Dammit Ref! Let the bugs play!

A few months ago, my wife and I played host to a small gathering of friends and family for our little Ivy turning one year.  We like to keep it small.  Big events lead to lots of planning, lots of stress, lots of disappointments, a very unhappy baby.  We even eloped for our wedding, we're just those types of people.  "I thought this post was about insects" you say.  Well I promise I will not disappoint the naturalist in you by delaying any further with personal anecdotes.

My point readers, is that of the very few people we ended up inviting, I was particularly excited to see my wife's very good friends, which we will call Evan and Laura for the sake of discretion.  You see, Evan is a farmer.  He is, what you might think of as a typical Northern Illinois Corn farmer.  A very bright guy, former mechanical engineer with formal training and education.  A good family man, very likable, and a pleasure to have in my home.  I was excited to talk with him because, at this time I had been dabbling plenty in the ideas that have led to the Elgin Hops Project.  However; I have no practical experience in growing anything outside of small raised beds of cucumbers and leafy greens. I had just gotten done with mentally devouring  Fuokua's (check spelling for me) "One-Straw Revolution" and Ohlson's "The Soil Will Save Us", and I was just diving into Shepard's "Restoration Agriculture", so I was excited to talk to someone who actually farmed.

Evan was thrilled to talk business.  You see, the last time I talked with him, we had very little in common.  I have background in medicine and emergency service.  Very little technical or farming knowledge is rattling around in my head (mostly video game trivia, I find), so not much in common on our last meeting.  He jumped right into his operation, acreage, hybrid type non-gmo and such.  I had a few in me at this point so I was just straining to hold onto his explanation.  This is when I ventured my question.

"Do you use cover cropping?"

Without skipping a beat, he answered "No, and here is why".  Evan went on to explain that when cover cropping is utilized, it allows pest insects to rapidly multiply and hide from insecticide treatments.  The pest insects, allowed to flourish, then decimate the corn crop.  I am sure he had other reasons, and his explanation was far better than the one I attempted to convey.  But I think I gave a true recounting of the basics of the argument.  Then, Ivy's birthday cake came out lit with a little candle (vegan, sugar-free, sometimes I roll my eyes because how I was raised is constantly battling with who I am becoming, but it tasted awesome).  Conversation ended there, and it left me feeling very put out.

I have since heard this argument from other sources.  Maybe it is because I was never told by a very neat, professional scientist, or never grew up in a farming atmosphere, or maybe I never attended a very professional classroom dealing with farming, I have no idea, but that argument seems laughably wrong.

Have you ever taken a walk in the woods?  There are insects everywhere, just to be clear, everywhere. At no point, has a large machine ever been through spraying insecticide.  And the trees are massive.  Mushrooms, bushes, shrubs, undergrowth, fauna of all types, all working and producing without anyone helping at all.  Another thought occurs to me, if you were to destroy all of the rabbits and foxes in a 10 mile square area, why would you then be surprised 3 years later when you are overrun by rabbits?  What do you think reproduces faster?  People don't "screw like foxes", do they?

Predators live longer, prey reproduces faster, as a general rule.  I would imagine that works with slugs and spiders as well.  If you kill all of the ladybugs, and preying mantis, and spiders along with the insects that decimate your corn, why are you surprised when the "pests" come back in full force the next year, unchecked by the destroyed balance of nature.  I am clearly, no expert, I have never studied this professionally, I have read less than a dozen books on permenant agriculture and improving soil. I have no idea why such a flimsy argument fails to impress me, and yet is a cornerstone of industrial agriculture.  I feel like I am taking crazy pills.

Please, feel free to site any source you would like explaining to me why I am wrong.  I will go out to my farm plot, take a look at all of the insects, and my crops coming up through the straw. Then I may go for a walk in the woods.