All Issues

Questions such as when to plant, whether the crop is developing on time, and when to initiate pest control actions are particularly difficult to answer, because the timing is not always the same each year. Growth and development of insects and plants can vary as much as two to three weeks from the “normal” time, depending on whether temperatures are above or below the average. In this article we compare different techniques for predicting temperature-related insect population and crop development.

California produces approximately 30 percent of the total U.S. production of fresh market tomatoes and approximately 85 percent of the processing tomatoes. Of the California total, the southern desert valleys produce about 10 percent of the fresh market and 5 percent of the processing tomatoes. The tomato fruitworm, tobacco budworm, and beet armyworm are major pests of both fresh market and processing tomatoes in the southern desert valleys, attacking the fruit and sometimes causing serious economic loss. The tomato fruitworm and beet armyworm also are major pests of tomatoes in other areas of California.

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) believes that four to six million aliens are living and working illegally in the United States. Every year, the INS makes almost one million apprehensions of undocumented workers, 90 percent of them Mexicans. Fewer than one million individuals are caught, because some persons are apprehended several times in a year. Even though more illegal aliens appear to be employed outside than inside agriculture (see table), they are often assumed to be only an agricultural problem.