Crops: The Lynch File - We must take our refuge acres more seriously

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

The agricultural industry is on trial to see if it is doing more than just paying lip service to refuge planting. Surely it can do better

by PAT LYNCH

As I write, Monsanto has just announced it will refuse to sell certain hybrids to growers if the growers do not follow the refuge rules. This is good news and the impetus needed to ensure refuge planting. But the latest numbers about refuge planting indicate that some growers are not taking refuge seriously.

The fact that Bt rootworm is failing to give protection from rootworm in U.S. corn fields has raised the refuge issue to new heights. But this is not just about refuge acres. This is about the credibility of the agricultural industry.

Can we be trusted? Will we do what has been agreed to or will we just pay lip service? If agriculture will not follow the refuge rules, as agreed upon between industry and government, what other things will we pay lip service to? Do we follow the pesticide rules? Do we practise ground water protection? Or are we just giving lip service to these as well? The agricultural industry is on trial. We must take our refuge acres more seriously.

In fact, too many people have been insincere about refuge. As an agronomist, I have not been as serious as I could have been in encouraging growers to plant refuge. Growers have not been serious enough about planting refuge. Seed dealers have not been serious enough about ensuring growers plant refuge acres. Surely they can do better.

As for the principal companies that own this technology, they are acting like fat kids in a sand box. They are throwing sand at each other and probably do not remember who started it and why. These principals should be locked in a room and not allowed out until they resolve their differences. And we do not need to know how it was resolved. Just quit fighting and get back to giving us good genetics.

When I look at other industries such as automotive, banking and transportation, I do not see the public fighting that goes on in agriculture. Surely the stock holders do not approve of these actions. Also, thegovernment people involved in this matter can do better. I ask them to park their egos at the door and get this resolved.

The refuge planting solution has been hard to adopt. Growers do not mind losing a few dollars per acre by planting the refuge hybrids. But, in honesty, if the cost of refuge hybrid seed was even lower, then more refuge acres would be planted.

Growers will accept refuge in a bag. Planting season is the busiest, most stressful time in a crop year. Time is of the essence. Mistakes happen because there are so many things to do properly. Having refuge in a bag would simplify the process.

Until we get a simpler system, lets all work to get refuge planted. We are on trial to see if we can handle what we agreed to. If not, then the regulators will be less likely to give us the next great technology. BF

Consulting agronomist Pat Lynch, CCA (ON), formerly worked with the Ontario agriculture ministry and with Cargill.