Blighted Hopes
Sharon August 11th, 2009
One of the consequences of this cold, wet year has been a devastating strain of Blight that has affected both tomatos and potatoes – much of the Northeast has it (it has yet to make it to me, but others have had it). This has been particularlly destructive to organic farmers – pesticides can be sprayed to control the fungus that causes Late Blight, but while there are organic controls (Seranade seems to be effective), they have to be applied early, before the crop fails. I know several farmers who have lost all their tomatoes and potatoes. The bight spreads through airborne spores and is as far west as Indiana and as far north as northern Montreal and Ontario. Just because you don’t have it yet, doesn’t mean you won’t.
Now the loss of tomatoes is a major inconvenience and an economic pain for gowers. All of us want our salsa. But the loss of potatoes, while a lesser economic trouble for most farmers and individuals, is actually more troubling – in tough times, potatoes are one of the more viable home staple crops. Again, organic controls can be used, but these might not always be available. In some ways, we are seeing the tremendous vulnerability we face in our food system – and the answer is not “great, let’s get out the pesticides,” obviously. It is to diversify, and learn to live with our troubles.
I’ve heard people argue that this makes the case for industrial agriculture – if it weren’t for industrial agriculture, we wouldn’t have enough tomatoes, we are told. But, besides the obvious fact that industrial agriculture doesn’t produce anything that tastes like a real tomato, there’s also the point that this is an industrial disease – late blight was spread in the US through tomato and pepper plants purchased from WalMart and Target and other discount realtors, and shipped around the country.
Certainly, it makes sense to use organic controls if they are available to you, and if you have the infection, to burn all affected plant material. But it also makes sense to learn to live with what we’ve now got. This is little consolation for farmers and gardeners pulling out blackened plants, but people who have had chronic blight issues do point out that it is possible to learn to live with them. Sue Robishaw, who has been saving potato seed for decades (most people have been told not to save potato seed because you might get blight, but since seed saving is method of creating food security, she’s had to deal with the reality of blight) has observed that often, early planted potatoes will set out a solid crop of potatoes before they succumb to late blight. And those that succumb latest and produce the best are the ones to save seed from.
With tomatoes, we can help by selecting blight-resistant varieties (and no, these are not only hybrids), by planting early determinate varieties that may fruit before late blight takes full hold, and by simply adapting ourselves to the spread of disease.
Just as important as diversifying our varieties, and developing resistant, will be diversifying our gardens. Yes, tomatoes are a wonderful thing, and potatoes are a staple food. But turnips and beets and sweet potatoes and corn and dry beans, carrots, parsnips and winter squash are all potential food staples as well – it never serves to rely on only one thing. And if we don’t get tomato salsa, perhaps we will get roasted pepper, ground cherry or salsa verde.
This is the world we live in now – our vulnerabilities have been magnified. The best tool we have for creating a resilient system is as much variety and diversity as humanly possible.
Sharon
. Next year, back to the original Cornish, or Delawares, or perhaps some of you have a good suggestion for older breeds to be used for meat?