Council of Producers & Distributors of Agrotechnology

Terry Kippley, CPDA

March 14, 2024

In this Issue:

• CPDA Washington DC Fly-In Wrap Up
• Register: Adjuvants, Inerts & Crop Protection Conference

More than forty CPDA members from across the country came to Washington DC last week to advocate on behalf of our policy priorities and organizational objectives.

To kick things off, CPDA Board Chairman Brad Swillen opened our meeting on Monday by convening our quarterly Board of Directors meeting. This was followed by a joint reception with our friends at the Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA) whose members also made the trek to Washington DC for their annual Fly-In.

Our Monday evening dinner speaker was Ted McKinney, the President and CEO of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture. Ted has a long history of service to agriculture and his positive, uplifting comments set the tone for the rest of the week’s activities.

Following Monday’s opening activities, we pivoted to addressing four key objectives:

1. the 2024 Farm Bill;
2. the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act;
3. Endangered Species Act pesticide restrictions; and
4. Building the CPDA network.

Byron Hendrix, Exacto; Aaron Locker, Helm; Sean McCarty, Helena; Senator Jodi Ernst (R-IA); Jay Vroom, CPDA; Wally Beecroft, Exacto; Kerly Pastor, Albaugh.

Eileen Bernard, Nutrien; Sherry Hutcheson, UPL; Terry Kippley, CPDA; Representative David Rouzer (R-NC); Dave Bolin, Atticus; Terry Abbott, Adjuvants Unlimited.

On Capitol Hill—Advocating for our Farm Bill Priorities.

After a joint CPDA/ARA breakfast briefing, it was off to Capitol Hill for a day and evening with Congressional leaders and staff, Biden Administration officials and agricultural allies.

The highlight of the day was our CPDA/Political Action Committee dinner with House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “G.T.” Thompson (R-PA) and Congressman Dan Newhouse (R-WA).

Chairman Thompson spent more than two hours with us, and his detailed after-dinner comments made clear his goal to finalize a House of Representatives Farm Bill this spring.



We were also fortunate to hear from Congressman Newhouse who is an incredible advocate and spokesman on behalf of production agriculture as he is also a hop grower. On top of that, he is the former Director for the Washington State Department of Agriculture.

Representative GT Thompson (R-PA) and CPDA Chairman Brad Swillen, Ethox Chemicals.

CPDA Vice Chairman Terry Abbott, Adjuvants Unlimited; Representative Dan Newhouse (R-WA); Ethan Mathews, Wilbur-Ellis.

Pesticide Registration Improvement Act (PRIA) Implementation Challenges

After the passage of PRIA V in 2022, there was hope of returning to the situation before Covid-19, where PRIA decisions were predictable and transparent. Getting back there has been a challenge primarily due to funding shortfalls for EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) and the resulting lack of staff to review PRIA submissions.

To address this, CPDA has been proactively working with OPP staff to offer solutions to reduce the backlog of non-PRIA submissions. To that end, our Fly-In agenda focused on how CPDA and OPP staff can continue our work together to streamline regulatory submissions.

That work started on Tuesday afternoon when Rick Keigwin, the Deputy Assistant Administrator for Management in EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention joined us for a wide-ranging discussion focused on further collaboration.

Following that, a CPDA PRIA contingent led by Nathan Ehresman of Albaugh traveled to EPA Headquarters for a meeting with Registration Division Director Billy Smith and his team. This important dialogue has been another meeting in a series of meetings we have convened to keep communication channels open while discovering new ways to address OPP’s funding shortfalls.



Our closing Fly-In speaker was OPP Director Ed Messina. I personally appreciate the excellent working relationship we have built with Ed. As an attorney, Ed has always been very open and to the point about the requirements of the law and corresponding regulations, while also being willing to discuss different approaches for improving PRIA and OPP processes.

CPDA President Terry Kippley; Eileen Bernard, Nutrien; Ed Messina, Director of EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs; Dave Bolin, Atticus.

Nathan Ehresman, Albaugh; Dave Bolin, Atticus; Scott Baker, Innvictis; Eric Spandl, WinField United; Anne Turnbough, Amvac; Eileen Bernard, Nutrien; Kevin Dearwester, Helm; Payam Pourtaheri, Agrospheres; Sherry Hutcheson, UPL.

Including Drift Reduction Adjuvants (DRAs) to Mitigate Endangered Species Act Pesticide Use Restrictions

Our final focus area was on getting DRAs as one of the options growers can use to mitigate ESA no-spray pesticide buffers. DRAs were not part of either the Vulnerable Species Pilot or Herbicide Strategy. We have been working for the past year on making that a reality. While progress is slower than we would like, we have been able to hang our hat on several achievements.

Furthering that dialogue, we met with Rod Snyder on Tuesday morning. Rod is the Agricultural Advisor to EPA Administrator Michael Regan. More importantly, it was announced two weeks ago during the 2024 Commodity Classic by Administrator Regan and USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack that Rod will lead the newly created Office of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.



On Wednesday morning, our DRA expert team led by Eileen Bernard of Nutrien and Dr. Connor Ferguson of Simplot also went to EPA Headquarters to meet with scientists at OPP’s Environmental Fate and Effects Division to further our DRA discussions. New to this team and incredibly grateful and appreciative of their input is the addition of Dr. Steven Fredericks and Dr. Eric Spandl of Winfield United. We now have the combined expertise of some of the top drift experts in the world, all operating under the CPDA banner.

Felipe Afanador, Special Assistant of the Office; Rod Snyder, Director of EPA's Office of Agriculture and Rural Affairs; Venus Welch-White, Ph.D., Acting Deputy Director; Terry Kippley, CPDA.

CPDA ESA Committee Members: Terry Kippley, CPDA; Connor Ferguson, Simplot; Eileen Bernard, Nutrien; David Bower, Brandt; Scott Rawlins, CPDA; Andrew Hewitt, CPDA.

CPDA ESA Committee Members: Kevin Crosby, Adjuvants Unlimited; Eileen Bernard, Nutrien; Jim Reiss, Precision Laboratories; Steven Fredericks and Eric Spandl, WinField United; Wally Beecroft, Exacto.

Building Our Relationships with our Agricultural Allies

With so many CPDA member companies in town, it was important for us to build our relationships with our agricultural allies while adding new friends to our network.

To that end, during our Board of Directors meeting we were joined by The Fertilizer Institute President Corey Rosenbusch, RISE President Megan Provost and Kimberley Nesci who is the Director of USDA’s Office of Pest Management Policy.



New to our network is Sam Kieffer, who is the Vice President of Public Policy for the American Farm Bureau Federation who discussed Farm Bill politics during our Board meeting.

Terry Kippley, CPDA; Megan Provost, RISE; Brad Swillen, Ethox Chemicals.

Mike Edens, KALO; Sam Kieffer, American Farm Bureau; Kimberly Nesci, USDA Office of Pesticide Management Policy; Jay Vroom, CPDA; Brad Swillen, Ethox Chemicals; Dave Bolin, Atticus.

Terry Kippley, CPDA; Megan Provost, RISE; Daren Coppock, ARA.

Terry Kippley, CPDA; Corey Rosenbusch, The Fertilizer Institute.

Terry Kippley, CPDA; Amy Asmus, Chair, ARA; Jay Vroom, CPDA.

Closing Comments

We had an amazing week jammed with productive meetings with key policymakers. This was all made possible by the long hours put in by Jay Vroom, CPDA’s Strategic Advisor. Jay and all his colleagues at DCLRS, organized an action-packed agenda designed to advance our policy priorities. Jay’s agricultural network has no equal and CPDA is very fortunate to have him on our team.

Finally, a special thanks goes to CPDA Board Chairman Brad Swillen. Recently, Brad had shoulder surgery, but that did not stop him from putting a “shoulder” to moving the CPDA needle in the right direction.

Representative GT Thompson (R-PA) and CPDA Chairman Brad Swillen, Ethox Chemicals.

Join us for this premier event for the inerts, crop protection and adjuvants industry. Building on the success of last year’s conference in Louisville, this year’s event will offer valuable insights and networking opportunities for industry leaders.

You will learn how to:

• Navigate the changing landscape of the U.S. crop protection market, including the residual effects from COVID-19 involving regulation, trade policy and consumer trends.
• Discover the latest innovations and opportunities from emerging China suppliers of post-patent AIs and inert ingredients.
• Hear from senior executives of leading companies on their vision for the future, the role of AI and the challenges they face.
• Participate in a legislative panel that will discuss the 2024 election outlook, Farm Bill and ESA/EPA impact.
• Attend Adjuvant University, a pre-conference workshop to understand emerging technology and their impact such as See & Spray and the use of drones.

NEW THIS YEAR!

Take part in CPDA’s first golf tournament on April 29th! Enjoy Arizona’s best rated resort course. Learn more.

Don’t miss this chance.

CPDA Members are a nationwide network of inert manufacturers, adjuvant formulators, post-patent crop protection product manufacturers, distributors, ag retailers, and others dedicated to industry advocacy and education. The conference is open to all members and non-member companies, including government and academia. Please register before the April 1st price increase. We look forward to seeing you in Tucson!

Until next time...