June 15, 2004…Washington, D.C. The Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) today is releasing Management of Pest Resistance: Strategies Using Crop Management, Biotechnology, and Pesticides, a Special Publication of presentations and discussions from a 2-day national symposium held April 10–11, 2003 in Indianapolis, Indiana. The CAST-convened symposium, the first U.S.-based multidisciplinary stakeholder meeting on pest resistance management (PRM) in nearly a decade, provided the opportunity for stakeholders involved in insect, weed, and pathogen pest management to come together in an effective discussion of issues, laying the foundation for future collaborations addressing PRM.
“The overall goal of the symposium was to provide a collective framework in which more effective and preventive PRM could be developed,” says Barry J. Jacobsen, MontanaStateUniversity, Symposium Chair. The major objectives were to:
In keeping with these objectives, the agenda was developed by a steering committee representing the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, industry (Resistance Action Committees), academia, extension, consultants, and the public. Forty-seven speakers gave a total of 55 presentations, 52 of which are included in the publication. Dr. Jacobsen and Sharlene R. Matten, EPA Office of Pesticide Programs, Proceedings Chair, worked together to organize the symposium program and subsequent publication into eight major sections:
“The overall conclusion of the meeting was that PRM is very important to the sustainability of agricultural production systems,” says Dr. Matten. “Achieving proactive or preventive RM is a desirable goal, but how to achieve it is a complex process that requires extensive input and commitment by all stakeholders. The keys to effective RM are strong science; environmentally benign, feasible, and cost-effective strategies; and education about the benefits of implementation.”
Participants made several RM recommendations and suggestions in a discussion held at the end of the Symposium. These recommendations focused on four areas:
The 52 papers contained in this newest CAST publication represent research in the fields of PRM; entomology; plant production, breeding, and disease; organic cropping; turf development and maintenance; pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides; and producer-consumer-regulator interactions.
“It seems clear from the research presented at this Symposium and subsequently published in Special Publication No. 24 that significant progress is made when stakeholders meet together to identify issues and generate recommendations,” says Teresa A. Gruber, CAST Executive Vice President. “And because bringing ideas into effective action reflects a major part of CAST’s mission, we will continue to encourage and support the development of such timely, critical discussions at the interface of agriculture and technology.”
The complete special publication, Management of Pest Resistance: Strategies Using Crop Management, Biotechnology, and Pesticides, 191 pp., is available online at www.cast-science.org along with many of CAST’s other scientific works. CAST is an international consortium of 37 scientific and professional societies. CAST assembles, interprets, and communicates science-based information regionally, nationally, and internationally on food, fiber, agricultural, natural resource, and related societal and environmental issues to its stakeholders—legislators, policymakers, the media, the private sector, and the public.
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