Ecologically Based Pest Management
At the request of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and with support from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Research Council's Board on Agriculture convened the 14-member Committee on Pest and Pathogen Control through Management of Biological Control Agents and Enhanced Natural Cycles and Processes to assess status of the knowledge in areas of pesticide application, host resistance, and biological-control practices and to chart future direction. Specifically, the committee was charged to address the following:
Given our charge and the record of history of the application of pesticides, breeding for disease resistance, and integrating biological control practices into production agriculture, my colleagues on the committee and I deliver this report with one key message: In both science and application, researchers, providers of inputs, and growers must progress from a product based approach to an ecologically based pest management system identified as EBPM. Management is the key word. In fact, the word control, as in biological control, is misleading. Pests in most cases cannot be controlled; pests must be managed with the objectives of a safe, profitable, and durable outcome.
With a better understanding of ecology, the inherent strengths of the managed ecosystem can be used with more modest inputs than in the past. Essentially, the change to EBPM as proposed here will require a substantial change from the primary practice of product input to the primary mind set of information and management. Ultimately, EBPM will help to address ecosystem health not by administering products alone to treat symptoms, but by integrating components that maximize use of natural processes with minimum development of resistance.
EBPM will require regulatory oversight that matches the level of risk of biological inputs added to the managed ecosystem. For example, synthetic chemicals are new to the biosphere—they have no base of performance in the environment or in relation to human health. However, biologically based organisms, products, and resistant cultivars are inherently different, for the most part, from synthetics. Biological processes, having existed in nature over time, provide a base of experience that is a major resource to evaluate the safe application and establish appropriate oversight of EBPM. Biologically based products are not inherently different from synthetics in their vulnerability to development of resistance, although history suggests that such will be less frequent. Users will need to monitor managed ecosystems for early identification of pest resistance.
In this report we place major emphasis on the research information needs and on appropriate regulatory oversight. The committee also urges an interactive, cooperative approach to development of EBPM. Given the other individuals and organizations addressing issues relating to the adoption of new pest management approaches, we have only modestly considered adoption in our report.
In this deliberative report the Executive Summary presents the findings and key recommendations. Chapter 1 describes the history of pest management and the limitations of current practices. Chapter 2 details the committee's new approach to pest management, ecologically based pest management. Chapter 3 identifies priority research areas and discusses important institutional changes to effectively carry out that research. Chapter 4 assesses regulatory oversight and aspects of risk assessment and management.
The contents of this report offer a new paradigm, the concept of EBPM. We are optimistic that the development and application of the principles of EBPM will contribute to a future with high-quality food, fiber, and forest production and sound management of our natural resources for safety, profitability, and durability.
Ralph W. F. Hardy, Chair
Committee on Pest and Pathogen Control
through Management of Biological
Control Agents and Enhanced Natural
Cycles and Processes
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