Historical context of the origins of the biological-ecological approach to plant protection

This Editorial paper is to introduce the two Research Articles in this issue of Ecocycles. The first one is an edited and annotated translation of the study originally published by Dr. Boldizsar Nagy (a young scientist working at the Plant Protection Research Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture of Hungary) in 1957. Unfortunately, the paper appeared in Hungarian in a relatively obscure local journal that existed for less than 15 years. As you will see in the excellent English translation of the article (translated, edited, and annotated by Bela Darvas and Andras Szekacs), Nagy's ideas were revolutionary and way ahead of their time. He suggested moving plant protection away from spraying with pesticides to the direction of biology and ecology. His paper is excellent reading, and I would like to use this Editorial to strongly recommend it to anyone interested in plants and protecting plants against harmful pests.