A Southern Approach to Crop Pests

Đe Southern Agrarians have seen in the creation something thæt should limit man’s actions in the world, something that should set boundaries to his work here (see e.g., Richard Weaver, ‘The Southern Tradition’ [1964], The Southern Essays of Richard M. Weaver, Curtis, III and Thompson, Jr., eds., Indianapolis, Ind., LibertyPress, 1987, p. 221).

The Holy Faðers of the Orthodox Church would agree.  In þeir commentaries on the story of creation told in Genesis, they, for ensample, declare that each ‘kind’ of living creature the Holy Trinity brought into existence was to continue unmixed with other kinds of creatures (bird with spider, tree with horse, and so on).  Such unnatural unions would only bring about grief for the world, as God intended each kind to reproduce itself as He had originally made it until the end of time (Father Seraphim Rose, Genesis, Creation, and Early Man, 2^nd ed., Platina, Ca., St Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 2011, pgs. 181-6).

But modern man has not heeded any of this, going so far as to rend and tear, ruthlessly and coldly but with great skillfulness, from the most inward writs of the beings of creatures, adding to plants and animals what does not rightly belong to them. 

The results have been disastrous.  Crops like corn have been engineered in this way to resist (and even produce within themselves) weed and/or pest poisons like Monsanto’s Roundup; this has led to massive chemical pollution, which is responsible for the alarming rise in autism, cancer, and many other chronic illnesses.

So what is a Southern Christian answer to these developments, an approach that shows humility before the Lord over all creation?  Here is one:

Humanity is facing a toxicity problem as our immediate environment becomes increasingly riddled with pesticides. They are making us unhealthy faster than we can study the effects. In addition to causing harm to humans, these pesticides play large roles in the massive bee deaths and decline of soil health. The companies that profit from making these pesticides have made it clear they won’t stop, and our petitions to the EPA and FDA are mostly ignored due to revolving door leadership between pesticide makers and government regulators. So is there an answer? Yes there is!

Paul Stamets, the world’s leading mycologist, filed a patent in 2001 that was purposely given little attention. In the words of pesticide industry executives, this patent represents “The most disruptive technology that we have ever witnessed.” The biopesticides described in the patent reveals a near permanent, safe solution for over 200,000 species of insects – and it all comes from a mushroom.

After what is called ‘sporulation’ of a select entomopathogenic fungi (fungi that kill insects), the area becomes no longer suitable for any insect(s) the fungi are coded for. In addition, extracts of the entomopathogenic fungi can steer insects in different directions. This literally is a paradigm shift away from the entire idea of pesticides. Instead of having an aim to kill all problematic insects, a farmer could simply disperse a solution of pre-sporulation fungi amongst the crops. The insects would then simply live their lives around the crops paying no attention to them.

 . . .

Source:  Jefferey Jaxen, ‘This Natural Food Could Finally Put an End to Pesticides’, NaturalSociety, http://naturalsociety.com/this-natural-food-could-finally-put-an-end-to-harmful-pesticides/, posted 25 Feb. 2015, accessed 13 March 2015 (bolding not added)

Take heed Southern farmer, and run with haste away from industrial agriculture (as more and more farmers are now doing:  http://naturalsociety.com/record-us-farmers-switching-non-gmo-crops-2015/ via Dr Farrell http://gizadeathstar.com/2015/03/the-gmo-scrapbook-us-farmers-turning-from-gmos-to-organic-in-rising-numbers/).