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Council of Producers & Distributors of Agrotechnology
Terry Kippley, CPDA
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In this Issue:
- Introducing Andrew Walmsley
- CPDA on the Road Again
- CPDA Committee Meetings
- Pesticide Program Dialogue Committee Meeting
- CPDA Defends Modern Crop Protection Products
- ESA Mitigation
- ESA Risk Assessment Meeting
- Adjuvant Advantage Webinar Series
- A Personal Note...
- Industry Events
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Introducing Andrew Walmsley
I am pleased to announce that Andrew Walmsley has joined CPDA as our new Vice President of Government Relations. In this role, Andrew will be responsible for fulfilling the mission and vision of the CPDA Board of Directors in solving member problems in the areas of state, federal government, and regulatory affairs.
Andrew comes to us with an impressive resume and background. Previously, he served as the Senior Director of Congressional Relations for the American Farm Bureau Federation where he managed Farm Bureau’s farm policy team to include energy, climate, transportation, and biotechnology issues. His work included regulatory relief for farmers and ranchers and securing Farm Bureau priorities in multiple pieces of legislation that were eventually enacted into law, including the last three Farm Bills. In 2022, he was named a Washington DC ‘Top Lobbyist’ by The Hill magazine.
Andrew is a sixth-generation Floridian and graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in Agricultural Operations Management. Please join me in welcoming Andrew to the CPDA team!
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CPDA on the Road Again
Willie Nelson was right when he sang “I just can't wait to get on the road again.” And so it was as I got back on the road last week for CPDA member visits as well as a trip back to the home farm in Wisconsin (more on this later).
These face-to-face meetings are important, and I cannot imagine trying to conduct business in our ever-changing environment from behind a computer screen.
To discuss this in greater detail, I was interviewed by AgriBusiness Global Direct Magazine for their September 2024 issue to discuss the importance of face-to-face meetings. You can read the entire article here: Four Reasons Face-to-Face Meetings Are Needed for Strategic Sourcing & What To Do If Your Travel Budget Has Been Cut - AgriBusiness Global
With this in mind, last week I visited with Exacto at their facility in Sharon, Wisconsin where I was joined by CPDA board member and Exacto CEO Wally Beecroft and his team. Exacto has an exciting new vision, innovation capabilities, and capacity expansion fueled by a partnership with S2G, Skyline Global Partners, and Cox Family Holdings. It was a good reminder why we are pursuing policies designed to increase the use of sustainable products throughout the ag supply chain.
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Wally Beecroft, Frank Sexton, Exacto; Terry Kippley, CPDA; Eva Magnusen, Phil Kuk, Exacto. | |
Byron Hendrix, Wally Beecroft, Exacto; Sumeeta Salvador, Maggie Cha, Cristina Rohr, S2G; Terry Kippley, CPDA; Glen Obear and Kip Pendleton, Exacto. | |
My next stop was to WinField United, where CPDA board member Joe Vaillancourt led a tour of their impressive facilities. Included in my visit was a working session with Winfield’s Regulatory Affairs team to discuss the PRIA V backlog as well as various state issues around adjuvants. There was also an informative discussion on PFAS as Minnesota was one of the first states to pass comprehensive PFAS regulations. | |
Joe Vaillancourt, Lisa Mathias, Roxanne Rydeen, Karen Rajtar, WinField United; Terry Kippley, CPDA. | |
Terry Kippley, CPDA; Eric Spandl, Steven Fredericks, Joe Vaillancourt, WinField United. | |
I also visited Precision Laboratories at their brand new 270,000 square foot facility in Kenosha, Wisconsin where I met with new CPDA board member Matt Faletti, Precision’s Business Development & Marketing Manager. | |
Matt Faletti, Precision Laboratories; Terry Kippley, CPDA. | |
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CPDA Committee Meetings
Last week, three CPDA Committees met to continue their work on a number of CPDA policy priorities.
Government Affairs Committee
CPDA Government Affairs Committee Chair Ethan Mathews convened our GA committee meeting. The GA Committee is now meeting monthly and welcomes all CPDA member companies to participate. If you would like to receive GA updates directly and to participate in these meetings, please send a note to Andrew Walmsley.
Social Media Committee
Chair Bill Smith led this recently formed committee whose goal is to help promote member company content on LinkedIn. As a result of this meeting, CPDA will be launching a weekly one-minute "CPDA Capitol Connection" video discussing relevant current topics in our industry. This committee meets every two months. If you’d like more information or have content you would like posted, please contact CPDA Social Media.
CPDA EPA Working Group
Chair Dave Bolin led a discussion of possible improvements and changes to PR Notice 98-10 in preparation of the Work Group’s meeting with EPA’s Registration Division on November 6th. If you’d like more information or would like to participate, please contact Dave Bolin for more information.
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Terry Kippley, CPDA; Dave Bolin, Atticus; Alexis Bromley, Nutrien; Dan Rosenblatt, Charles Billy Smith, EPA; Stanley Bernard, Drexel; Nandi Nagri, UPL. | |
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Pesticide Program Dialogue Committee Meeting
The EPA will hold a virtual public meeting of the Pesticide Program Dialogue Committee (PPDC) on November 13 and November 14, 2024. I serve as a member of the committee.
The PPDC is important as it provides feedback to EPA on pesticide regulatory, policy and program issues. PPDC representatives are from environmental groups, pesticide manufacturers, trade associations, academia, and federal and state agencies.
Topics for the meeting include:
- The Pesticide Registration Improvement Act
- Endangered Species Act implementation
- Office of Pesticide Programs business process improvements
- Updates from PPDC sub-workgroups, including the Pesticide Label Reform Workgroup, Farmworker Workgroup, Emerging Pathogens Implementation Workgroup, and Pesticide Resistance Management Workgroup #2
Register here to virtually attend the meeting by November 8, 2024.
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CPDA Defends Modern Crop Protection Products
Last week, CPDA joined 266 other groups in pushing back against misinformation surrounding modern agricultural technologies and crop protection tools. This effort is in response to the recent “Make America Healthy Again” movement. These efforts included meetings with Senators Ron Johnson (R-WI), Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Representative Chip Roy (R-TX) where we discussed the importance of innovation and modern technology in U.S. agriculture.
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ESA Mitigation
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has updated its Endangered Species Act mitigation menu website to include all current measures to reduce exposure to nontarget species from pesticide runoff from agricultural uses. The menu provides growers with options for reducing runoff as part of future pesticide labels that implement EPA’s Herbicide Strategy.
If a new active ingredient registration or a registration review decision for a conventional pesticide requires runoff/erosion mitigation to reduce ecological exposures, the label for that pesticide will reference this menu. A pesticide applicator will then need to review the menu and determine whether menu measures need to be employed and, if so, how many measures. The mitigations described in the menu apply only when the product label references the menu website.
EPA hosts this mitigation menu on the agency’s website rather than including it on each pesticide label. By posting the menu online, EPA can add or modify mitigation measures on the menu without updating thousands of individual labels each time, which would take years to complete. This approach ensures that agricultural pesticide users can benefit promptly from those changes to the menu. EPA intends to periodically update the mitigation menu website to reflect new mitigation measures or changes in mitigation descriptions.
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ESA Risk Assessment Meeting
On Monday, Andrew and I attended an ESA Risk Assessment Improvement Stakeholder Meeting in Washington, DC. These are critical meetings as they are opportunities to revise EPA’s ESA Risk Assessments to better reflect real world conditions. CPDA and our grower allies are concerned that some of these risk assessments are overly conservative, overstate pesticide risks, and in turn require pesticide users to adopt more restrictions than are necessary to protect listed species and their critical habitats.
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Terry Kippley and Andrew Walmsley, CPDA. | |
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Coming Next Tuesday, Election Day:
Adjuvants & Fungicides to Increase Yield Webinar
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Back by popular demand, CPDA is again working with ARA on a third season for the Adjuvant Advantage for the Sales Agronomist webinar series.
Next Tuesday, November 5th
Our first FREE webinar of season 3 will be
Fungicides & Adjuvants. The goal of this webinar is to learn how adjuvants can help growers increase yield and fight fungicide resistance.
Certified Crop Advisers attending this webinar will earn one Certified Crop Adviser (CCA) program IPM CEU.
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On a Personal Note
Last week, I was able to lend a hand to my 83-year-old dad, Lloyd "Wild Man" Kippley, during the fall harvest. There’s nothing like returning to your roots to recharge your batteries and to help you understand the real-world effects from policies created in Washington DC. It was a great visit highlighted by the fact that I didn’t break anything!
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Webinar: The ABCs of ESA: Exploring the EPA’s Herbicide Strategy
November 15, 2024, 2:00pm ET
Join an expert panel for an interactive discussion on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) final Herbicide Strategy and its impact on farmers, ag retailers, and suppliers.
Learn about mitigation measures to reduce pesticide movement from treated fields, compliance and enforcement of the Herbicide Strategy, and the roles ag retailers and suppliers are playing to support farmer-customers.
Presented by CropLife and CPDA. CCA Approved for 1 CEU Credit in Professional Development
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Mark Your Calendars! Dates for the 2025 Washington DC Fly-In are Set
The dates for the 2025 CPDA Washington DC Fly-In are February 24-26 at the Arlington Westin in Arlington, Virginia. Once again, we will be partnering and collaborating with our good friends at the Agricultural Retailers Association for part of our agenda. Make plans now to attend as we kickoff 2025 with a new President and Congress in place.
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