03/04/08 Pesticide Meeting

Pesticide Meeting. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. You have heard me talk quite a lot about azinphos methyl more commonly know as Guthion. The EPA has it on its short list and many tree fruit industry folks have been working on both sides of the issue. Jay Brunner, Director of the Tree Fruit Research & Extension Center in Wenatchee says it will be phased out. BRUNNER: EPA made a decision last year on Guthion use and that decision was to phase out its use on certain tree fruit crops and actually eliminating use on other crops and in apple the phase out restricts the amount of active ingredient that can be used each year and reduces that amount each year so that the growers this year, next year have a maximum of about 3 applications they can use. There has been a struggle between growers, the EPA and the manufacturer of Guthion for some time. BRUNNER: There's political pressure on both sides of a policy decision like that. One to extend the use of the product based on certain criteria then there's the negative or the anti side of that issue of actually outright banning its use immediately. And so EPA based on the evidence and the information they had on cost benefits and the science made a decision that a phase out was a reasonable approach. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.