Groups ask court to vacate unscientific rule, restore safe ag uses of chlorpyrifos

Washington, D.C. Dec. 16, 2022. The American Soybean Association and 19 other agricultural groups argued before the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals on Dec. 15 in Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association, et al. v. Michael Regan, et al. (Eighth Cir. 22-1422). The groups urged the court to reinstate chlorpyrifos tolerances that the Environmental Protection Agency has found safe. EPA arbitrarily revoked those safe tolerances for chlorpyrifos, which effectively ended agricultural uses of the important pesticide. The decision has inflicted enormous costs on thousands of farmers across the country and undermined their ability to protect their crops from devastating insect pests.

At the heart of the lawsuit is EPA’s arbitrary and capricious rule revoking all chlorpyrifos tolerances despite finding on multiple occasions that at least 11 high-benefit crop uses, including for soybeans, could be maintained safely. To attempt to justify this unscientific, unlawful rule, EPA has attempted to contort its statutory obligations under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.

Daryl Cates, ASA president and a soybean grower from Columbia, Illinois, said, “Farmers rely on federal regulators to follow the law. Congress wrote pesticide laws the way they did to provide growers access to the tools they need to be successful and to ensure those tools can be used safely and effectively. When EPA violates the law and refuses to follow its own science to inappropriately deny access to safe, important tools, there needs to be accountability to protect the nation’s farmers and our operations.”

The groups are asking the court to vacate the revocation of the tolerances for the safe uses and remand with instructions for EPA to enter the corresponding safety findings based on the available science-based evidence. They are hopeful the court will rule on this matter in the coming months.

Joining the lawsuit are: Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association; U.S. Beet Sugar Association; American Sugarbeet Growers Association; Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative; American Crystal Sugar Company; Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative; American Farm Bureau Federation; American Soybean Association; Iowa Soybean Association; Minnesota Soybean Growers Association; Missouri Soybean Association; Nebraska Soybean Association; South Dakota Soybean Association; North Dakota Soybean Growers Association; National Association of Wheat Growers; Cherry Marketing Institute; Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association; Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association;  Gharda Chemicals International, Inc.; National Cotton Council of America.

The American Soybean Association (ASA) represents U.S. soybean farmers on domestic and international policy issues important to the soybean industry. ASA has 26 affiliated state associations representing 30 soybean-producing states and more than 500,000 soybean farmers. More information at soygrowers.com.