ADAM OLSEN -- They were a highly effective, ultra-short-term solution. They killed everything, pest and predator, laying waste to the natural environment, and devastating entire eco-systems
My Championing Local Business tour has opened my eyes to a wide range of enterprise in Saanich North and the Islands. I have visited facilities manufacturing heavy industrial equipment for logging and marine ports, boat building and repairs, food processing and research and development in a variety of fields. Clearly, my riding is home to a vast array of expertise. As it turns out, we are also home to world-leaders in beneficial arthropods. My meeting with Brian Spencer from Applied Bio-nomics , at his North Saanich greenhouse facilities, reminded me of being a kid in our own greenhouses. The science behind growing, storing and shipping parasitic wasps and predatory midges is complex yet the premise is simple - figure out how nature works naturally and then encourage more of it. Nature does it better The idea of controlling pests with their natural predators goes back as long as humans have been engaged in agriculture. Even though agricultural practices alte...