounds per acre of active chemical
ingredient as are other organic and synthetic pesticides.
Copper, an
organic fungicide, is the 18th most used pesticide in the United States.
Over13 million pounds of copper were applied to 54 crops in 1997. Copper, oil,
and sulfurcombined accounted for a full 25% of U.S. pesticide
use.
There are quite a number of additional organic pesticides,
including insecticidal botanicalextracts such as pyrethrum, neem, sabadilla,
and rotenone, as well as insecticidal soaps and sprays such as kaolin.
Surprisingly, government regulators and authorities have no statistics
at all on the use of any organic pesticide other than oil, sulfur, Bt, and
copper,despite the fact that millions of pounds of these other organic
pesticides are used everyyear in the United States.
This
lack of government oversight is somewhat puzzling because many organic
pesticides are used more intensively per acre than non-organic pesticides
because of the lower effectiveness of organic pesticides compared to
their synthetic counterparts. So who's the more
superstitious?
Just
some food for thought.
Dennis Norton
Royal Oak Farm
Orchard
http://www.royaloakfarmorchard.com
http://www.theorchardkeeper.blogspot.com
http://www.revivalhymn.com
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