The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says they will soon be lifting food tolerance restrictions for chlorpyrifos and will issue a new rule to set guidelines for product use for all but 11 uses as identified by a federal court.
Daren Coppock with the Ag Retailers Association tells Brownfield “this will happen as soon as they get the court mandate, which hasn’t happened yet. The court has to formally issue their decision and communicate it to the agency. Once that happens, the food tolerances will be back in affect,” says Coppock. “Some registrants had already processed through cancellation orders and they actually did change their label. If that happened, they’ll actually have to reinstate the label.”
He says there’s some confusion surrounding what to do with existing stocks of the pesticide, but once tolerances are re-established “if it’s labeled, you can use it on the 11 crops identified. And they’ll go back and issue a second rule that basically removes the labels for anything that’s not one of those 11 approved uses.”
Food tolerance restrictions on chlorpyrifos has been in place since 2020, reducing the use of the product in soybeans and sugarbeets. In early November, a federal appeals court ruled the EPA couldn’t ban the product use through food tolerances, calling the agency’s decision arbitrary.
The EPA says they are also engaged in discussions with registrants to reduce exposures associated with the 11 uses of chlorpyrifos that were referenced in an Eighth Circuit Court.
The American Soybean Growers Association and American Sugarbeet Growers Association issued statements of support for chlorpyrifos restoration, saying it’s important EPA follows the science and growers need the tool for pest and disease management.
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