Farm Bureau at Work

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last week released updated risk assessments for spray drift from four organophosphate pesticides.

The assessments were updated in anticipation of future registration reviews of diazinon, ethoprop, tribufos and phosmet. The materials are used in agriculture for fruit and nut trees, vegetables and cotton, and for a variety of purposes in nonagricultural settings.

California Farm Bureau and the American Farm Bureau Federation are monitoring the EPA process.

Michal Freedhoff, assistant administrator for the agency’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, said in a statement that “the science is clear: some uses of these four pesticides pose a serious health risk to the people that are exposed to them.”

Freedoff said there is “still a lot of work to finish” in the EPA’s review of the four pesticides. She said the updated risk assessment “helps deliver on our promise to protect farmworkers.”

As part of its registration review process, the EPA said it assessed potential risks to people who mix, load and apply the four pesticides and for farmworkers who work with crops that have been treated with the materials. The agency said it was also assessing risks for bystanders potentially exposed to spray drift, including families in agricultural communities.

The state Assembly Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials has passed Assembly Bill 652 out of committee.

The legislation, opposed by the California Farm Bureau, would require the California Department of Pesticide Regulation to establish an Environmental Justice Advisory Committee. A similar panel was created in 2007 to advise the California Air Resources Board on project management plan updates for AB 32, California’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006.

If passed in its current form, AB 652 would require the DPR to convene its environmental justice panel by Jan. 1, 2025.

The advisory committee would include appointed members, including three from the environmental justice community who represent communities where pesticides are used. Two representatives must be farmworker advocates. Up to two must be agroecologists or biologists with an environmental justice background and up to two must have expertise in issues affecting socially disadvantaged farmers or ranchers.

The bill language said the panel will offer advice on integrating “environmental justice considerations” into DPR programs and improving “communication with communities with the most significant exposure to pesticides.”

If enacted, the bill would have significant impacts on the future of the pesticide program in California.

A Farm Bureau-supported bill, AB 397, was heard last week in the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources. The bill would require the California Air Resources Board to include greenhouse gas emissions from wildlands and forest fires in the agency’s scoping plan.

The legislation, by Assemblymember Bill Essayli, R-Riverside, failed to pass out of committee. However, it was granted reconsideration in an effort to move the bill at a later hearing. Notably, Assemblymember Jim Wood, D-Healdsburg, voted aye and implored his Democratic colleagues to support the bill. Wood said his district has been dramatically impacted by wildfire.

The Air Resources Board is working on its scoping plan to curb greenhouse gases in all sectors of the California economy, including natural and working lands. Wood noted that it would be disingenuous to not include carbon emissions from wildfire, especially since 85% of wildfires are caused by human ignition sources.