The USDA warns that the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed strategy for regulating herbicides will be hard to follow, obstruct agricultural production and may motivate farmers to sell land to developers.

The USDA credited the EPA with trying to balance the risks and benefits of herbicides, but said growers and applicators are likely to have trouble parsing and complying with new restrictions.

“The proposed spray-drift, runoff and soil-erosion mitigations will be an obstacle to the continuing production of agricultural crops in some areas of the U.S.,” according to comments USDA sent last week to the EPA.

Agencies agree

The USDA’s comments are in line with those from state agriculture departments, farm groups, agronomists and weed scientists about the EPA’s proposed “herbicide strategy.”

The EPA pledged to adopt herbicide, insecticide, fungicide and rodenticide strategies in a court settlement. The EPA also will initiate the “vulnerable species pilot project,” testing stronger restrictions on more than 100 million acres in parts of 29 states.

The suit alleged the EPA was failing to protected threatened and endangered species from pesticides. The EPA says the strategies and pilot project will head off judges summarily banning pesticides.

The herbicide strategy is the first the EPA has rolled out. It will apply to non-residential outdoor uses of conventional herbicides.

May 30 deadline

The EPA will finalize the herbicide strategy by May 30, according to the settlement with the Center for Biological Diversity and Pesticide Action Network.

The strategy will be a fundamental change in how herbicides are evaluated and regulated, according to the USDA. Farmers will have to check an EPA website, “Bulletins Live! Two,” for off-label restrictions.

The restrictions could harm the species they are intended to protect if farmers opt to sell land for development rather than try to continue farming, according to the USDA.

The herbicide strategy would introduce a points system. Farmers would get points for such practices as using less herbicides. The USDA said lowering application rates could let weeds develop resistance to herbicides.

The Association of Pesticide Control Officials commented that the EPA’s points system was unrealistic.

“As written in the herbicide strategy, most farmers and applicators in the nation will be unable to garner enough mitigation points to apply pesticides,” according to the association of state pesticide regulators.

The EPA developed and announced the strategy without consulting state pesticide control officials.

According to the association, EPA has called the strategy “just a draft” to “get the conservation started.” The EPA should have started the conversation before releasing the strategy, the state association commented.

The association made its comments through its committee that researches issues related to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act. The committee suggested EPA check with its lawyers to see what authority it has under FIFRA to change pesticide labels without new scientific information.

The EPA plans to respond to the comments next spring, a spokesman said in an email.

At least 60 days before the deadline to finalize the strategy, EPA will update U.S. District Magistrate Judge Joseph Spero on the agency’s progress, according to the court settlement.