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Bayer contests EPA concerns on Belt®

Bayer CropScience says it is contesting the EPA’s claims about an insecticide it makes under the name of Belt®, approved for use in more than 200 crops, including soybeans and specialty crops.

The EPA claims the chemical may harm a certain organism that lives in the sediment of water near farm fields.  But, Bayer’s Frank Ritteman tells Brownfield Ag News in its more than five years of “real life studies”there is no evidence of harm to the aquatic organism.

“From scientist to scientist, we couldn’t agree on the interpretation of those results and the EPA continued to revert to their lab studies despite us showing them the real life water monitoring which didn’t hit any threshold of concerns.” Ritteman says a third party survey also shows NO risk to the aquatic organism. The product goes after worms using selective technology.

BayerCropScience says the EPA has asked it to voluntarily cancel the uses of the product in the U.S.  Bayer has declined to do that and will instead seek a review of Belt’s registration in an administrative law hearing. Ritteman says this is new territory for the company – but in the interim, growers will be able to use the product. The product is used mostly in soybeans grown in the Southeastern states where weather is warm and humid.

AUDIO:  Interview with Frank Ritteman