Pest Advisers Urged To Get Involved
October 19, 2011 Tweet//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Speakers at this week’s 37th annual meeting of the California Association of Pest Control Advisers repeatedly invoked the theme of communication. Pest control advisers especially need to speak out on the potentially harmful effects of government regulation, said several speakers at the conference, held just over the state’s border in Reno, NV.
“I’m still amazed at how many people sit on the sidelines and wait to see what happens,” said Pam Creedon, executive director of California Regional Water Quality Control Board in the Central Valley. Those same people will jump up late in the game and say ‘Wait a minute.’ But it’s usually too late, said Creedon, speaking of the 2007 plan the board adopted regulating waste runoff as a result of the deadly 2006 E. coli incident when runoff from cattle waste was found on a spinach field.
When those in agriculture do speak out, it’s important that they choose their words carefully, emphasized Jay Vroom, president and CEO of CropLife America, whose speech was titled “Modern Ag and Public Health, Threats and Opportunities.” Vroom displayed poll results which showed that while approximately two-thirds of people were opposed to pesticide use, roughly the same percentage of respondents said they were for exactly the same thing – when it was described as “crop protection.”
Another speaker, Bill Lewis, the head of global business for Arysta LifeScience North America, told the audience that their input was especially needed on new spray drift regulations proposed in 2009 by the Environmental Protection Agency. Known as PR Notice 2009-X, the regulations will mean huge changes, increased potential for liability, and a tremendous enforcement burden for states. The regulations contain language pointing to anything that could cause harm or adverse effects, even adverse effects to property, said Lewis, noting that virtually anything “could cause” adverse effects.
Lewis said the PCAs, because of their expertise, can have a specific positive influence on these policies. He urged them to work through CAPCA, to contact their elected officials, and to reach out to their communities through newspapers and radio shows. Not participating is simply not an option. “Please get involved,” he implored the audience. “Use CAPCA, use CropLife, but whatever it takes, get involved.”