Association President/CEO Issues Call for Action

 Serving as the Opening Speaker to the 2025 Crop Consultant Conference, hosted by Progressive Crop Consultant Magazine and the Western Region Certified Crop Advisors, Association President/CEO Roger A. Isom challenged the crowd to “get involved and protect this industry” when it comes to issues like the new 1,3-D regulatory requirements for buffer zones and exclusion periods. Isom lamented these new restrictions were based on bad assumptions and bad precedents. He also commented this won’t be the last chemical to face additional restrictions or even possible elimination as the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR) continues to move forward with their Sustainable Pest Management (SPM) agenda.  “SPM has the primary goal of eliminating the top Priority Pesticides by 2050, and today’s talk should serve as a wakeup call to all of you in attendance”, implored Isom.  Isom reported that these new buffer zones and exclusion periods assumed that field workers spent 14 to 28 days on a field edge shared with an 80 acre 1,3-D treated field every year for 40 years.  This is not realistic and completely overstates the supposed risk and led to the overly restrictive buffer zone and exclusion periods. Isom also highlighted the 2024 CDPR field study where ambient measurements were taken over a 4 month period in Stanislaus county for 1,3-D, MITC and chloropicrin. None of the 58 measurements taken exceeded 4% of the allowable concentrations, and CDPR stated in their summary “These findings suggest minimal risk from ambient exposure to the monitored pesticides during the study period.”  Isom finished his talk stating “These are the facts that we need to be conveying to every legislator and giving right back to CDPR. The activists want us out and we need each and every one of you to help push back and tell our story.  We have the right to farm here, and no one in the world does is safer or protects their workers better than we do!”