The Minnesota Soybean Growers Association (MSGA) is pleased with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s (MDA) decision to provide conditional registration of chlorpyrifos pesticide products valid for the 2024 growing season. This conditional registration, which was signed by MDA Commissioner Thom Petersen, expires on Dec. 31, 2024.
“We want to thank Commissioner Petersen for working on this as quickly as he did so everyone can use this again this year,” MSGA President Bob Worth said. “We appreciate the commissioner for stepping up and getting this done quickly. That’s really important to us.”
The MDA is reregistering products for the upcoming growing season after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit issued a November 2023 ruling vacating the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) revocation of food and feed tolerances for chlorpyrifos and ordering the EPA to reconsider the use of the pesticide. MDA is also requiring product manufacturers to include MDA’s water quality best management practices, or BMPs, for chlorpyrifos with each sale of the insecticide.
“All labels are meant to be used properly. That’s part of good stewardship for these products,” said Worth, who farms in Lake Benton. “Now that we have it back, we have to make sure we’re using it safely so we don’t lose chlorpyrifos in the future. Just follow the label to the T. That’s why the label is there. “
According to Josh Stamper, MDA’s division director of the Pesticide and Fertilizer Management Division, the department will continue to evaluate the use of chlorpyrifos in Minnesota as the EPA determines final steps on federal registration of the pesticide.
In February 2022, MSGA, the American Soybean Association and fellow agriculture groups brought a lawsuit against the agency seeking to restore farmers’ ability to use this tool to protect crops. The groups highlighted that, in EPA’s own records, agency career scientists have found at least 11 high-benefit, low-risk agricultural uses of chlorpyrifos that can be maintained safely.
