Adapting to regulations is a constant theme in the life of cotton consultants, but this year more than ever the Beltwide Cotton Consultants Conference wanted to stress how new regulations will be impacting the industry.
“We set up a central theme this year of regulatory issues, primarily focused around the marriage of EPA with Fish and Wildlife with some of the new pesticide regulations that are going to be coming forward,” said Louisiana-based cotton consultant Hank Jones at this year’s conference in New Orleans. “We don’t have too many pesticides yet that have any of the new regulations applied to them, so we still have an opportunity as an industry, as applicators, as consultants like me that give recommendations, to really get ahead of this issue.”
One of the speakers at the consultants conference was Clayton Myers, USDA Office of Pest Management Policy, who said it has just come to the point that EPA has to move forward on the Endangered Species Act. “The proposals are now coming out…This is no longer a tomorrow. This is going to soon become a today problem and. So we’re, we’re obviously trying to increase the depth of grower awareness on that as much as we can because this is a big issue that is going to affect growers, pest management toolbox going forward.”
Listen to interviews with Jones and Myers below and check the Beltwide Cotton Conferences virtual media page for more content.
Beltwide interview Hank Jones, cotton consultant 5:45 Beltwide interview Clayton Myers, USDA-OPMP 4:08