From staff reports More than 300 agricultural groups have called on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to work with stakeholders to reform its Endangered Species Act process for pesticides.
In a letter to the EPA signed by 318 organizations, including the American Soybean Association and American Sugarbeet Growers Association, the groups contend farmers will face signif icant and costly restrictions without reform. The EPA may not be meeting its own leg al obligations in determining credible risks to those endangered species.
Josh Gackle, American Soybean Association president, said the groups support EPA efforts to meet its legal requirements, but there is more to it than making a passing grade.
“The courts have been clear,” Gackle said. “They will continue to strike down pesticide registrations if the EPA does not comply. However, the EPA cannot do perfunctory work on the Endangered Species Act and pass the test. Rather, it needs to aim for an “A” by doing so in a way that is consistent with the law. The EPA often makes conservative assumptions instead of using ‘the best scientific and commercial data available’ as required by ESA. By doing so, the result is often unnecessary restrictions for farmers and legal vulnerabilities for pesticide registrations.”
Federal courts repeatedly found that the EPA didn’t meet ESA requirements, resulting in canceled pesticide registrations and loss of important tools for farmers. The EPA is working to remedy the issues including with the Draft Herbicide Strategy.
The EPA’s pendulum has swung strictly, with predictions exaggerating pesticide impacts on endangered species. This imposes excessive restrictions on farmers.
“It is imperative that the EPA engage with growers to understand our actual agronomic practices. Instead, the EPA seems to be f ocusing on imaginary risks to endangered species based on unrealistic assumptions and ignoring the way we actually use pesticides in the real world. The EPA assumptions will ultimately impose unnecessary restrictions on growers, making it harder for American farmers to feed the world, all while doing nothing to protect species. The EPA must commit to using the best available science,” said Neil Rockstad, president of the American Sugarbeet Growers Association.
The groups point out that the EPA often overlooks important data, such as real-world pesticide usage, crop treatment percentages and conservation practices that could better show pesticides’ impact on species. They suggest using refined models, as the EPA has sometimes done, to improve accuracy and impose less restrictions on farmers. The letter urges the EPA to meet with stakeholders by September 2024.