ESA Changes Will Impact All of Agriculture
November 13, 2024 A critical issue facing agriculture is the Endangered Species Act (ESA). This past August, revisions to this act were introduced, which will have a major impact on how farming operates going forward. In fact, as Jeffrey Smith, Associate Director of Industry & Government Relations at Valent U.S.A. LLC, explained, the process for crop protection product registration has always been a cost borne by the suppliers.
But that’s changed now.
“With ESA, the impacts go directly to the bottom line of the grower,” said Smith, speaking at the 2024 Mid America CropLife Association (MACA) annual meeting in September. “And they will be severely impacted.”
How did the industry find itself in this position? According to Smith, it boils down to a conflict between two different laws – ESA and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).
“These two laws were written without each other in mind,” he said. “FIFRA is administered by EPA while ESA is administered by the federal services. These have different requirements, with ESA being a risk-based assessment, so that if any species could be harmed by a product, EPA has to consult with the services before considering any registration.”
According to Smith, there are currently more than 1,200 active ingredients in the marketplace that fall under the new ESA rules, potentially impacting 1,700 species and 800 critical habitats. To complete all the required ESA consultations could take between four and 15 years to complete for each ingredient.
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The ABCs of ESA: Exploring the EPA’s Herbicide Strategy
“Under this, it would take the EPA 1,000 years to complete all the current pesticide consultations with the services,” said Smith. “This is simply not feasible.”
Stanley Culpepper, University of Georgia
According to Stanley Culpepper, Professor and Extension Agronomist in the Crop and Soil Department at the University of Georgia and a farmer himself, the new ESA rules will have a direct impact on growers.
“As growers, we will have to make a decision on every field, not every farm,” said Culpepper. “We will have to consider the products we are applying, the crops we are applying them on, and look at each field’s characteristics such as slope, soil texture, and run-off.”
Loading ...In practice, this will have growers evaluate all these factors into a points system, he said. The lower the number achieved, the better.
Still, Valent’s Smith expressed that he is confident the ag industry will adapt to this new system.
“In the end, I don’t think this will be as big a deal as some people think,” he concluded. “It’s going to take a heck of a lot of communication and we in the industry will have to change how we handle risk assessment. Obviously, we don’t want to have nine-point products. But if all the products we use get down to six points or less, we should be okay.”
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