The economic contributions of crop protection technology were the lead topic of the “Focus on the Farm Economy: Factors Impacting the Cost of Production" testimony given by CropLife America president and CEO Jay Vroom to the House of Representatives last month.
The presentation concluded that agricultural technology helps farmers’ yields and positively impacts the economy in a multitude of ways, including job creation. However, the Environmental Protection Agency is harming farming economy through use of flawed epidemiological studies for risk assessments for organophosphates.
“Recently, the crop protection businesses that support American agriculture have seen serious deviations from the regular order, transparency and scientific integrity of EPA’s risk assessment based pesticide review process,” Vroom said. “These departures have made it difficult to provide business predictability for producers and they potentially inhibit investment in more advanced products. We hope that today’s hearing will help put EPA and agriculture back on a path to a more productive dialogue that leads to reasonable, timely regulatory decisions and solutions to shared concerns. A return to established regulatory process and sound science will help our industry support rural communities and improve farm incomes.”
A recent European Crop Protection Association report concluded that every product used for crop protection costs $286 million and over 11 years including research, development and safety standards before being placed on the market.
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