NAAA President Dominique Youakim, Government Relations Chairman Damon Reabe, Executive Director Andrew Moore, and Coordinator of Government and Public Relations Christian Rice along with USDA’s Clint Hoffman met with EPA earlier this month to discuss pesticide product registration.
The group met with Rick Keigwin, the acting director of the Office of Pesticide Programs, and about 15 other EPA officials. Reabe led the discussion focusing on AgDRIFT models that determine movement of applied product from the moving ag aircraft and how the model could more accurately reflect drift mitigation based on inputs of drift reduction practices are common in our industry.
The group focused in on sulfonylurea labels that require extremely coarse droplet sizes, which is not feasible for turbine-powered ag aircraft based on the current nozzles. Instead, a shorter boom (65 percent of the aircraft’s wingspan) with smaller, coarse-sized droplet is achievable and decreases drift according to AgDRIFT.
Finally, the group discussed EPA’s economic and risk analysis in regards to pesticide registration. Reabe theorized that EPA does not take into account the environmental and economic damage that is done when a product is pulled from the market, which lowers yields and leads farmers to farm more land. This, in turn, requires more fertilizer use, more water use, more pesticide use, and more fuel to plant, fertilize, and harvest enough food, biofuel, and fiber to meet the world’s needs. EPA admitted they have not taken this into account and do not have the economic resources to do so but would welcome studies on the topic performed by a university, USDA, or other credible institution.
