The California avocado industry is being challenged on several fronts. Two individuals, Tom Bellamore and Ken Melban have risen to the occasion and have been working hard facing these challenges. The most recent challenge has been the Shot Hole Borer invading avocado groves in San Diego County. To deal with this plague is a stressful task by all means; it is an invasive complex of an ambrosia beetle with its fungal symbionts. There is not much known about this complex and surely there is no known treatment to eliminate the beetle from our groves. The industry has to basically start from scratch to come up with management strategies. CAC management feels the pressure and the necessity to “do something” even though some of the “somethings” are likely to result in additional costs for the growers. With limited success growers might feel that CAC is not doing enough. This is not the case. CAC is trying but the prognosis for significant success is slim. My fear is that even if some growers are successful at keeping their groves pest-free by careful removal of infested branches, others, faced with the additional costs and the grim perspective, elect to leave their groves infested and untreated to serve as a source of beetles to invade other groves. This is what is currently taking place in Florida as some of the photos from a previous blog depict.
To take away some of the burden I have suggested forming an international taskforce to address all aspects of invasive ambrosia beetle and most importantly produce results that growers can practically use. Like in some other situations CAC believes it can do it alone. Well I think that in this case they are mistaken; this problem is bigger than us and needs a global approach. We need to join forces with the Israelis who have been fighting this war for several years, we need to work with the Floridians who are battling a different ambrosia beetle and we need to learn from others worldwide who are experts in ambrosia beetles. The taskforce I have proposed would seek to bring all these parts together into a cohesive effort to develop management strategies for our industry.
I read comments by Rabbi Yaakov Lieder about winning the battle but losing the war: “King Solomon, said: “Without strategies a nation will fall, but salvation lies in much counsel” (Proverbs 11:14). To me, this means we are so caught up by our egos and our opinions that we may miss some very important points and end up losing more than we gain.”
“Remember that asking for advice does not show a weakness on your part, but rather strength that you are smart enough to realize that you are not perfect and that because you are so emotionally involved, you are seeking independent advice.”
Why did I quote Rabbi Lieder? His message is similar to mine: Get off the high horse and let’s put all our and others’ efforts together so we can both win the battle and win the war! “We are so caught up by our egos and our opinions that we may miss some very important points and end up losing more than we gain.” King Solomon is even more to the point: “Without strategies a nation will fall, but salvation lies in much counsel”
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