Bugs in the System

WORKING ON YOUR OWN, answer any 4 of the five following questions to the best of your ability. If you research any specific facts to support your answers, please make sure that you indicate where you got them. You can use any resources available to you. There are no length requirements, just make sure that you address all of what I ask.

• If every single insect herbivore that caused damage to economically important plants were instantly removed from the planet (and ONLY those insects), assess the overall impact of such an event on people’s lives.

• What things would change in the everyday life experiences of an ordinary person (both economically and in terms of how they physically experience the world).
• What would happen to the economy of our country as a whole and in specific sectors? (agricultural, retail grocery, other)
• How sustainable do you think this change would be? (would the benefits hold up one hundred years later?, if so or not, why or why not?)
• What negative impacts, if any, do you see happening from such an event?

• You are contracted for $250,000 to design and implement an integrated pest management program for an organic (no chemical insecticides) heirloom tomato farmer in the Imperial Valley of California who is a major supplier for Whole Foods and other distributors of organic produce throughout the country.

• Which three pest species are likely to pose the biggest threat to the farmer?
• What specific kinds of interventions would you recommend?
• How would you be able to detect early infestations?
• What non-chemical measures would you recommend to prevent re-infestations?
• Is this investment a good deal for the farmer or a waste of money?
(hint: it helps to know how much heirloom tomato farmers can make per acre)
Outline (roughly) how would you spend the money awarded to you in the contract to protect 10 acres of land under intensive tomato cultivation while making enough profit to support yourself and a small staff of helpers (you can assume that this is not your only contract and that it occupies only half of your business’ time).

• It is early August and you work for the Middlesex County Public Health Department.

13 cases of Zika Virus infection have been reported at Mass General Hospital, none so far in pregnant mothers.
7 patients have not been out of the Boston Metro Area in the past six months.
4 of these patients live in Jamaica Plain, 1 in Charleston and 2 in Cambridge.
The Jamaica Plain cases all cluster very close to the Arnold Arboretum
Your task is to design a plan for dealing with the situation that would reduce the risk of additional Zika infections being transmitted in Middlesex County.
• What would you tell the mayor about the ways these people might have contracted Zika?
• What mosquito species would likely be involved for local transmission in Boston and what specific kinds of habitats do they breed?
• What specific interventions would you have local cities perform?
• How would you deal with people bringing in Zika from other countries?
• What would you tell residents in public service announcements regarding prevention?

• You work for the marketing department of a major organic breakfast cereal company: ROBUSTO GRAINS. An investigative news team from WBZ has discovered that your flagship product “Magic Muesli” consistently contains 8-10 mealworm fragments per pound. The FDA approved limit is 1 mealworm fragment per ounce.
Your company has tasked you to come up with two approaches for dealing with this situation.
• Damage control – design a public relations release that allays consumer concerns and minimizes the threat of having mealworm parts in your product.

• Strategic Advantage – design an ad campaign and new labeling for promoting the benefits of mealworm parts in your product.

• Opposition Research – How would you determine the contamination levels in the products of your main competitor – “CRUNCHY FUNK”

• Beetle and fungus-damaged wood (i.e. ambrosia maple, spalted maple) fetches a premium on the exotic woods market, particularly for fine furniture and musical instruments. See:
https://billingsgazette.com/business/craftsman-turns-beetle-damaged-wood-into-valuable-lumber/article_0287460a-9d02-11df-9ded-001cc4c002e0.html
https://www.woodshopnews.com/news/getting-spalted-maple-is-like-finding-truffles-in-the-forest
If you came into ownership of a large tract (400 acres) of private forest (a mix of White Pine and oak/maple/beech hardwoods) in the Adirondack Mountains of New York, describe how you might set up a business that sustainably provides high quality beetle-damaged wood to the exotic woods market.

Make sure that you cover:
• How you would maximum production of your product
• How you would ensure the sustainability of your product and make sure that you don’t destroy your entire forest in one year.
• How you would run quality control (sometimes woods is too damaged to sell).
• How you might expand your business by branching out into untapped markets (or through developing new products and applications).

Your answer can include sketches and diagrams to illustrate your forest management plan.