Author: Judy Barlow, Citizen Journalist

The first thing you notice at EcoSafe is the air; rich, spicy, and intoxicating. Makes you want to take a bagful home and release it in your kitchen so your family will think you’ve been baking all day. “Sometimes when we’re working on natural fertilizers you wouldn’t think that,” laughs EcoSafe owner, Rod Bradbury.
    As a formulation chemist from Manchester he’s worked with harsh chemicals before, but no more. At his own lab, a 1700-square-foot state-of-the-art facility in Central Saanich, he and his staff develop and test plant-based formulations. “Plants have been here on the planet for millions of years in spite of insects, and have learned a lot of natural defences. Many plants and insects have a symbiotic relationship with each other. You have to respect that. You don’t want to kill everything,” Rod explains. “For example, if you kill all the aphids then all the predatory insects that feed off them like ladybugs, die off. If some aphids survive then they’re back next year, and you end up with a massive infestation of aphids with no ladybugs to kill them. Chemicals like DDT have been used very effectively before, but the long-term effect is not good for us or for the planet.”
    EcoSafe fills a highly specialized niche in the world market.  It’s one of a handful of independent labs doing the research, formulation, development, and testing of naturally-derived pesticides, fertilizers, cosmetics, nutritional supplements, and anything else the customer needs. The lab is full of high-tech equipment and bottles and barrels of the essential oils like peppermint, cloves, and rosemary that make the place smell so good.
    Rod’s name is on dozens of patents. He has developed a full line of horse care products, Groom’s Choice, for purchase at his lab, or sometimes at Buckerfield’s on Keating or Victoria Saddlery.
    “Some horse products use rather nasty ingredients,” says Rod. “My wife and daughter needed a product for their horses’ hooves. If horses have been standing around in wet mud a lot they can get a kind of foot rot. The product on the market is copper-based. That’s toxic. It can get absorbed into the skin and get into the liver. We developed a product based on mineral oil and tea tree oil and it works very well. Even after standing in water for up to a week, you lift the hoof and you can still get a whiff of tea tree oil. Tea tree works very well as an anti-fungal agent.”
    Current products in development include a chicken-manure-based fertilizer and a catnip-derived pesticide. But the formulation most on Rod’s mind on this day is Btk (Bacillus thuringiensis var. Kurstaki), the spray used to control the gypsy moth. “Btk is harmless,” he exclaims. “Bt is a natural bacterium.” Rod likens the production of Btk as akin to brewing up a batch of beer  and adding  a few drops of dish soap to make it easier to distribute. Sometimes as a demonstration Rod will dip his finger in Btk and lick it off. “Since it’s protein-based it tastes kind of meaty,” he claims. “It’s a specific organic pesticide that is harmful only to the pest it’s formulated to target. It breaks down quickly – 4 or 5 days. Sometimes the media report the spraying in a doom-filled voice, as if something bad is going on and should be stopped. It causes people to be afraid and worry unnecessarily.“
    Tim Ebata, Ministry of Forests, Mines, and Lands agrees. Ebata  adds that gypsy moth spraying is ongoing, but no treatment is scheduled for 2011 as there is no significant population this year. Spraying in 2010 was very successful. There are no major infestations and there has been no major migration from east to west. Smaller pockets here and there are being monitored closely but intervention is not necessary as smaller infestations usually die off naturally. People who want to know more about the gypsy moth treatment plan can go to <www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfp/gypsymoth> for information. 

     Find out more about the remarkable work Rod does can visit his website www.ecosafenatural.com.

    If you’re expecting a nerdy Dr. Jekyll stirring a bubbling, glow-in-the-dark concoction, you’d better look elsewhere. With a life-long commitment to learning, Rod has a 3rd degree black belt in karate and has taken up guitar in a big way. He also  has a season ski pass to Mt Washington and races motorcycles at Mission Raceway.  Find out more online…

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