The head of the EPA’s pesticide program says the agency’s updated policy on pesticide analysis will help protect tools for farmers.
Ed Messina tells Brownfield, until now, EPA had not been analyzing the effects of pesticides on non-target plants and animals, including endangered species, which led to litigation from non-governmental organizations.
“We hadn’t had much of a defense for those cases where we hadn’t done the analysis. And, so, by doing the analysis upfront we’re actually able to preserve those tools for farmers because we won’t lose those through litigation.”
He says analysis will now be done on any new conventional active ingredients and where off-target risk is determined, farmer mitigations will be placed on the label.
