American farmers are again at odds with the Environmental Protection Agency over the Endangered Species Act. The final EPA biological evaluations of neonicotinoids and their impacts on endangered species are overly conservative and don’t use all available data, according to the farm groups.
Grower groups like the American Soybean Association and the American Farm Bureau Federation are concerned the evaluations drastically overstate the impact of the pesticides on endangered species and their habitats. The groups say the evaluations for several neonicotinoid pesticides don’t incorporate scientific and commercial data that could have provided a more realistic picture of the potential impacts of the chemistries on different species. The groups pointed out the shortcomings during the public comment period, but EPA doubled down on the final evaluations.
American Soybean Association President Brad Doyle says, “Growers have, time and again, pointed EPA to real-world data to improve their endangered species assessments, and the agency has again chosen to disregard the data.”
The NAFB contributed to this report.
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Sabrina Halvorson
National Correspondent / AgNet Media, Inc.
Sabrina Halvorson is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and public speaker who specializes in agriculture. She primarily reports on legislative issues and hosts The AgNet Weekly podcast. Sabrina is a native of California’s agriculture-rich Central Valley.