EPA

Often cast as the regulatory bogeyman in rural America, the EPA has not done a good job in battling its poor reputation, says administrator Gina McCarthy. The Morning Consult quotes McCarthy as telling reporters, "I think we have not done as well as we could developing a rural strategy in cooperation with other agencies, and certainly have more presence in rural communities."

U.S. district judge William Alsup said he is sympathetic to the plight of bees and beekeepers but he cannot force the EPA to regulate neonicotinoid seed coatings as a pesticide. The environmental group Center for Food Safety, which represented the plaintiffs, said the decision was "a crushing blow" to attempts to control the side effects of the coatings.

The head of Donald Trump’s EPA transition team, Myron Ebell, is not only a climate-change skeptic. He also has a history of discouraging pesticide regulations, writes Tom Philpott at Mother Jones, pointing to Ebell's role as the director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI).

With Syngenta already under investigation for the alleged misuse of pesticides in Hawaii, the EPA is now looking into Monsanto, Terminix, and Wonder Farm [a Hawaiian agricultural operation] for allegedly ignoring pesticide laws in Hawaii, says Civil Beat.

The EPA says its reconfigured scientific panel, with four new members, will meet Dec. 13-16 to consider whether glyphosate, the most widely used weedkiller in the world, poses a carcinogenic risk, said Agri-Pulse. The U.S. examination, which is being made under a law that require periodic assessments of pesticides, will be closely watched because of the 2015 conclusion by the WHO cancer agency that glyphosate is "probably carcinogenic to humans."

News of Donald Trump’s election shocked the international climate-change proceedings taking place this week in Marrakech, Morocco. During his campaign, Trump vowed to revoke America’s participation in the Paris Agreement, a global plan to keep temperature increases below 2 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial averages. More than 190 countries have signed the agreement, and many consider it a last hope for fighting climate change. Trump has also vowed to dismantle President Obama’s clean power plan.

The EPA approved a low-drift formulation by Monsanto of the weedkiller dicamba for use on GE soybeans and cotton during the growing season. Farmers reported dicamba damage to 42,000 acres of crops this year due to use of unapproved, higher-volatility versions of the herbicide on neighboring farms.

Myron Ebell, the head of Donald Trump's transition team for EPA, "is a long-time opponent of the Renewable Fuels Standard and ethanol policies," says DTN. In addition, Ebell, who works at the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute, "also is a renowned skeptic of climate science."

The FDA found trace amounts of glyphosate, the most widely used weedkiller in the world, "in a variety of oat products, including plain and flavored oat cereals for babies," says a blog post by Carey Gillam of U.S. Right to Know. It appeared a day after European officials said they would release data from their assessment that glyphosate is "unlikely to pose a carcinogenic risk to humans" and two days after a Monsanto-commissioned study said the herbicide was not a threat.

National policy adviser Sam Clovis says the Trump campaign is "looking very hard at putting a farmer or rancher in charge of the EPA." Given the impact that federal regulations can have on the sector, Clovis said on the AgriTalk radio program, "we think this would be an appropriate issue for us."

The International Agency for Research on Cancer, which ignited a global debate by rating glyphosate as probably carcinogenic to humans, has advised experts not to release documents requested under U.S. public records laws, said Reuters. In a letter and an email, IARC says it is "the sole owner of such materials" and "IARC requests you and your institute not to release any (such) documents," reports the news agency.

Special agents from EPA's Criminal Investigation Division served federal search warrants on several locations in Cape Girardeau, Dunklin, New Madrid and Stoddard counties in southeastern Missouri, tied to complaints of crop damage from pesticide drift, said the Daily Dunklin Democrat. The EPA is investigating possible misuse of the herbicide dicamba.

Countries must start figuring out how much food they waste if they’re going to meet the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goal of halving global food waste and lowering food loss by 2030, says a report out by Champions 12.3, a coalition of government, business, and research organizations.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer started a global debate by rating glyphosate, the most widely used weedkiller in the world, as "probably carcinogenic to humans" while the EPA says its studies indicate it is "not likely to be carcinogenic to humans at doses relevant to human health." Harvest Public Media says the difference in view is partially explained by the way the agencies chose to evaluate the issue.

The EPA says its scientific advisory committee will meet later this year after it finds additional epidemiologists to serve on the panel during its review of glyphosate, the most widely used weedkiller in the world. The panel was scheduled to meet this week to assess the carcinogenic potential, if any, of the herbicide.

A new regulation will restore so-called application exclusion zones intended to protect farmworkers and other people from exposure to pesticides as they are being applied, said the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday. The exclusion zones were created as part of a 2015 agricultural worker protection standard and were reduced in size in 2020 during the Trump era.