Atrazine Discussions Continue

Syngenta, a self-proclaimed innovation leader in American agriculture, has been actively defending the use of its products and tools to help farmers and ranchers feed the world. David Flakney, Syngentas, head of US state affairs, leads a team of five dedicated to navigating legislative and regulatory challenges across all 50 states, including the ongoing battle they have with the Environmental Protection Agency over Atrazine.

“In 1994 US EPA started what was called the special review on Atrazine right at that time in 9495 a organization was put together by the grower community, by our customers, called the triazine network, and the goal of that was to ensure that there was a science-based conclusion to the Atrazine re-registration.”

In July, the EPA released an update that was generally favorable, but there remains significant work ahead to address outstanding issues and concerns. According to Flakney, they

increased the level of concern from 3.4 parts per billion to 9.7 parts per billion in streams on a 60 day rolling average, which was a directionally correct improvement in the in the level of concern. But there are still issues with respect to the models that they're using to determine where mitigation might be required.”

David Flakney with Syngenta.