The Green Machine

Increasing Beneficial Insect Populations by Increasing Biodiversity in Organic Agricultural Systems An ant, CAN, move a rubber tree plant If you’ve ever been to a fruit orchard, eaten fresh fruit or vegetables from a local stand or farmers market it is likely that you have seen the effects of herbivory (the act of feeding on plants) on market produce. This may present in the form of minor cosmetic damage or as a wiggly bit of a worm staring at you from the apple you just bit into. While these conditions are problematic they do not demonstrate the full effect of the problem. Pest damage, including herbivory, is the second highest cause of infield decrease in yield for market produce (fruits and vegetables) and the leading cause of loss of yield for cereal grains, as well as being the cause of the majority of “marketable” defects in fresh market produce(fruits and vegetables meant to be eaten fresh) (1).   In conventional agricultural systems pestic...

--> Introduction In the world of organic crop production, cover crops are critical to growing and maintaining an economically viable cash crop. A cover crop is one that is planted either in the field with the cash crop (the one being brought to market) or is planted during any period in the season when no cash crop is planted, also known as a fallow period. Cover crops are not harvested for market, they are either left in the field or incorporated into the soil by tillage prior to planting a new cash crop. The usage of a planned cover cropping system is not only beneficial to the cash crop but is also required by the regulations established by the National Organic Program (NOP) and mandated by the United States Food and Drug Administration(USDA). The USDA requires that a crop rotation must be established using cover crops which maintains or improves soil quality, provides pest management, manages soil fertility and provides erosion control(USDA). The guidelines ...