Rod Snyder announced Monday that he is stepping down as EPA’s top adviser for agriculture, describing the position as the “honor of my career" and expressing confidence that the agency's new Office of Agriculture and Rural Affairs will carry on long past the Biden administration.
He became senior adviser for ag at EPA in October 2021, during the midst of the Covid outbreak. Earlier this year, Administrator Michael Regan announced that he was creating the Office of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and making Snyder the first director.
In an exclusive interview with Agri-Pulse, Snyder said he did not have specific plans for his next career move, except that he wanted to stay in the agriculture, conservation and climate space.
With his wedding less than one week away, he said he “just needed to take a moment to step back and really focus on this important moment in my family and my personal life.”
“I feel so fortunate to have had this opportunity, and in many ways, to continue to build on the working relationships that I've had with ag groups and farmers for two decades. It's just been incredible.”
In a statement, Regan said that as a result of Snyder's leadership at the agency farmers "will always have a seat at EPA’s table as we work together to deliver clean air, clear water, and climate solutions.
“Rod’s vision, strategy, and tenacity has been nothing short of transformational. From the establishment of the first Office of Agriculture and Rural Affairs to a renewed commitment to rural and agricultural communities across the entire agency, Rod’s impact will be felt for many years to come.”
Prior to his EPA appointment, Snyder served as president of Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture from 2014-2021. Before that, he held positions as public policy director for the National Corn Growers Association and government affairs leader for CropLife America. He has been a longtime champion of agricultural solutions to climate change and organized farmer delegations to participate in UN climate summits in Paris and Copenhagen.
Snyder credited Regan, who has a rural North Carolina background, for setting the tone over the last three years and doing more outreach to the agricultural community.
One of the highlights of Snyder's tenure was Regan going to Commodity Classic in March – he was the first EPA administrator to ever attend the annual meeting of grain and oilseed groups – to announce the creation of the Office of Ag and Rural Affairs.
“It really just cemented our commitment to making sure that farmers and ranchers continue to have a seat at the table at EPA for many years to come. That moment was really special and important in terms of the legacy that we're leaving at the agency,” he said.
Snyder noted that there was "strong bipartisan support" for creating the new office, which could help ensure it remains a part of EPA in future administrations. "I firmly believe that this will stick and it will last into the future," he said.
Snyder said he was also proud of the agency’s work on biofuels and that getting the Renewable Fuel Standard back on track was one of Regan’s priorities.
“We've always felt that biofuels are a key contributor to energy security, to rural economic development, and clearly a climate solution in terms of a low carbon fuel,” Snyder said.
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Last year, he said the agency finalized the largest volumes in the history of the RFS and also put it on a three-year growth trajectory. And using the administrator’s emergency waiver authority, Regan made sure that E15 has been uninterrupted over the last three summers.
Producers of renewable diesel and biodiesel argue the renewable volume obligations were set too low, but Snyder said the agency “did the best job it could with the information we had during rulemaking last year.
“I think it’s important to emphasize that, if you start at the beginning of the Biden administration to where we are today, there has been really tremendous growth in the bio-based diesel category,“ Snyder said. “The question going forward is that perhaps we have a new economic reality facing us now than we did 12 or 18 months ago”
Going forward, he said the industry should focus on making a case for what the right levels should be for the future, not looking backwards.
Snyder also outlined progress the agency has made on endangered species protection. For the last 15 or 20 years, EPA’s pesticide program has been facing more than two dozen lawsuits for failing to comply with the Endangered Species Act on more than 1,000 pesticide products.
He said the agency put out the first comprehensive ESA work plan, and then issued a number of strategies to try to get ahead of this issue.
“We didn't always get every detail right out of the gate, but we've also spent a lot of time listening to farmers and the ag sector around how to improve those strategies. I think we're in a better place,” he emphasized, with just one outstanding legal case at this point. “I think that provides far more predictability and stability for the pesticide regulatory program.”
The agency’s ESA insecticides strategy came out about one week ago and still is open for public comment. The herbicide strategy has not been finalized yet, but Snyder said he expect that it will be published by the end of this month.
He said one key milestone was the memorandum of understanding EPA signed with USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service earlier this year that basically pointed to existing NRCS conservation practices that farmers may adopt and make sure they're getting credit for the benefit those practices provide for species “without reinventing the wheel.”
“I'm just proud that we've made progress on this, because it's just really long overdue,” he added.
Asked about the agency’s work to speed up registrations of new crop protection chemicals, Snyder said EPA has “tremendous scientists” but the agency is nearly at “a low water mark in terms of staffing resources.” For fiscal 2024, the Office of Pesticide Program’s budget was cut by Congress by between $5 million to $6 million “at a time we know more staff resources are needed to compete their work in a timely fashion.
“Products are getting more complex. The science is evolving rapidly. We have to keep up with that as a regulatory system, and that is going to require greater funding going forward," he said.
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