PARENT SESSION
Friday, August 11, 8:00-10:30 am
Poster Session 26 - Latebreaking and newsworthy posters
Exhibit Hall, Ballroom Level, Cook Convention Center
Standards for the management of natural lands on Wisconsin vegetable farms.
Anchor, Theodore*,1, Knuteson, Deana1, Barzen, Jeb 2, Gratton, Claudio1, Mathews, Nancy1, Zedler, Paul1, 1 University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI2 International Crane Foundation, Baraboo, WI
ABSTRACT- The World Wildlife Fund, the Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Association, and the University of Wisconsin have worked since 1996 to identify and accelerate adoption of pest, crop, and farm management practices to reduce the ecological footprint of potato production in Wisconsin. Collaboration goals include: increased Integrated Pest Management (IPM), reduced use of high-risk pesticides, ecosystem restoration, increased biodiversity, and improved soil and water quality. This has been a grower-driven process throughout the Collaboration effort. So far the Wisconsin potato industry has greatly reduced high-risk pesticide use and an eco-potato standard has been developed to provide a marketplace incentive for ecologically grown potatoes. This effort is being expanded to include direct ecosystem priorities in the 2006 growing season. A Natural Community Standard has been developed that utilizes regional conservation planning along with individual farm plans to conserve and restore important ecosystems. To test the utility of the new standard, The Collaboration has secured funding from the USDA-NRI-Managed Ecosystems program to determine biological differences between managed natural areas and unmanaged/alternate landuses at the agricultural interface. The overall goal of this work is to integrate grower's management efforts into the existing potato eco-label standards thus directly involving society in the maintenance of commodities such as clean water and biological diversity as well as food production.
Key words: standards