Our Take On The Pesticide Debate

Nature has a lot to teach us when it comes to minimizing plant diseases and pests.

P​esticides are a controversial topic in the agricultural industry. Just like in politics, people mostly seem to fall on one extreme side or the other: either pesticides are the greatest invention of all time when it comes to growing crops, or they will single-handedly destroy the environment. Of course, neither of these things are completely accurate.

We don’t use pesticides at Meadow View Ranch. But before we dive in deeper as to why we choose not to use them, I just want to note something important: there are a million different ways to get to the same destination.

I'm not saying people who use pesticides on their land are evil; in fact, I know and respect many who regularly apply pesticides to their crops. And guess what? They are good people. Just because they do things differently than we do does not mean that they care less about the environment. It just means they do things another way, and that's perfectly okay. Variety is the spice of life—if we all agreed on every little thing, we'd never be challenged to consider new ideas and find better ways of doing things.

T​he absolute last thing I'd ever want is for this blog to be a cause for more division. Though it seems nearly impossible to believe these days, we really can feel differently than other people on a topic, even an incredibly important one, and still respect and get along with them.

That seems to be a lost art in our society today, but it's a non-negotiable truth for me. So hear me when I say this: I'm going to tell you the reasons we are choosing to limit or eliminate pesticide use on our property, but I am absolutely not shaming those who do choose to use them. This is just me explaining what led to our own personal decision.

N​ow that we have that out of the way, let's jump into our reasons for not using pesticides.

Pesticides May Kill Beneficial Bugs, Too

By not using pesticides, we help to protect pollinators like this bee, who enjoyed visiting one of our many milkweed plants.

F​or us, the biggest reason we aren't including pesticides on our property is that they typically don't discriminate when it comes to inflicting damage. According to the Yale School of the Environment, some pesticides may cause harm to beneficial insects as well as their intended target species. In particular, the neonicotinoid class of pesticides can damage beneficial insects such as honeybees and beetles.

I​nterestingly enough, though, certain pesticides can harm beneficial species who never come into direct contact with them on plants. For example, some pesticides are specially-formulated to affect pests who feed on soy plants. Slugs love to chow down on soy plants, but they aren't affected by the pesticide.

H​owever, they do ingest the pesticide. This means that the pesticide is then transferred to any predators who consume the slugs—birds, beetles, etc. And at high enough levels, the pesticides from the slugs can cause great harm to the predators who consume them.

S​ide Note: There Are Less-Toxic Pesticides

A​s I noted earlier, in no way am I bashing the use of pesticides on plants. Some pesticides are considerably less toxic than the ones you'd traditionally buy at the store. They've been formulated to only attack a certain species of pest, fungus, weed, etc. and are less likely to damage beneficial insects and microorganisms.

H​owever, even the less-toxic pesticides pose potential consequences. For that reason, it's just not worth it to us personally to use them on our property.

P​esticides Contaminate The Water Supply

Since our dogs spend so much time playing in and drinking out of our creek, we try to minimize water pollution.

Another reason we try not to use pesticides on our property is because they can contribute to contaminating the water supply. Naturally, it's easy for pesticides to end up in streams and rivers (and eventually the ocean) when water runs off of the soil. It then negatively impacts marine life such as fish and aquatic plants.

B​ut pesticides can also contaminate our ground water. As they are applied to plants, they make their way into the ground. So what's the problem with pesticides seeping into the soil? According to the United States Geological Survey, these chemicals can make it all the way down into the aquifers that provide nearly 50% of our drinking water in the United States, polluting some of our most vital water sources.

Biodiversity Is Nature's Pesticide

The breathtaking meadows in the Rocky Mountains of Northwest Wyoming are a prime example of how nature keeps diseases and pests at bay.

These examples of some of the dangers of using pesticides might not surprise you; most of us learned at some point that pesticides can kill bees and pollute our waterways. But what many of us didn't learn (or at least what I feel I never learned in school) was what the right alternative to pesticides is.

A​s in so many instances, we can turn to nature to find the solution. Have you ever been to a remote part of the woods where the land has largely been left untouched by humans? After living near the mountains for about five years now, I've been lucky enough to see these "wild" places many times.

I'm always somewhat shocked to find that everything seems to be in balance in these spots—there are flowers, shrubs, and trees everywhere you look, moose and mountain lions and deer frequenting the same watering holes, and very few weeds. For the most part, nothing is out of place. Why is that?

I​t turns out that biodiversity is arguably the most important part of these harmonious places. There are very few weeds because the soil is fertile enough to support native plants. You won't spot many pest infestations because they are controlled by beneficial insects like ladybugs and wasps. There are healthy numbers of both predators and prey.

W​hy are pesticides more popular than encouraging biodiversity, then? Like many human inventions, I think pesticides were originally intended to make pest control simpler and faster. Unlike many activists, I don't think it was created by some money-hungry corporate bigwig planning to destroy the environment.

F​or me, the issue with pesticides is that they create a negative feedback loop. The more you use them, the more biodiversity is destroyed, and the more infertile the land becomes. You then need even more pesticides to deal with the increased number of weeds, pests, and disease—and so the pattern continues.

This makes it difficult for people to make the switch to non-pesticide methods. It can take years and years to replenish soils and ecosystems; what farmer, rancher, or gardener wants to risk the crops they work so hard for when they know pesticides have worked for them in the past?

H​ow We Encourage Biodiversity On Our Property

Like all good things, biodiversity takes time to develop. There’s no quick fix for poor soil health, a lack of pollinators, and an unhealthy predator/prey balance.

Since we're just beginning our journey, if you looked at our property right now, you'd probably have no idea we are trying to improve its biodiversity. There seem to be mostly weeds growing, there are many predators roaming our pastures at night, and we have very poor soil health. However, here are a few things that we've started implementing that you can easily do on your own property as well:

• G​rowing a variety of plants to limit pest infestations and add beneficial nutrients back into the soil

• L​imiting or eliminating tillage—using a rototiller to work the ground kills all of the beneficial insects and microorganisms beneath the surface of the soil

• P​urposefully increasing the number of plants pollinators love the most, such as milkweed, sunflowers, dandelions, and marigolds

• R​efraining from using pesticides, chemical fertilizers, etc. on our plants

In the video above, you can see the results of some of our first baby steps towards biodiversity. Our ducks and the pollinators love our patch of sunflowers.

O​f course, there are a million different ways to increase the biodiversity of the ecosystem on your property, but these are the ones we have implemented this growing season. We are looking forward to seeing the changes on our land in the next few years!

P​esticides Are A Personal Choice

O​nce again, I just want to point out how important it is to respect other people's choices when it comes to using pesticides. Just because someone chooses to use pesticides on their fields does not mean they are a bad farmer or person. And just because we don't use pesticides at Meadow View Ranch doesn't mean we are better than those that do.

H​owever, for us, the decision to not use pesticides was a clear one. Our goal is to regenerate and revitalize our land as naturally as possible—which means finding ways to keep weeds and disease at bay without the help of chemicals.

While we spend many hours pulling weeds, mowing fields, and carefully tending to the plants we've chosen to grow, it's all worthwhile. We are forever grateful for each day we are able to spend working with and learning from nature.