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Council of Producers & Distributors of Agrotechnology
Terry Kippley, CPDA
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CPDA Elects New Executive Board Members
The CPDA board met this week, and voted in two new executive committee members. Congratulations to Patrick K. Ewan of Helena and Greg Lindner of Croda who will serve as CPDA's Vice Chair and Treasurer/2nd Vice Chair respectively.
Each brings a unique and valued set of perspectives to the CPDA Board. Patrick's business experience coupled with Greg's regulatory expertise will help guide CPDA through a regulatory environment that will see more change in the next two years than we've seen in the last forty.
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CPDA’s Political Action Committee (PAC) Lunch with Senator John Boozman
Last week, thanks to your generous support for the CPDA PAC, we joined with the Agricultural Retailers Association, CropLife America and The Fertilizer Institute to host a lunch for the “Chairman in Waiting” of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Sen. John Boozman (R-AR).
This was a great opportunity to “hit the ground running” going into 2025 with a new President, new Congress and new Administration. Senator Boozman is a key industry ally who will lead the Senate’s efforts in crafting a new Farm Bill.
We expect to visit with Senator Boozman again during the CPDA 2025 Washington DC Fly-In on February 24-26. If you haven’t made plans to attend, please do so now. Additional information and a registration link are included at the end of the newsletter.
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Richard Gupton, Agricultural Retailers Association; Terry Kippley, CPDA; Senator Boozman, R-AR; Alex Dunn, CropLife America; Corey Rosenbusch, The Fertilizer Institute. | |
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Congress Unveils Continuing Resolution
House and Senate negotiators have reached a budget deal through a Continuing Resolution (CR) that would fund the federal government through March 14, 2025.
The agricultural provisions in the 1547-page CR includes a total of $31 billion for agriculture. Of this amount, $21 billion is earmarked for disaster relief to address natural disasters and $10 billion for economic assistance for commodity losses.
The CR also includes an extension of the 2018 farm bill through September 30, 2025. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and incoming Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) have both committed to passage of a new farm bill early in the first quarter of 2025.
Congress has until midnight on Friday, December 20 to approve the package to avoid a government shutdown.
CPDA, CropLife America, the Agricultural Retailers Association and The Fertilizer Institute jointly released the following statement supporting the CR and economic assistance for farmers.
“As Congressional leaders deliberate on a year-end stopgap government funding bill, it is critical that any package includes disaster assistance and economic aid for farmers. Farmers are facing severe financial hardships, and they need robust support from this legislation to help ensure the viability of their livelihoods, our rural communities, and our food supply. We urge House and Senate leadership to reach a spending package deal that includes disaster assistance and economic aid for farmers.”
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Proposed Listing for the Monarch Butterfly
On December 10, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) published a proposal to list the Monarch butterfly as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, citing loss of habitat due to development, logging and use of herbicides and insecticides.
The USFWS proposal includes a 90-day comment period which will allow public input on whether to list the Monarch as threatened under the ESA. The proposal specifically asks for input on how the service should address pesticide use. If listed, the Monarch will be entitled to ESA protections which will include restrictions affecting its habitat, food sources and migration. This could include specific pesticide restrictions as part of EPA’s ESA Herbicide and Insecticide Strategies. CPDA will be providing comments to the USFWS on the proposal. The comment period is open until March 12, 2025.
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CPDA 2025 Planning Session & Holiday Reception
Last week, your CPDA staff met in Washington DC to plan for what’s shaping up as a very busy year ahead. Our discussion and plans included:
- Congressional efforts to fully fund EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs to fix the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act regulatory submission backlog;
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A new Farm Bill to include adjuvant incentives (see Farm Bill video)
- A continuation of our work with OPP’s Environmental Fate & Effects Division to include adjuvants in EPA’s ESA strategies;
- Plans for the CPDA Washington DC Fly-In; and
- Plans for the CPDA 2025 Adjuvants, Inerts & Crop Protection Conference on May 4-8 in Cape Coral, Florida.
| Terry Kippley, Jay Vroom, Cara Strazzo, Scott Rawlins, Andrew Walmsley, CPDA. | |
Along with the Agricultural Retailers Association, CropLife America, RISE and The Fertilizer Institute, CPDA hosted a holiday party attended by over two hundred people from allied organizations, Congressional members and staff and Administration officials. | |
Andrew Walmsley, CPDA; Venus-Welch White, EPA; Terry Kippley, CPDA. | |
Andrew Walmsley, Ray McAllister, CPDA; Josie Montoney-Crawford, CropLife America; Terry Kippley, CPDA. | |
Alex Dunn, CropLife America; Cara Strazzo, CPDA. | |
Ken Dey, Simplot; Hunter Carpenter, Agricultural Retailers Association; Cameron Bishop, Simplot; Terry Kippley and Andrew Walmsley, CPDA; Ethan Mathews, Wilbur-Ellis. | |
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State FIFRA Issues Research & Evaluation Group Meeting (SFIREG)
Last week, Andrew and I attended the biannual SFIREG meeting in Alexandria, Virginia. SFIREG is a working committee of the Association of American Pest Control Officials (AAPCO) which is an organization of pesticide regulatory officials from states, U.S. territories, federal agencies who administer and enforce pesticide laws and regulations.
During the meeting we were briefed on the latest updates from OPP on state activities while getting an opportunity to network with many of the State Lead Agencies charged with pesticide enforcement at the state level. SFIREG will play a key role in future ESA mitigation.
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Terry Kippley, CPDA; Steve Dwinell, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, SFIREG Chair. | |
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CPDA's ESA Committee Group Meeting with EPA
Last week, CPDA’s ESA working group held its latest in a series of meetings with EFED staff to discuss EFED data needs to expand inclusion of additional Drift Reduction Adjuvants in all of the ESA strategies.
CPDA has been providing updated herbicide data along with new insecticide data. CPDA will begin identifying what additional data might be needed for the upcoming fungicide strategy.
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CPDA Meets with Ed Messina
CPDA, as part of the PRIA Coalition, met with Ed Messina, Director of OPP, Division Directors and other OPP leaders to discuss process improvements to address the significant backlog of products currently at EPA. The goal of the meeting was to work collaboratively to decrease PRIA processing times and help move OPP closer to meeting PRIA and non-coded PRIA deadlines. In addition, CPDA is seeking better predictability for registrants about when PRIA and non-coded PRIA actions will be completed. | |
Terry Kippley, CPDA; Mike Gruber and Steve Bennett, HCPA; Andrew Walmsley, CPDA. | |
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CPDA Social Media Committee Meeting
Chaired by Bill Smith of Helena Agri-Enterprises, the committee met this week and discussed how to raise awareness of our collaboration with the Agricultural Retailers Association on the Adjuvant Advantage webinar series through member company internal newsletters as well as a discussion around checking in with member company regulatory departments to see how they are benefiting from CPDA membership.
CPDA welcomes industry-relevant content that we can promote from its members. Current member companies on the committee include Adjuvants Unlimited, Albaugh, Chemorse, GROWMARK, Helena Agri-Enterprises, Helm, Precision Laboratories, Rovensa Next, Simplot, Stepan, UPL, Wilbur-Ellis and WinField United.
The committee's goal is to help promote both CPDA and member company initiatives on LinkedIn. This committee meets every two months. If you’d like to get involved or have content you would like posted, please contact CPDA Social Media.
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2025 CPDA DC Fly-In
Registration is now open for the 2025 CPDA Washington DC Fly-In, which will be held in conjunction with the Agricultural Retailers Association’s Fly-In. (ARA).
The dates for the Fly-In are February 24-26, 2025, at the Westin Hotel in Arlington, Virginia where we have secured a great rate of $199/night. Plan to arrive on the 24th for our opening reception with our ARA friends as well as for dinner with a special guest speaker. Plan for a full day on Capitol Hill on the 25th followed by an evening Congressional reception. On the 26th, we will hear from EPA staff, Agricultural leaders, and other allies. The Fly-In is the focal point of CPDA’s federal advocacy efforts in 2025. This is an important meeting for all CPDA member companies so please plan to attend.
Note: Your hotel stay must be booked separately from your fly-in registration.
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Zippy Duvall, President, American Farm Bureau Federation | |
Senator John Boozman (R-AR) | |
CPDA/ARA Adjuvant Advantage Webinar Series | |
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Tuesday, January 7th
Adjuvants & Herbicides
How to optimize performance while minimizing crop response.
Sponsored by Drexel and Helena.
Certified Crop Advisers attending the webinar will earn one Certified Crop Adviser (CCA) program, IPM CEU.
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Closing Note
With Christmas and New Year’s Day in the middle of a very busy holiday season, this will be our last newsletter of 2024. Look for the next edition during the week of January 6.
On behalf of the entire CPDA staff, I’d like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year and a safe and enjoyable holiday season.
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CropLife Innovation Series Webinars
CropLife hosts dozens of webinars each year. Click on the link for a list of upcoming events, as well as archived presentations that can be viewed on demand. Certified Crop Advisors (CCAs) can earn CEUs by attending these webinars.
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