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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
Specialty crop producers are looking to the next farm bill to expand crop insurance options and provide increased funding to address a number of challenges facing the sector, including needs for automation and development of new, safer pesticides.
The Environmental Protection Agency plans to reinstate protections for farmworkers exposed to pesticides, officially dumping a 2020 Trump administration rule that went into effect briefly before the Biden administration took office.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture plans to facilitate a broad conversation next week that could have major implications for the state’s approach to pesticide governance.
Environmental justice advocates came out in force to workshops on the Newsom administration’s proposal to alert residents ahead of pesticide applications.
The upcoming election could further shrink Democratic representation of rural areas in the House of Representatives, making it more difficult for agriculture advocates and the pesticide industry to find lawmakers who can get federal regulators’ attention.
EPA has decided against regulating the use of pesticide-treated seeds under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, but the agency is looking into whether the seeds are being sold and used in ways that violate existing restrictions.
Producers of fruits, vegetables and other specialty crops will be asking lawmakers for more funding in the next farm bill, including new research to meet the sector’s pressing need for automation and new crop-protection products.
Restrictions designed to limit off-target dicamba damage to crops and other plants did not put a halt to widespread complaints of such damage in 2021, EPA said in an ecological risk assessment released Thursday.