News
Crop protection tools get attention in MAHA report
A new report from the Make America Healthy Again Commission is causing the ag industry to pause.
The 68-page report features studies showing possible health risks from glyphosate and atrazine and bias in company-funded studies on product safety.
Daren Coppock with the Ag Retailers Association tells Brownfield…
“If there are two pesticides that have been studied more than glyphosate and atrazine, I don’t know what they are,” he says. “They’ve been looked at up, down and sideways by not only the EPA, but regulators around the world. If everybody around the world comes out and says glyphosate isn’t a carcinogen, it’s probably not a carcinogen.”
Coppock says the report turns its back on the work the EPA has done to ensure products are safe and the immediate threat for farmers is a loss of crop protection tools.
“This will be a lever for trial lawyers to pull and sue companies, causing them to reconsider whether they’re going to make and sell those products in the U.S. That leads to longer-term impacts. It’s not just the current products we’re using today that would be at risk, but what company in their right mind will invest $400 million in 10 years to develop a new product if the registration process at the end of the tunnel isn’t scientific or unpredictable?”
Alan Meadows, a farmer on the American Soybean Association board, agrees and says he trusts the EPA’s pesticide approval process.
“Follow the science, goodness gracious.”
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin says the report shouldn’t be viewed as the American system of agriculture isn’t safe but rather is an acknowledgement that industry can always work to improve the science and regulatory systems.
Coppock says “nothing is ever finished and perfect. There are always refinements that can be made, whether it’s the approval process at the EPA or farming practices in the field.”
Farm Action says they’re pleased with the report’s crop protection findings. In a statement, the organization says the report rightly points out how federal and state policy has often been guided more by corporate profit than the public interest.
The ASA says the report was written behind closed doors and the National Corn Growers Associations says America’s farmers should be included in the discussion moving forward.
Coppock says it’s not clear if the MAHA Commission will be open to industry feedback and if not “you can’t build good regulations based on bad science or in this case, no science.”
The MAHA Commission is expected to release a second report in August, which will outline the policy priorities from this initial report.
Hear Brownfield’s interview with Coppock.
Hear Brownfield’s interview with Meadows.
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