Agriculture

List of Agricultural Inputs

Ideally, you could ask your students to generate their own list that includes at least one allowed, one restricted, and one prohibited product for organic agriculture. Have them select a particular pest problem such as controlling cucumber beetles or whitefly and use the web to try to find both conventional and organic products to control that pest.

However, if you do not have good web access or if time is limited, you may wish to simply assign them products to check.

For examples of products that are prohibited in organic agriculture you can

• check advertisements in mainstream agricultural publications

• check publications that list pesticides on university web pages such as the University of Wisconsin WeedScience site http://128.104.239.6/uw_weeds/ or Iowa State University Integrated Pest Management site http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/

• visit a hardware or gardening store.

For examples of products that are allowed or restricted in organic agriculture go to the “Fertilizers and Soil Inputs” and “Pest Control Suppliers” sections of the Upper Midwest Organic Resource Directory http://www.mosesorganic.org/umord/directory.htm and access supplier websites. Or you can use gardening catalogs or agricultural suppliers that serve organic and sustainable farmers. Type “organic gardening supplies” into your computer’s web search engine for examples. Please note: many of these companies serve both organic and conventional farmers, so not all the products supplied by these companies are organic.

Example pest management products for cucumber beetle control

Prohibited in organic agriculture: Sevin (carbaryl), Lannate (methomyl ), Phaser (endosulfan),

Restricted in organic agriculture: Safer Yard & Garden Insect Killer (pyrethrin and insecticidal soap)

Allowed: Surround Crop Protectant (kaolin clay) (but often ineffective, see “An Examination of Kaolin Particle Film for Insect Pest Management in

Organic Winter...