Bug off
Business assesses farmers’ enemies before attacking
By BRYAN F. YURCAN

After writing his graduate thesis on integrated pest management at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, Robert Koch decided to make it his living.

“My company now is a continuation of my thesis,” he said.

Integrated pest management, or IPM, is a type of agriculture practice involving the use of biological systems, cultural practices, genetics, and judicious pesticide use to maximize potential yields, said Koch.

“Instead of blindly spraying chemicals, you go into the field or orchard and see what bugs are there,” he said. “You get them out with minimal or no chemicals.”

In 2003, Koch did an IPM internship with Cornell Cooperative Extension while completing his thesis.

While traveling around the Hudson Valley working on the paper, Koch met many of the farmers he would work with when he eventually started his company, Apple Leaf.

“I learned how people are using IPM in the Hudson Valley,” he said. “I also knew what kind of clients I could recruit.”

Koch said the natural method of IPM has been practiced for thousands of years but was “thrown out the window” in the United States in the 1940s with the emergence of DDT as a pesticide.

DDT was later banned nationwide in the 1970s, and in 1984, Cornell began one of the first official IPM programs in the country.

In 2003, Cornell began cutting back on its IPM program and in 2004 didn’t offer the program.

That’s when Koch went around to the farmers he had met during his internship the previous year to offer IPM consulting services. The contacts he made through Cornell helped him start his business.

“Growers trust Cornell,” he said. “They are still involved, they come out and train my scouts.”

Koch, who serves as lead biologist and project leader for Apple Leaf, operates his business from March until about October. He has two other full-time and one part-time employee during the summer months, the busiest time of the year.

Last year, Apple Leaf had 30 clients. The company started out working with only apple growers, but now has clients with a total of about 20 to 25 different commodities.

“I wanted to grow this slowly,” Koch said. “It was all done through word of mouth. The key to doing any kind of consulting is trust.”

Koch and his scouts generally meet weekly with each of the farmers they work with during their growing seasons.

“We try to assess the population of the bad bugs and the good bugs that are eating the bad bugs,” he said.

For example, if Koch finds that a portion of a field has a concentration of aphids, he might recommend not spraying if there are also Coccinellidae, commonly known as ladybugs, in the area since they feed on aphids.

Apple Leaf also does other work, such as determining the pH balance and nutrient content of soil.

Rick Schoonmaker, an apple grower with Crist Brothers Orchards in Orange and Ulster counties, is one of Koch’s clients.

“It’s helpful; he checks in on insects, disease development and reports back to me what he finds,” he said.

Crist Brothers operates seven orchards throughout the two counties; during different weeks Koch will work at different orchards.

“It’s good to have another set of eyes out there,” Schoonmaker said.

IPM is widely known and used among growers, but is a term many consumers have never heard, said Carrie Koplinka-Loehr, co-director of the Northeastern IPM Center in Ithaca.

“I think the majority of people don’t know what IPM is,” she said.

Koplinka-Loehr said IPM doesn’t apply only to agriculture, but it is also can be a method of pest management in suburban and urban settings, rather than using traditional pesticides.

She said at the government level, there has been an increased awareness of IPM in recent years.

A national IPM coordinating committee, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, meets four times per year to discuss IPM research and programs.

The committee features representatives from several federal government agencies, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Defense and Department of Interior.

“They are really looking for ways to synergize and share what they know,” she said.

The committee recently completed a “national IPM road map” document, which defines IPM and sets objectives and goals for implementation throughout the country.

Koch said has hasn’t had much discussion with local, state, or federal officials about funding available for IPM education programs.

But that’s something he plans to change this year, as Koch wants to engage the government sector in promoting IPM programs, and he eventually hopes to do IPM work all over the globe.

“One of my goals is to take IPM to Eastern Bloc countries,” he said.

 

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