By Margaret Laggis, NEAFA Legislative Representative
Social media and the press in general are fueling anti-pesticide sentiments all over the world and Vermont is certainly not immune to these pressures. The good news for Vermont is that the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets has done the research necessary to prove that even if there might be issues elsewhere, there are not any environmental or human health issues in Vermont.
The pesticides in the crosshairs are Atrazine, Glyphosate, Chlorpyrifos and Neonicotinoids. All of these products are facing potential bans by legislators who are not aware of the history of pesticide creation and adaptation over the years.
As they are often told when someone in the know gets a chance to testify, industry has been changing as research teaches us new and better ways to accomplish the goals of healthier soils and plants with fewer and fewer impacts on humans and the environment.
Pesticide use in Vermont has fallen by about half over the last 5 years. This is due in part to the use of treated seeds using up to 10x less pesticide by volume per acre while delivering the same benefits. This is great news but the legislature focuses on the increase in usage of a few individual products. What they don’t give credit to is the constant effort made by Vermont farmers to meet their cropping needs with fewer inputs. Glyphosate use is on the rise in Vermont because farmers are attempting to meet the new stricter water quality requirements by cover cropping and using no-till practices. These agronomic methods require the use of Glyphosate to get rid of the cover crop in order to allow the new summer crop to get established. Cover cropping and no-till farming has increased organic matter in the soil allowing for significant increases in water retention lessening runoff and the additional benefit of increased carbon sequestration. Sadly, all the legislature can focus on is the increase in Glyphosate use.
Chlorpyrifos was not re-registered in Vermont two years ago due to a lack of usage (less than 60lbs/year) and the environmental concerns that politicians were seeing on social media and in the press. The Agency decided to use their authority to not re-register the product instead of getting into the political wrangling around its use. This year there is a bill to ban the product. If a product is not registered for use, it can not be bought, sold or used. The ban does absolutely nothing other than give a politician credit for doing something that was already done through the regulatory channels.
Politicians have been bombarded with anti-neonicotinoid information making them believe that bees are at risk of elimination because of the use of neonics in seed treatment formulations. When Vermont spent a year looking at bee health in Vermont what they heard was that pesticides ranked about 5th in the list of threats that they faced. But the easiest target is always pesticides so they have continuously attempted to ban them and did so for homeowner use last year. Only indoor homeowner uses are now allowed (think tick control for animals and indoor pests) without using a certified applicator. This year they are back, looking to ban the use of neonics in seed treatment. Research shows that the pests most targeted by neonics are on the rise in Vermont and the elimination of them in seed treatments will likely lead to an almost ten fold increase in the use of the pesticide if it has to be used at planting as opposed to being a part of the seed treatment.
Looking for logic in the political process is tough, but the Agency of Agriculture has done a great job doing the research necessary to prove that these products are not a problem in Vermont, and in both the case of neonics and Glyphosate, do more good than harm. Without this information these products would have been banned.