management essay 400words

The situation: Self-employed, you operate a half-acre urban farm onleased land in Woodland. You currently grow vegetables, herbs, flowers andsome grain. You raise chickens for eggs and meat and as a basis for yourmicrobiome-enhancing soil fertility program. You are considering raisinghoney bees for apitherapy products.You are USDA certified organic, marketing your farm products locally toa dedicated customer base that puts high value on organic “live” foods,paying a premium for your farm products.  You have no employees; you doall the work yourself with occasional volunteer help from friends.While your income and use of the products from your farm are importantto your own support, you have not “put all your eggs in one basket,” andhave a flexible part-time job as an organic inspector. You want tocontinue with the farm you have created.It’s time to renew your lease. Your landlord, who lives on the lot nextdoor, will renew your lease for an additional four years but, as acondition of the lease, wants you to take over from him the maintenanceof a 5-foot wide shrubbery-planted strip on his home lot adjacent toyour farm road at the border of your farm leasehold.Your landlord currently manages weeds on this strip by spraying thesystemic herbicide Roundup and offers to give you his gallon of thisherbicide to do the job, advising you that this is the most efficientand cheapest way to control the weeds, and furthermore assures you theproduct is safe and effective because he has been using it for years,applying the product once per month.As you move forward to extend your lease and take over the management ofthis ornamental strip, you must make a management decision: how will youcontrol the weeds in this area? Specifically, will you use thelandlord’s recommended herbicide?All three choices given below could be done in accordance with your newlease. Chose the one of the three answers that represents the bestmanagement decision of the three, and then write a short essaydescribing why this is the best management decision. Your defense ofyour decision should be grounded in your perspective as the farmer ofthis particular farm and the manager of this particular on-goingbusiness, taking into consideration the current glyphosate controversywe have investigated in this course.(a) Continue with the landlord’s weed management practice, using theRoundup on a once-a-month schedule to control weeds on the 5-foot wideornamental strip.(b) Reduce the amount of Roundup used on the 5-foot wide ornamentalstrip by one-half by limiting herbicide spraying to six times per year,spraying based more on weed threat rather than on a pre-determinedcalendar schedule.(c) Discontinue all Roundup use; manage the 5-foot wide ornamental stripin accordance with the USDA National Organic Program rules so that youcan have the 5-foot wide ornamental strip certified organic three yearsafter the landlord’s last Roundup spray.Hint: Ask yourself, which management regime is the most conservative, mostprudent action in this particular situation for this particular farm andfarmer?