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USDA cuts pesticide reporting

A coalition of U.S. public interest groups including Pesticide Action Network,

Center for Food Safety, Natural Resources Defense Committee (NRDC), Union of

Concerned Scientists, and The Organic Center are protesting budget cuts that

will kill the collection and public reporting of pesticide use by the U.S.

Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS),

according to the Associated Press. In a letter to USDA Secretary Ed Schafer, 45

public interest groups argued that the NASS's Agricultural Chemical Usage

reports are the only reliable, publicly available source of data on pesticide

and fertilizer use outside of California. According to NRDC's Jennifer Sass,

" eliminating the program will severely hamper efforts of the USDA, the EPA, and

state officials to perform risk assessments and make informed decisions on

pesticide use. " PAN's Science Department Director Brian Hill commented:

" Allowing growers and applicators to use highly toxic pesticides without a

comprehensive, national reporting structure is as dumb as flying in a storm

without instruments. " NASS, a program that has published pesticide use data

since 1991, has been dramatically scaled back by the Bush administration. First,

the agency's annual surveys were cut to biennial reviews. In 2007, data

collection was reduced to just three crops-cotton, apples and organic apples.

Now, NASS has announced it will not collect agrichemical use data on any crops

during the 2008 growing season.

 

 

What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know, it's what we know for sure

that just ain't so.

- Mark Twain