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EPA will reconsider ban on chemical drift

The EPA says it will reconsider its controversial proposal to ban any drifting of herbicide, pesticide or fungicide spray. 

The American Farm Bureau’s director of congressional relations, Tyler Wegmeyer, says it’s great news for farmers and ranchers.

“We’re still sleeping maybe with one eye open—but it looks like they’re going back to the drawing board on this,” says Wegmeyer. “We’re going to keep our eyes on it, but the proposal they originally came out with, it looks as though they’re not going to go through with it—so that is good news.”

Wegmeyer says the proposal was impossible and impractical.  “The original proposal that EPA put forward on spray drift was a zero tolerance—essentially saying that if you sprayed any sort of chemical that had an adverse effect, that it would be a violation of the label.”

The EPA received over 30-thousand comments on the proposal, which Wegmeyer says carried a lot of weight.  “A lot of those comments, of course, came from farmers and ranchers about their displeasure with what EPA was proposing.”

Wegmeyer says EPA’s reconsideration of the proposal will likely be a lengthy process.

AUDIO: Tyler Wegmeyer (7 min MP3)

  • This was not a ban on drift, it was a ban on chemicals. These intellectuals don’t have a clue about agriculture, let alone modern agriculture.

    As Thomas Jefferson said, “If government tells us when to plant and when to harvest, they will want for bread.”

    We cannot slack our watch. The food issues being promoted now in regards to salt and obesity is the camel’s nose under the tent.

    Listen to Michael Pollan’s presentations and your realize how he can bring people in to agree with his initial premise on food quality and then take them to his real point of overthrowing agriculture as we produce today.

    He is only one of many on the attack. We must stay vigilant.

  • It’s all about property rights.

    Any American farmer has the right to farm any they want as long as it legal.

    In the late 80’s Florida based A, Duda was having loads of produce rejected at the Canadian border when test showed traces of unregistered pesticides. Duda discovered the unregistered pesticides were drifting from other fields. After some testing they determined that pesticide levels, at approximately 5% of USDA tolerance levels, was specifically drift. Duda eventually worked out an understanding for their exorts but it showed that drift is a persistent problem.

    Ag satellites, using infrared technology, help farmers uses pesticides on specific hot spots in their fields. But this imaging will also follow the pesticides as they drift over the property lines. Organic farmers do not begrudge a conventional farmers right to use all approved products. However we have the right not to expect our fields to be inadvertently contaminated creating a lower the value for our crops.

    The old saying your freedom ends, when my nose begins; also applies to property lines.

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