Not All Insects Are Pests In Organic Food Farming

A natural phenomenon that is happening all the time in the nature is the law of food chain; every organism needs to obtain energy in order to live. For non-primary producers like human being, we are not able to make our own food from sunlight; therefore we need to consume another organism to obtain the necessary energy and one of the most traditional methods I would like to discuss here is growing of plant/crop for consuming.

However, as the farmers start to grow plant/crop, another group of organisms (known as pests to human being) are drawn to the crop in order for them to survive too. While they are eating up those crops, they have indirectly reduced the quantity and profit margins for the farmers.

In order to protect commercial interest, conventional farmers start to use chemical pesticides to kill the "pest" in order to protect those foods but this could also lead to the potential harm on consumer's health when we eat those foods with pesticides sustaining on the plants.

Based on the law of food chain, we could actually introduce some beneficial insects that are actually predator of those common pests. With these beneficial insects around, the amount of pests will be kept under control and the use of chemical pesticides can therefore be avoided. This method is actually being used by the Organic Certified Farms.

Insects like ladybugs are one of the best friends you can have in farm. They love Aphids which are extremely destructive to the crop if left unattended. In order to attract the ladybugs, we need to grow plants that can provide food and shelter for them. Plants like Angelica, Caraway, Cilantro, Dill, Fennel, Tansy, Wild Carrot, Yarrow, etc. are some of the good choices.

Another best friend you can have in farm is Lacewing, beside Aphids; they also eat eggs of Caterpillars, Mites, Order Thysanoptera (Thrips), White-flies and a variety of other small soft-bodied pests. In order to attract the lacewing, some of the choices we can grow are Allysum, Borage, Dilland Elderberry.

The third best friend you can have that I will mention in this article is Parasitic Wasps, they are the natural predators of grubs. In order to attract Parasitic Wasps, some of the choices we can grow are Firethorn (Pyracantha), Forsythia, Garden Cosmos, Lemon Balm, Parsley, Peonies and Sea Lavender.

There are more than 3 beneficial insects around in the nature other than the ones discussed here; the law of food chain always exists and we can always use the most natural ways to do everything. The time has come where we should take Organic Food seriously as this is the way how our food is grown from past to now until chemical pesticides come into the picture.

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