ABSTRACT
When an herbivorous insect encounters a monoculture of a crop for which it has a food preference, that insect can rapidly increase its population size, inŽict considerable damage to the crop, and become a serious pest. Conventional farmers have come to rely greatly on synthetic chemical pesticides to control such outbreaks, but the negative impacts of the use of these inputs have become well known. They include the development of resistance by the target insects and negative effects on nontarget species such as other insects, nonagricultural species in the environment, human consumers of agricultural products, and the farmers and farmworkers who grow the food for us (Chapter 1 of Agroecology: The Ecology of Sustainable Food Systems).
