New pesticide strategies moving forward with some optimism

The agricultural sector is more optimistic than it was in the summer of 2023 that producers can live with new requirements to protect endangered species from pesticides. 

When EPA released its initial draft herbicide strategy in July 2023, “I kind of thought it was ‘game over’ for specialty crop growers,” said Mike Aerts, vice president, scientific and regulatory affairs, at the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association.

Speaking at USDA's annual Agricultural Outlook Forum, he and other experts agreed that the landscape for EPA’s effort to comply with the Endangered Species Act had changed dramatically since that first strategy, which was followed by a draft insecticide strategy.

The requirements were prepared in accord with a settlement EPA reached with the Center for Biological Diversity, which had sued the agency to force compliance with the Endangered Species Act. That law requires federal agencies to ensure their actions don’t jeopardize the survival of federally listed species.

The requirements, which apply to newly registered products and those that have been through registration review, list erosion/runoff mitigation practices growers can use to earn points that will allow them to apply crop protection chemicals.

Aerts said the initial strategy did not include enough mitigation options for specialty crop growers, who generally use a wider variety of pesticides than row crop producers.

However, when the final strategy came out last fall, “We went from 12 [mitigation practices] to over 40. With those types of options that were available to the specialty crop producers, now I think we’ve got a chance of being in this game. I bet I can get most of our growers to attain the six or nine points that they might need to have access to those particular products.”

“There's still work to be done, but EPA has kept that door open so that this is kind of a live document, as things can be discussed more and learned more,” Aerts said. “And it's not their fault that they aren't familiar with a lot of the practices we've been doing for 85 years or whatever. They just don't know about it.”

“It's actually very encouraging to me that I think everyone here feels like there is a path out of this and a path forward, even though it is still a very complicated, challenging process,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity.

“What we saw was very little flexibility, and now I think that we see quite a bit of flexibility,” said James Todd, a crop consultant from Texas who was representing the National Association of Independent Crop Consultants. In addition, he said, “we're doing a lot of these things already.”

Kyle Kunkler (ASA photo)  

“We see the makings of something here that could be durable,” said Kyle Kunkler, director of government affairs at the American Soybean Association. He added, however, that ASA wants improvements such as “scientifically justifiable mitigations and requirements” and improved species maps.

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“We want to make sure that there are species there, and that they're truly at risk, and that mitigations that we're going to apply are truly going to be protective,” he said.

Hartl said CBD has been developing maps of endangered species habitat that can be used by growers. The center has mapped about 300 so far and has about 700 more to go in the lower 48 states.

Hartl said he also had been taken aback when he saw the draft herbicide strategy. “It was so over-broad, it encompassed almost every acre of the country, and it did not seem like there was a realistic way to implement it,” he said. 

But maps being developed by CBD are “way below county level. They're far more targeted,” he said. “And if you want to use them, feel free, because we really don't want to see a world where it's going to default to county-level restrictions or state-level restrictions. That's not sustainable.”

Kunkler said ASA was pleasantly surprised to find that many of its growers already employ enough conservation practices to qualify for pesticide use in endangered species habitat.

A survey of soybean growers in the 17 largest soybean-growing states showed that “expansion and modification of mitigation measures in the final herbicide strategy and draft insecticide strategy” allowed about 71% of respondents to achieve the nine points needed for compliance. 

That was up from only 14.9% when those same respondents were asked about the draft herbicide strategy. No-till and reduced tillage practices were the most widely adopted measures to achieve compliance, adopted by 56% of the respondents.

“We were pleased that many of our farmers are closer than we thought,” Kunkler said.

Todd said agriculture needs to look at the strategies as an opportunity.

“I think it gives agriculture a chance to show what we can do,” he said. “I think rather than getting a black eye for maybe not doing some things, this gives us a chance to kind of be on the offensive for once and show the things that we are doing and let the public know that, hey, we can work within this system.”

“These are things that we should be doing,” he said of the soil erosion and runoff practices.

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