This issue of PAY features a talk from last year's National Forum, Sustainable Communities, from Fred Kirschenmann -farmer, author, philosopher, who urged us to find solutions to pests in natural systems. As we face the challenges of growing food crops or managing green spaces, we must seek to identify the conditions that are conducive to the unwanted insect or plant/weed which we have defined as a pest. As this suggests, we need a new way of looking at problems and productivity. This is not a new concept to the pages of this newsletter, but it is something that we must find ways of bringing to our community discussions as we seek to eliminate toxic pesticide use. As Fred asks, so how do we come to the point where we understand how natural systems function and then manage those natural systems in ways that prevent pests from emerging. He quotes Joe Lewis in A Total Systems Approach to Sustainable Pest Management (National Academy of Sciences, 1997), who said what we ought to do, instead of asking, how do I get rid of the pest, ask why is the pest a pest?
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