Earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) convened in Washington, D.C., for the 18th and final scientific advisory panel (SAP) to yet again review the safety criteria for atrazine. This SAP examined atrazine's safety regarding ecological life, analyzing what effects if any, atrazine has on algae, frogs and other life found in streams.
Missouri Corn CEO Gary Marshall and Environmental Resources Coalition Executive Director Mark White, along with the National Corn Growers Association and representatives from Kansas, Kentucky and Nebraska state corn associations testified before the SAP, urging the EPA to use sound science and the more than 6,000 studies proving the herbicide's safety when issuing its final decision.
"Farmers in Missouri grow over three million acres of field corn annually," Marshall said in his testimony to the panel. "After 50 years, atrazine is still the fundamental component in nearly all crop protection programs used in Missouri. As I have related to this panel in the past, the use of atrazine is critical to profitable corn production."
Through a process that seems murky at best, the EPA is using models and water quality data to determine an ecological criteria for atrazine. If that number is set at an unrealistic level, farmers may find that they can no longer use atrazine in certain watersheds in Missouri. During his testimony, Marshall took the opportunity to highlight what was at stake for Missouri farmers if atrazine were removed from their corn herbicide program.
"If farmers in Missouri were to lose the availability of atrazine it would cost them over one hundred million dollars due to switching costs. Nationwide that is a three billion dollar price tag. Add in the alternative herbicide expense and it costs an additional $30 per acre."
Details and outcomes from the SAP will be available later this summer.
Although atrazine was given full re-registration by the EPA in 2006, it included a caveat requiring Syngenta to undertake a monitoring program in many rural watersheds to help determine if there are any detrimental ecological effects from the popular herbicide. The Missouri Corn Growers Association and its partner organization, the Environmental Resources Coalition, have worked with Syngenta for the last seven years to help carry out the program in Missouri. To learn more, visit www.erc-env.org.
Source: Missouri Corn Growers