Once again, as I am writing this article, I should be somewhere else. This time of year, the NAICC Executive Board and Governmental Affairs Committee (GAC) is in Washington, DC visiting with our Representatives and Senators as well as officials from USDA, EPA, and other agencies. Due to COVID, DC is still not open for face–to-face meetings. This also precludes us from having our annual Crawfish Boil on the Hill again. We hosted this reception for 22 straight years but had to cancel in 2020 and 2021. We hope to get back in 2023, if not sooner.
The Executive Board is discussing meeting in DC in the fall when it is estimated that people will be back in the office and not working from home. But until then, we are still very active interacting with officials on Zoom and conference calls as well as submitting comments to EPA. We have several policymakers participating in our webinars that run through the end of March. Check out our NAICC ACADEMY at https://naicc.org/2021-academy.
James Todd, GAC Chair, presented in the first Consultant Education Committee webinar and outlined NAICC’s activities from 2020. His presentation entitled 2020 NAICC GAC: Year in Review & Where to Next is summarized below.
In 2020, the committee focused on Imidacloprid Support, Bt PIP Refuge Requirements, Paraquat aerial label crop restrictions, FIFRA Reform and Dicamba. NAICC submitted comments to the U.S. EPA in support of reregistration of imidacloprid. The decision is expected in the first quarter of 2021. In November 2020, NAICC submitted comments to EPA on the draft proposal to improve lepidopteran resistance management for Bt plant-incorporated protectants (PIP). NAICC agrees with EPA’s proposal to establish a system to categorize UXI (Unexpected injury level) reports as Practical Resistance to facilitate improved communications among stakeholders and timely implementation of mitigation actions around the UXI location based on standardized BMP’s. Several members contributed examples of why compliance with block refuge requirements is difficult as well as why eliminating VIP3 traits in corn in the south will be potentially harmful to corn growers.
EPA was proposing to limit Paraquat aerial applications only to cotton for defoliation/desiccation. NAICC submitted comments to EPA in support of the aerial application of paraquat to several crops including soybeans, wheat, sorghum, and dry beans. The Neguse/Udall FIFRA Reform Bill that is being considered for introduction in the House of Representatives would significantly change key parts of FIFRA and would replace EPA’s science-based risk/benefit system with a more European Union type hazard-based process. Crop Life America is in the process of individual virtual calls with the staff of every member of Congress explaining the risks of this type of shift. NAICC has participated in several of these calls. On October 28, 2020, EPA approved new five-year registrations for two dicamba products and extending the registration of an additional dicamba product. NAICC also submitted comments to EPA in favor of these registrations.
Issues we are currently following are Worker Protection Standard, Endangered Species Act, IR-4 funding and Organophosphate (OP’s) reregistration.
