Want to curb climate change? Buy less-than-perfect produce and go easy on pesticides, researchers say

In its latest report, the Pesticide Action Network has made the case for why growers should use less pesticide and urges produce buyers to accept fruits and vegetables with blemishes.

Year after year, a steady rise of extreme weather events causes farmers, distributors and food retailers to scramble to deliver food from farm to grocery aisle. Meanwhile, growers and produce industry leaders grapple with how to sustainably grow food in the face of a changing climate.

The drum beat of climate change is becoming harder to ignore.

Global food systems account for about one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions. While many climate-smart agriculture methods focus on conservation tillage and regenerative soil health practices, the Pesticide Action Network believes that no-till solutions alone do not solve agriculture’s emissions problem.

“The overwhelming majority of pesticides are derived from petroleum, meaning they're ultimately derived from fossil fuels, and we refer to them as petrochemicals,” Asha Sharma, PAN North America’s organizing co-director and report co-author, told The Packer.

In a recent report, “Pesticides and Climate Change: A Vicious Cycle,” the international coalition makes the case that reducing use of fossil fuel-derived, synthetic pesticides is a critical piece to the puzzle to mitigate climate change with agricultural practices.

The case to include pesticide reduction in climate solutions

In the analysis, PAN lays out its case that reliance on synthetic pesticides contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and, compounding the issue, also makes existing farming and ranching systems more vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

It’s a negative feedback loop, or “vicious cycle,” that will only worsen unless farmers and ranchers make changes to how they grow food, according to the recent PAN report.

What can the fresh produce industry do in the face of this problem? PAN suggests the solution is twofold. First, the produce industry needs to embrace less-than-perfect fruits and vegetables from growers. Second, growers need to embrace agroecological farming methods and lessen dependence on synthetic pesticides.

Shifting beauty standards in fruits and vegetables

“The power of procurement is huge,” Sharma said.

If produce buyers rewarded farmers for quality products, while shifting expectations around what is and is not a quality marker when it comes to judging fruits and vegetables, it would completely change the game, according to the PAN report's co-authors.

This shift in what’s acceptable would empower growers to ease up on applying synthetic pesticides that promise blemish-free fruits and vegetables.

“One of the driving factors behind the continued use of pesticide is the perception that that the use of pesticides will guarantee that you've got beautiful fruits and vegetables,” Margaret Reeves, Ph.D., and senior scientist and report co-author at PAN North America, told The Packer.

There's intense pressure from the market to have beautiful, perfect products, even though appearance doesn’t say much about quality of the product, she added.

“The market could have a powerful message and influence in shifting the consumers mentality about what's acceptable,” Reeves continued. “The produce industry could go a long way in shifting that consumer mentality about what's acceptable.”

Allowing blemishes and tolerating a small amount of visible pest pressure on sought-after fruits and vegetables would dramatically lessen agricultural dependence on synthetic pesticides.

“There are rigorous standards that farmers have to abide by when it comes to quality, appearance and quantity, usually under contracts,” Sharma said. “Being able to work with farmers who are farming organically or with agroecological practices, [buyers must] make sure standards aren't leaving folks out.”

Reducing pests through ecological farming practices

On the other side of the coin, breaking out of the pesticide dependence cycle for growers looks like embracing new farming practices that focus on preventing pests instead of eradicating them, according to PAN’s recent report.

“Solutions like agroecology focus on changing our whole philosophy and system of farming, working with nature rather than against it and minimizing the use of synthetic inputs that include pesticides and fertilizers,” Sharma said.

The agroecological approach is an ecosystem-based approach where the emphasis is on crop and system health and preventing conditions conducive to pest problems, Reeves said.

What’s more, these farming techniques rely on integrated pest management strategies, systems-based approaches and ecological principles that minimize the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers.

“That's why diversity is so important in crop rotations,” Reeves said. “It's not completely outside of what many producers consider, but this approach makes the agricultural system one that is healthy, vigorous, abundant. It prevents pest problems rather than waiting until the pests are there and then asking, ‘How do you kill them with pesticides or other technologies?’”

Finding natural solutions through trial and error

Rob Faux, an Iowa farmer and PAN’s communications manager, has had success farming using agroecological growing methods firsthand.

“We keep learning, and we keep adjusting year after year. We just keep getting better at it,” Faux told The Packer. “There are two principles in agroecology that we very much adhere to, and that's embracing complexity and encouraging diversity.”

For Faux, complexity means not just farming with a systems-based approach, but also incorporating more types of plants in his crop rotation. For instance, to combat the Colorado potato beetle on his farm, Faux added diversity into his potato fields, alternating green beans and bush beans next to the potato fields.

“That, of course, means that you’re managing a system that is a little more complex,” he said. “With lots of trial and error and a few studies, we figured out what works on our farm. Now, we don’t worry about the Colorado potato beetle most of the time.”

How the produce industry can support agroecological farming

To support farmers who are using agroecological growing practices, Faux urges produce buyers to seek out more small, diversified farms.

“To make this work we must have the buyers willing to accept a little bit of the burden of the complexity. Not all of it, but some of it,” he said.

While not as simple as purchasing from one big supplier that grows or sources vast quantities of one product, Faux believes supporting smaller growers who can rotate fields and grow several types of crops is part of solving the larger issue of mitigating climate change in agriculture.

Not only does agroecology lessen farmers' need to apply synthetic pesticides, according to PAN’s report authors, it also centers decision-making with the farmer, who can tackle pest problems directly with boots on the ground.

“Importantly, the aspect of agroecology that doesn't exist in solutions like precision agriculture is centering the decision-making power of the people most impacted by conventional or industrial agriculture,” Sharma said. “The farmers, farmworkers, indigenous people, rural communities, and really trying to build their decision-making power in forming the types of agricultural systems that we really want to see.”

Read the full report, “Pesticides and Climate Change: A Vicious Cycle.”