Pesticide spray is not necessarily in the interest of agriculture, let alone the environment or the general public, especially broad-spectrum toxins that kill everything including predators. We cannot develop public policy and disregard existing data. There is information about resistant vines on the Glassey-Winged Sharpshooter website. We need to develop a new template for dealing with pest problems where public health, environmental, as well as agricultural concerns are respected. Insects can be dangerous threats but toxic chemicals do not necessarily minimize the threat or maximize the control.
Wine is one of the few financially successful agricultural commodities.
To spray or not to spray' is not the factor determining success or failure of American agriculture. Agricultural commodities have become pawns in international trade deals. In exchange for export for our intellectual property , we have agreed to flood our markets with cheap produce from abroad. As a result certain American grown crops go unharvested because they cannot compete with cheap imports. Witness our own local apple industry undermined by apple juice concentrate imported from Chine.