U.S. farmers may face crackdown on pesticide use

[babylonsister]

U.S. farmers may face crackdown on pesticide use

By Les Blumenthal | McClatchy Newspapers


WASHINGTON — The nation's farmers could face severe restrictions on the use of pesticides as environmentalists, spurred by a favorable ruling from a judge in Washington state, want the courts to force federal regulators to protect endangered species from the ill effects of agricultural chemicals.

The eight-year-old ruling by a federal judge in Seattle required the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Environmental Protection Agency to review whether 54 pesticides, herbicides and fungicides were jeopardizing troubled West Coast salmon runs.

The agencies moved recently to restrict the use of three of the chemicals, including a widely used one with the trade name Sevin, near bodies of water that flow into salmon-bearing streams, and they're considering restrictions on 12 additional chemicals. The Washington State Department of Agriculture says such restrictions would prevent pesticide use on 75 percent of the state's farmland.

A federal judge in California has issued a similar ruling that involves 11 endangered and threatened species and 75 pesticides in the San Francisco Bay area.

Rather than continuing to file piecemeal lawsuits, the Center for Biological Diversity says it will file a broader suit this summer that involves nearly 400 pesticides and almost 900 species that are protected under the Endangered Species Act.

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http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/07/25/98047/us-farmers-may-face-crackdown.html

[loudsue]

1. Sevin? Does that mean sevin dust?

Is that how you spell it? In the south, everybody uses sevin dust...even on their pets to stop fleas.

[babylonsister]

2. Yes, that's how you spell it, and we use(d) it around

doors and windows to deter cockroaches.

[JoeyT]

5. Yep, I used to use it for everything too

until I did a bunch of reading on it. I thought the stuff was fairly harmless...turns out it's pretty nasty.
It's a quasi-irreversible cholinesterase inhibitor, and already illegal in the UK and a bunch of other countries.
I ended up switching to a pyrethrin/piperonyl butoxide mixture. Which is less likely to wipe out a bunch of honeybees too, since I spray it in the evening.

[tabatha]

3. Good news!

[Native]

4. 'bout time!