The Environmental Protection Agency says it will allow farmers to resume using chlorpyrifos insecticide on 11 crops in response to an appeals court ruling last month that the agency failed to adequately consider the safety of those uses.
EPA says it will issue a proposed rule to formally revoke chlorpyrifos tolerances for all but the 11 crops: alfalfa, apple, asparagus, tart cherries, citrus, cotton, peaches, soybeans, strawberries, sugar beets and wheat. The November ruling by the 8th U.S. Court of Appeals in St. Louis vacated EPA regulations that revoked all tolerances for the insecticide.
The agency says it is already in discussions with the registrants on potential new restrictions on the use of chlorpyrifos based on “geographic location, rate of application, farmworker and other vulnerable populations, and vulnerable species and their habitats restrictions that may be needed to address safety of the tolerances.”
EPA says it “will continue to work to protect farmworkers, endangered species and their habitats, and the nation’s most vulnerable populations (including children) through its ongoing registration review and [Endangered Species Act] processes for chlorpyrifos uses.”
Farm groups welcomed EPA’s response to the ruling.
“EPA’s own science has repeatedly found there are at least 11 high-benefit, safe uses of chlorpyrifos, including for soybeans — a fact of which we will continue to remind the agency throughout this process,” Alan Meadows, a director of the American Soybean Association and farmer in Tennessee, said in a press release.
“This announcement is not only about restoring uses of chlorpyrifos, but also protecting these essential, congressionally directed procedures that ensure fair, appropriate, science-driven review of pesticides,” he said.
Nate Hultgren, a Minnesota farmer and president of the American Sugarbeet Growers Association, said the EPA action “can’t undo the economic harm that resulted from its previous revocation activity. Growers need tools like this to reduce economic harm stemming from pest and disease.
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“We are committed to strong stewardship and safety principles and as such look forward to engaging with EPA in future rulemaking around chlorpyrifos to ensure robust grower input and science-based decision-making rule the day.”
In April 2021, the 9th U.S. Circuit of Appeals in San Francisco ordered EPA to either revoke all tolerances for chlorpyrifos or modify them to meet federal food safety law. EPA decided to end all the tolerances, a move the 8th U.S. Circuit said in its November ruling went too far.
The 8th Circuit said “a partial ban was a real alternative for the EPA. It could have canceled some registrations and retained others that satisfied the statutory safety margin.” The court said EPA was considering a “middle-ground approach” in 2020 when environmental and farmworker groups sought review from the 9th Circuit of EPA’s denial of their petition to ban food uses of the product.
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