Modern industrialized agriculture presents us with certain ironies, and this one is too delicious to pass up. I am fond of quoting Wendell Berry, who said "The genius of America farm experts is very well demonstrated here: they can take a solution and divide it neatly into two problems.” The topic today is refuges. No, not the National Wildlife Refuges, where eagles nest and whooping cranes dance, nor Manatee refuges in Florida or a refuge for the endangered green sea turtle. This is a refuge for corn rootworm, corn borer and cotton bollworm. Let me explain. The dubious miracle of genetic modification has allowed us to insert an insect killer, Bt, into the genetic code of plants. So, corn with the Bt gene will kill the insect that tries to eat it. Fantastic product, right? Except that, in the arms race disguised as nature, insects are constantly working to crack the code. Genetically modifying themselves through natural selection, insects will eventually find a way to survive eating a Bt plant. That's called "resistance". Do you think  rootworms aren't that smart? Think again. Corn rootworm is the bug that began laying its eggs in soybean fields years ago in Iowa, because it knows that in IA, corn follows soybeans in the rotation as certainly as new pickup trucks follow harvest. The Man Vs. Nature classic is Jack Londons' To Build A Fire.  And as you all recall from high school English, Nature wins. Decisively. I believe it always will.

     The advertising supplement attached to the recent Successful Farming magazine encourages farmers to "Respect the Refuge." Each farmer is instructed to plant 20 % of their farm to non Bt corn. Yes, that's what I said. An advertisement saying "Our product is so fantastic, you should only use it on  80 % of your farm." The plan is for the worms who grew up in the Bt part of the field to take wives from the non Bt land so their offspring will be as dumb as their ancestry from the Stone Age. Evidently, amorous corn borer moths are willing to go as far as a half mile to pick up hot dates from across the section! This refuge approach is aimed toward keeping the entire insect family from developing resistance, and thus tanking the entire product line. This company, whose name rhymes with "Ronsanto",  has had a strangle hold on agriculture dating back to genetically modifying crops to resist the herbicide glyphosate in 1996. We can rely on entities to act in their own self interest (Jared Diamond), and this supplement is certainly a testament to that. Its' message is spun in terms like stewardship, preservation, and common sense. But tucked into the fine print are a couple of less palatable issues such as "mandated by EPA", noncompliance could result in denied access and, a large portion of the global market is not interested in purchasing genetically modified crops in any form. This company broke new ground when it began taking its customers to court for not using the products in the prescribed manner. An amazing feat of legal finesse and public relations.

    My point? It is ridiculous, not to mention presumptuous, to think that man can manipulate and impose on the natural order of things without nature taking its best shot in return. And that response of nature could take us places we didn't want to go. A system of food production that works with natural processes, instead of against them, will be more economic and viable in the long run. The "rootworm refuge" demonstrates exactly why I believe that sustainable agriculture makes more sense than the industrialized model.