pesticide

As the state of Washington continues to battle COVID-19, the state Department of Agriculture is taking additional steps to promote social distancing. Last week, WSDA announced that offices across the state would be closed for the foreseeable future ...

Congratulations to the Washington state Department of Agriculture’s Technical Services and Education Program.  Last week TSEP earned a national innovation award as “one of the most robust pesticide safety training programs in the nation”.  That award was hande...

Last week, the EPA Region 10, based in Seattle, issued a “Stop Sale” order to online marketplace Bonanza.com requiring the company to immediately halt sales of a dozen imported pesticide products not legal, or safe, for sale in the United States.  Among the...

The Senate Ag Committee and its leadership, including Chair Pat Roberts and Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow, announced that the Senate passed the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act.   In last week's announcement, the Senators said, “The unanimous Senate passage of the bipartisan PRIA legislation provides certainty to farmers, consumers, and many other stakeholders. We’re urg...

Senate Ag Committee Chair Pat Roberts and Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow announced that the Senate has unanimously approved the reauthorization of the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act.   “The U.S. Senate just passed a bipartisan farm bill to provide farmers and ranchers with some certainty amid a tough economy,” Roberts said, “and we can add to this certainty for producers and many other sta

More than 20% of the food sampled by the USDA in 2016 showed no detectable pesticide levels and less .5% of the food had detectable residue levels above limits set by the Environmental Protection Agency.  A USDA report titled “What Consumers Should Know” says, again this year, the U.S. food supply is one...

Every year, the FDA tests food for pesticide residues that violate the limits allowed by the EPA.  The FDA enforces those standards in both domestically-produced food as well as imported food.  As late as the fiscal year 2015, the FDA found that most food was well within the allowable standards, with domestic food outperforming imported food.   The FDA an...

The Washington State Department of Agriculture is looking to help safely and properly help producers get rid of ag waste pesticides in the Tri-Cities in October.   The event focuses on unusable and unwanted pesticides and is completely free for anyone.  ...

UPDATE 7/27: Both Washington and Oregon have rescinded the recall for SNS 217C All Natural Spider Mite Control. The WSDA admitted to an error which give an incorrect test result. It is safe to use. 14 horticultural products will be pulled from Oregon store shelves and not sold due to active pesticide ingredients that are not listed on the label.  ...

The Washington State Department of Agriculture investigated 123 potential pesticide law violations between July 2014 and June 2015.   123 investigations represent an 18% year-over-year increase.  Of last year’s investigations roughly half involved agriculture application, 47% focused on drift and less than half involved possible human exposure.   Last year, ...