Biological Products Industry Alliance Pt 1

Biological Products Industry Alliance Pt 1

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
I'm Bob Larson. Biological products are quickly becoming a greater player in the world of agriculture. At the recent Potato Expo in Orlando, Florida, I spoke with Keith Jones, executive director of the Biological Products Industry Alliance, a D.C.-based trade association focused on the promotion of bio-pesticides and bio-stimulants.

Jones says changes are coming rapidly ...

KEITH JONES ... "We are definitely a fast-growing industry and there's a couple of drivers. There's really two main drivers: one is consumer demand. More people care what's on their food, what's on their lawn, what are they feeding to their children, what are they feeding to their pets? That's a huge driver. And then regulatory pressures. A lot of the traditional chemistries are going away for a variety of reasons."

But, Jones says we're kind of playing catch-up here in the U.S. ...

KEITH JONES ... "Really, all you have to do is look to Europe. Europe is about five years ahead of us with all this. And, all of the activity you're seeing that's going on in Europe with consumer demand, with regulatory pressure, that is all coming across the pond to the U.S. and that's where we're headed. We believe in biological products. We don't claim that they're a silver bullet. We believe in integrated pest management, IPM. We believe they can be very effective when used in collaboration with traditional chemistries, but we definitely believe that biological products are the future."

BPIA will hold its 2018 Spring Meeting and International Symposium in San Diego March 5th through 9th., including panels examining the use of microbial technologies around the world and the growth of the bio-stimulants industry internationally. Interested, go to BPIA dot org.

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