Arysta Earns Ozone Protection Award From EPA

Posted by Christina Herrick|April 29, 2009

The EPA has awarded Arysta LifeScience North America with the Ozone Layer Protection Award for bringing the fumigant Midas (iodomethane) to market. Midas a broad-spectrum fumigant used before planting, controls a wide array of pests, weeds, and plant diseases. Registered by EPA in 2007 for use on strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, tree fruit, nuts, and vines, Midas does not deplete the ozone layer and has been proven in commercial fields to be as effective as methyl bromide at lower use rates.

Arysta LifeScience and a team of independent scientists were recognized during a special ceremony at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, April 21.

Arysta LifeScience is one of only three corporations honored this year. The other recipients are Kraft Foods and Hill Phoenix, Inc., a commercial refrigeration company.

“This recognition by the EPA is a great honor for Arysta worldwide and it validates our longstanding belief in the chemistry and benefit Midas brings to the agricultural industry,” said Bill Lewis, Chief Executive Officer of Arysta LifeScience North America. “The best agricultural chemistry researchers in the nation have worked tirelessly to bring this product to market. As a result, we have already helped eliminate tons of an ozone depleting substance from being released into our environment.”

Arysta has been ramping up production of Midas to increase availability to growers in the face of future methyl bromide reductions mandated by the Montreal Protocol. Since registration, Midas has been used to fumigate thousands of acres in the southeastern U.S.