Maximum Residue Level or MRLs. Important for Exported Nut Crops

Carl Eidsath is the Technical Support Director for the California Walnut Board. He said MRLs never end on his desk.

“We have to keep a real close eye on what the EU is proposing because they're a tough organization. And, you know, they want to reduce pesticide use as much as they can. So to do that, they've been lowering some pesticide MRLs that were going to be okay in walnuts because we've been testing for those,” said Eidsath. “And we don't see any violations in the maximum limit tolerances for the US for one, but then we have this EU bogey that we have to keep our eye on too.”

Eidsath said that MRLs will never go away and making things worse is the California Department of Pesticide Regulation,

They're making it hard for the growers right now. And specific example was that this last year they stopped sale of Chlorpyriphos (Lorsban) and we've been able to compensate and use alternatives, but the alternatives have a target on their back to buy DPR.

He said, DPR, just making it very difficult for a lot of growers to use effective crop protection tools. “They keep whittling away at our toolbox,” he noted.