Buffers make good neighbors

摘要

Minimizing pesticide exposure where agriculture meets suburbia is crucial for fruit growing operations. Ten years ago my front window yielded a panorama of nothing but orchard creeping up the backside of Badger Mountain. But as the price of apples went down, the trees were uprooted to make way for tracts of houses. Such scenes are being repeated throughout agricultural regions everywhere as suburbia intertwines with agriculture. Whether it is progress depends on your viewpoint, but conflicts may arise as former urbanites receive an intimate education about modern commercial agriculture.