Should Biostimulants be Renamed?

Should Biostimulants be Renamed?

Tim Hammerich
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
Farmers and researchers have discovered certain beneficial microbes can help crops fight stresses such as drought, heat, and pest damage. There’s some confusion however on how these products, called Biostimulants should be regulated.

David Holden of Holden Research & Consulting thinks a new name for the category is in order.

Holden…”The problem is, is we have a whole category of materials that I've been working with for 15-20 years that have been classified as biostimulants. The regulatory agencies don't know how to handle those because they think they transfer into a EPA managed plant growth regulators, things like that. We really need to look at them as abiotic or agricultural stress mitigators, and I'd like to return rename them as agricultural or abiotic, even biotic, stress mitigators.”

As regulators determine where these products belong, biostimulants are often lumped in with plant growth regulators which are managed by the EPA.

Holden says that since these inputs help plants manage stressors they can help with pest pressure, but they are not pest control products and should not be classified as such.

How biostimulants, or agricultural stress mitigators, get classified will have significant impacts on the amount of investment required to bring new solutions to farmers and the amount of regulations they will need to comply with to utilize them.

Previous ReportGrowing Belgian Endive in California
Next ReportAmerican AgriWomen Provide Resources for Mental Health