The Environmental Protection Agency announced this week it is revoking all “tolerances” for chlorpyrifos, which establish an amount of a pesticide that is allowed on food.
The agency will issue a Notice of Intent to Cancel under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act to cancel registered food uses of chlorpyrifos. EPA officials say the move “will help to ensure children, farmworkers, and all people are protected.”
According to EPA's decision, growers must discontinue use of chlorpyrifos on registered food crops within six months. Farm Bureau President Zippy Duval responded, “This administration has repeatedly made commitments to abide by science, yet the EPA decision on chlorpyrifos strays from that commitment and takes away an important tool to manage pests and insects.”
And Agricultural Retailers Association President and CEO Daren Coppock states, “By issuing this mandate, and EPA not fighting it, anti-pesticide activists have executed an end run around the statute that is supposed to govern these decisions.”