Before I delved more deeply into the green regulatory buzzwords of the week CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) and ACES (American Clean Energy and Security Act), let me go to the more simple news such as this cancellation of carbofuran registration by the US Environmental Protection Agency.
The blog posted last year
in July about EPA's proposal to cancel the pesticide's registration. I
guess it took them almost a year to make a definite action as the sole
producer of the pesticide, FMC, filed a protest (and a lawsuit) against
the EPA. The agency started its carbofuran cancellation effort in 2006.
Carbofuran is an N-methyl carbamate insecticide and nematicide that has been registered to control pests in soil and on leaves in a variety of field, fruit, and vegetable crops. According to the EPA, all products containing carbofuran generally cause unreasonable adverse effects on humans and the environment and do not meet safety standards, and therefore are ineligible for reregistration.
FMC said it will file objections and seek an administrative hearing.
With the EPA action, FMC said it can still sell and growers can use carbofuran until December 31, 2009. The company will follow all available administrative procedures and hopes to have the product available for the next crop growing year.
One problem with the cancellation registration, according to FMC, is that there are no alternatives to carbofuran in certain plant application such as in sunflower or killing rootworm. One 'concerned farmer' who commented last year on the blog said that carbofuran is one of the only chemicals that kills soybean aphids.
The blog posted last year
in July about EPA's proposal to cancel the pesticide's registration. I
guess it took them almost a year to make a definite action as the sole
producer of the pesticide, FMC, filed a protest (and a lawsuit) against
the EPA. The agency started its carbofuran cancellation effort in 2006.Carbofuran is an N-methyl carbamate insecticide and nematicide that has been registered to control pests in soil and on leaves in a variety of field, fruit, and vegetable crops. According to the EPA, all products containing carbofuran generally cause unreasonable adverse effects on humans and the environment and do not meet safety standards, and therefore are ineligible for reregistration.
FMC said it will file objections and seek an administrative hearing.
With the EPA action, FMC said it can still sell and growers can use carbofuran until December 31, 2009. The company will follow all available administrative procedures and hopes to have the product available for the next crop growing year.
One problem with the cancellation registration, according to FMC, is that there are no alternatives to carbofuran in certain plant application such as in sunflower or killing rootworm. One 'concerned farmer' who commented last year on the blog said that carbofuran is one of the only chemicals that kills soybean aphids.
Policies concerning green initiatives are definitely a tricky matter. Although laws may be passed against the use of certain chemicals, there is always the possibility of no alternative to that particular chemical. So a holistic approach needs to be taken to tackle the whole issue. At the Climatarians directory, we run a global sustainability website that addresses many of these issues.