Council of Producers & Distributors of Agrotechnology

Terry Kippley, CPDA

November 30, 2023

In this Issue:

• PRIA Meeting with EPA Leadership
• Brainstorming Meeting with OPP Registration Leadership
• Vulnerable Species Pilot Update
• Petition to Require Pesticide Efficacy Data
• Maine Board of Pesticide Control
• Pesticide Program Dialogue Committee (PPDC)
• ARA Annual Meeting
• Save The Date! CPDA Washington DC Fly-In
• CPDA/ARA Webinar series
• CPDA Welcomes New Member: MFA Incorporated

PRIA Meeting with EPA Leadership

On Monday, I attended a PRIA Coalition meeting with Ed Messina, who is the Director of EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP). PRIA 5 passed Congress less than a year ago and the implementation of the new law has been challenging for both EPA and industry. Monday’s meeting was a continuation of the ongoing dialogue we’ve been involved with to bring predictability back to PRIA.

Of particular note is an agreement for EPA to hold a front-end processing webinar to ensure consistent communication between registrants and OPP staff. This webinar is scheduled for Friday, December 15 at 12:00pm ET.

Other discussion topics:

• Registrants are still receiving mixed messages from the product managers on front-end delays on issues such as the milestones and when the clock starts for PRIA actions. A possible solution includes having EPA share the same communications with registrants and OPP staff.
• OPP recently experienced multiple server outages. For those actions (both PRIA and non-PRIA) that were caught in the outages, the PRIA Coalition asked that these actions be prioritized and processed on a first-in, first-out basis.

We will continue our dialogue with OPP and hope to resolve these issues quickly in order to fulfill the promises in PRIA 5.

Brainstorming Meeting with OPP Registration Leadership

On Wednesday I led a meeting with members of our CPDA EPA Committee with Billy Smith, Director of EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs’ (OPP) Registration Division, and his deputies (Dan Rosenblatt and Jenn Saunders) in attendance. Billy invited CPDA in for a brainstorming session on sharing best practices to help reduce PRIA and Non-PRIA backlog. CPDA members Nathan Ehresman (Albaugh), Matt Granahan (Helm Agro), Sherry Hutcheson (UPL), Jeremy Malone (Spring Regulatory Services) and Dave Bolin (Atticus) also participated.  

We focused on registration of substantially similar (“me-too”) products, a particular concern of the EPA folks. Recommendations from Billy and his staff include:

• Greater use of self-certification for product chemistry data, but submit data also.
• Cite-specific approach for supporting data is preferred by reviewers.
• Develop a “best practices” document to guide registrants.
• Address all comments made by reviewers, even if you don’t agree.
• Pay attention to threshold levels for petroleum distillates in formulation.

CPDA recommendations include:

• Less time on review of labels that must match reference products anyway.
• Improved checklist for “substantially similar” determination.
• We want to “fail fast” - find any reasons for failure early in the review process.

CPDA and EPA will resume this discussion early in the new year to develop more concreate steps.

Top Image: CPDA members Dave Bolin, Sherry Hutcheson, Terry Kippley and Nathan Ehresman. Bottom Image: Nathan Ehresman, Sherry Hutcheson, Dave Bolin, EPA's Dan Rosenblatt, Billy Smith and CPDA president Terry Kippley.

Vulnerable Species Pilot Update

On November 22, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released an update to its Vulnerable Species Pilot (VSP) initiative. The VSP is part of the Agency’s Endangered Species Act (ESA) Workplan.



EPA released the draft VSP white paper on June 22, 2023, where the Agency identified 27 listed species that are vulnerable to pesticides. From this, EPA proposed several mitigations designed to minimize or avoid pesticide exposure to the 27 species.

There was a 45-day public comment period on the draft white paper. EPA received more than 10,000 comments on the proposal and supporting documents. However, only 200 of these were unique comments. The remaining 9,800 were form letters generated by a mail-in campaign all in support of the VSP white paper.

Based on the comments, EPA is considering revisions to the VSP framework in the following areas:

• Narrow the areas within the endangered species range map to only include locations that are important to conserving a species.
• Clarify the scope of the VSP for non-agricultural uses;
• Clarify potential exemptions to the proposed mitigation and whether additional exemptions are needed;
• Revise some of the proposed mitigation and include additional mitigation options specific to non-agricultural uses and specialty crops;
• Revisit how EPA selected the pilot vulnerable species; and
• Develop a consistent approach to reduce pesticide exposure to listed species from spray drift and run-off.

While some of these revisions are encouraging, EPA also made it clear that substantive changes are unlikely. It’s also important to note that EPA’s future plans for ESA mitigation do not include adjuvants. However, CPDA is making progress at getting these included as a featured mitigation option.

Petition to Require Pesticide Efficacy Data

On Friday, November 24, EPA announced that it is seeking public comment on a petition received from the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), the American Bird Conservancy (ABC), and 63 additional signatories requesting that the Agency initiate a rulemaking for neonicotinoid and other systemic insecticides. The petition states that data regarding efficacy of these insecticides are necessary to examine if the benefits of their use outweigh the potential risks to non-target species and biodiversity.

The petition requests that EPA amend the existing regulations under the Federal Insecticide, Rodenticide, and Fungicide Act (FIFRA) to require all registrants of neonicotinoid and other systemic insecticides to provide performance (efficacy) data to EPA for new registrations and during registration review.

If successful, the petition would also seek amendments to the rule to require EPA to “revoke any existing registration” for “any neonicotinoid or other systemic insecticide that lacks a demonstration that its benefits exceed its environmental and overall costs.” 

Maine Board of Pesticide Control

In 2022, the Maine Legislature passed an act requiring the registration of adjuvants in the state. Under this law, adjuvants were added to the definition of pesticides and must now be registered within Maine. The Maine Board of Pesticide Control met in October to clarify several policies related to adjuvants.

Of particular interest is a proposed policy on recordkeeping. At their October meeting, the Board considered the following proposed language:

“Spray adjuvants considered to be pesticides in the State of Maine must be included in recordkeeping and reporting requirements as stated in Chapter 50. In records and reports, the term “Primary Functioning Agent (PFA)” will be used in place of “active ingredient” on records where the active ingredient is required. Likewise, for recordkeeping activities, the term “Constituents Ineffective As Spray Adjuvants (CIASA)” will be used in spray adjuvants to replace of the terms “Other” or “Inert” typically used in pesticides.”

There is no timeline for when this could be a regulatory requirement.

Pesticide Program Dialogue Committee (PPDC)

Last week I attended the PPDC where I also met incoming ARA Chairperson Amy Asmus. I have been asked to represent CPDA on this committee for a 2-year term.

The PPDC is an advisory committee that meets with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on a regular basis to discuss pesticide regulatory, policy and program implementation issues. The PPDC provides advice and recommendations to the EPA on issues associated with pesticide regulatory development and reform initiatives, evolving public policy, program implementation and science related to evaluating and reducing risks from pesticide use. 

EPA Leadership, Ed Messina and members of the PPDC discussing current and future EPA policy.

David Shaw, Provost and Executive Vice President at Mississippi State University; Amy Asmus, Incoming ARA Chair; Terry Kippley, CPDA President.

ARA Annual Meeting

On Tuesday, I was pleased to represent CPDA during the Agricultural Retailers Association’s Board of Directors meeting in Orlando.

Our relationship with ARA is paying dividends through our joint work, especially through our shared and very popular webinar series “Adjuvant Advantage for the Sales Agronomist.”

Many thanks goes to Daren Coppock and the entire ARA team for their hospitality and collegiality.

Terry Kippley with CPDA member Mike Dinn, Crop Venture.

Save the Date! CPDA Washington D.C. Fly-In

Mark your calendars for the 2024 CPDA Washington DC Fly-In. Our 2024 event will be on March 4-6 where we will have several joint events with our friends at the Agricultural Retailers Association.

Adjuvant Advantage for the Sales Agronomist Webinar

Registration is now open for our next webinar in the Adjuvant Advantage for the Sales Agronomist series.

Adjuvant Application for Pre-Emergent Herbicides

December 7, 2023, 1:00pm ET

Sponsored by Helena and Rovensa Next.

The goal of this webinar to address how to use adjuvants in coordination with pre-emergent herbicides. This webinar is offered in partnership with the Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA) and the Council of Producers and Distributors of Agrotechnology (CPDA). Certified Crop Advisers attending this webinar will earn one Certified Crop Adviser (CCA) program IPM CEU.

Welcome New CPDA Member MFA Inc.

Please help me welcome our newest member...MFA Incorporated!

MFA Incorporated is a Midwest-based regional farm supply and marketing cooperative serving more than 45,000 farmer/owners in Missouri and adjacent states.

Until next time...