US EPA staff reductions could be major challenge for pesticide approval process

The CEO of the Ag Retailers Association says staffing shortages at the U.S. EPA could make an already long pesticide registration process even longer.

″The Office of Pesticide Programs, which handles all of these registrations, has been understaffed and under-resourced constantly,″ says Daren Coppock.

President Trump previously said there would be at 65% reduction of workforce at EPA, but the White House later stated that would be the percentage of spending cuts, not staff reductions. Coppock says any additional workforce cuts won’t help.

″When you hand a personnel situation like this by firing everyone and then, bring some people back after you just fired them, it doesn’t build morale and you run the risk of having a situation where good people who are really good at their jobs decide I don’t need to be here.″

Coppock says Endangered Species Act compliance is now part of the registration process and the industry is looking for certainty as products like Liberty Ultra herbicide are reviewed.

″We need a definite clock here where we can say, alright, if it’s been through as of a certain date, like February 28, we can rely on that to be the set of rules for 2025. They haven’t promised that will be the case, but EPA has certainly heard our argument.″

Coppock says he hasn’t met with EPA Administrator Zeldin yet, but the administrator seems to understand the importance of agriculture having access to good tools that are adequately tested and strongly regulated.

Learn more about the interview in Brownfield Ag News.