A large coalition of agricultural groups wrote to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) asking it to postpone revocation of chlorpyrifos until it can consider their formal objections to the rule.
EPA announced it will prohibit the use of chlorpyrifos on food crops grown in the United States on Aug. 18.
“We object to how EPA has come to this decision to revoke tolerances for chlorpyrifos,” Allison Crittenden, American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) Congressional Relations director, said. “We make the case in the letter that EPA’s own scientific record on chlorpyrifos shows that there are actually many safe and high benefit uses of this chemistry that do not pose a dietary or environmental risk. So, in this letter we’re asking EPA to acknowledge that and to stay its decision to revoke the tolerances.”
Crittenden noted the EPA ruling takes another tool out of the toolbox for farmers.
“Chlorpyrifos is a really important product for very tailored usage. There are some crops, like cherries and sugarbeets, where chlorpyrifos is really the only alternative to help with these different pest threats,” she said. “It’s also important in controlling aphids in soybeans. And what this means is we’re losing, once again, another tool in the toolbox that was important to agriculture and to farmers.”
The coalition awaits a response from EPA.
“Obviously, it’s a very strong showing, having over 80 agricultural groups signing on to this one coalition objection. I think now we see how EPA responds to this. And hopefully by explaining our concerns with the process in which this revocation was issued, we can prevent further activity in a similar vein for other pesticide products,” Crittenden said.
Chlorpyrifos, an organophosphate, is the main ingredient in products like Lorsban and Dursban. It has been used in the U.S. since 1965 to help control a variety of pests on alfalfa, citrus, soybeans, peaches, pecans, tree nuts, fruit and vegetable crops, as well as grass seed production in Texas.
The pesticide is also used in greenhouses, on golf courses and on non-structural wood treatments.
More information about chlorpyrifos and the final tolerance rule is available on EPA’s website.