09/06/06 Pesticide Good & Bad News

Pesticide good news and bad news. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. The issue of pesticide use received some good news and bad news last week after a federal judge rejected a Bush administration decision regarding registration and re-registration of pesticides. The good news is the ruling will have no immediate effect on decisions already made on pesticides used in the region. But according to Heather Hansen, executive director of Washington Friends of Farms and Forests, there is a downside. HANSEN: What is means for the future is that EPA won't be able to make decisions as quickly as we had hoped. It'll make it harder for them to register new pesticides and get new pesticides on the market. Hansen says that will have an adverse affect on new products. HANSEN: The really sad thing is that new products are generally more environmentally sensitive, you'd think that what environmental groups would want would be newer products that are more environmentally sensitive. Well, they just blocked those so it will make it a little more difficult to get new products on the market. More details on the ruling can be found on the Washington Friends of Farms & Forests website at www.wafriends.org. Washington Friends of Farms & Forests is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the science and technology necessary to produce safe, abundant, economical food and fiber for our growing world. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.