EPA responds to petition by environmental groups over seed treatments
In response to a request to unexempt seed treatments from pesticide regulations, EPA declines, but opens the door to labeling and other regulatory changes.
The U.S. EPA responded to a petition originally filed by the Center for Food Safety (CFS) in 2017 on Wednesday. The petitioners asked the agency to begin regulating seed treatments, because for years, they've been exempted from pesticide regulations. Environmental groups sued in Dec. 2021 because the agency had not responded to the petition to regulate treated seed until now.
In their lawsuit, the environmental groups point to the deposition of tens of thousands of tons of treated seed at an ethanol plant in Mead, Nebraska.
The plant used pesticide-treated seed to produce ethanol and stored distillers grains on the property. With more than 84,000 tons of toxic distilled grain piled on the site, that led to the contamination of ground and surface water. The site is currently in environmental remediation. The seven seed companies involved in the cleanup point to mishandling of treated seed by the owner of the now closed plant, AltEn LLC, not to any problems with the technology itself, which has achieved wide adoption in the U.S. to deal with persistent pests like corn rootworm.