California Department of Pesticide Regulation

Three bills opposed by Farm Bureau were vetoed, including legislation dealing with state forest management.

Two bills on which Farm Bureau was neutral were signed, including one requiring the Department of Pesticide Regulations to identify PFAS containing pesticides in its reporting database.

The state's largest farming organization, the California Farm Bureau, has posted to its website its voter guide for the general election.

For farm and rural families seeking more information on the ballot initiatives, you can go to Farm Bureau's website at cfbf.com.

What's in this bill?

Yeah, this is a law that places new reporting and public disclosure requirements on California's own Department of Pesticide Regulation, which is DPR for short.

DPR has a database on its website where it lists pesticides that are in use in California.

And this new law requires that by 2028, DPR indicate in that database which pesticides contain intentionally added PFAS ingredients.

Now I already mentioned what the other four laws will do and said we won't get into all of them, but I did want to flag one that has gotten a little press lately, and that is the PFAS in pesticide bill that was also signed into law at the end of September.

As our North America reporter Charlie Christopherson writes, the legislation from Bill AB 1603 requires California's Department of Pesticide Regulation to maintain and publish a list of pesticides used in the state that contain PFAS.

But the bill in its finalized form does not place any restrictions on the use of PFAS as an active ingredient in pesticides.

Now that bit is certainly different from what was originally envisioned under the bill when it was introduced earlier in the year.

I think that's always been true in my experience in our relationship with US EPA.

Our bigger frustration really is that California, biggest specialty crop producer in the country, has its own crop protection regulatory system at the California Department of Pesticide Regulation.

And that runs...

In some ways, parallel to US EPA, but also in some ways on its own track.

And as a result, we oftentimes see a product that specialty crop growers can use in 49 states, but not in California.

And that is enormously frustrating and counterproductive.

And it's not an indictment of the current leadership of California Department of Pesticide Regulation.

Director Morrison and her team are doing everything they can to move products quickly, but they're really hamstrung by California law.

The governor signed it into law earlier this week.

The Department of Pesticide Regulation now has to indicate whether or not pesticides have PFAS when reporting their use.

The department also has to monitor trends.

Environmental advocates hope that better data on PFAS and their impacts will lead to more regulation.

Well, Chip, we know that PFAS and Forever Chemicals is a pretty big buzzword, but pesticides containing PFAS will now be tracked in the state of California.

Reuters is reporting that California's Governor Gavin Newsom signed this legislation this week, and it requires the Department of Pesticide Regulation to indicate whether agricultural pesticides contain PFAS when reporting their use in a public database.

It also requires the department to track PFAS pesticide use trends in the state, which, keep in mind, Chip, we know that this is that nearly half of the vegetables and more than three-quarters of the fruit and nuts in the U.S. are grown there.

Environmental advocates are hoping that better data on the use of PFAS and their impacts will ultimately lead to more regulation in the state.

So the rules coming from the state, right, Department of Industrial Relations or Cal OSHA, those will be the same statewide.

And while DPR rules, Department of Pesticide Regulation, are also statewide requirements, what we do see is... at the local level, ag commissioners have the opportunity to have permit conditions that can be specific to their county.

So if you are a grower and you farm property that is, you know, partly in Merced and partly in Stanislaus, you may find that there are two sets of rules that you need to be watching for.

And it, and the other thing having served, I would, and, I really stepped into this whole compliance stuff about 15 years ago.

Probably the one that I'm trying to keep an eye on right now is the DPR, the treated seed.

So that may heavily impact like farm labor contractors who have crews that are brought in for just planting purposes.

So now all of those folks will meet the definition of handler under the Department of Pesticide Regulation.

And so they will all need to have pesticide handler training prior to handling that treated seed.

But that does not surprise me based on what I've learned about her and meeting her at the Ladera Ranch Civic Council meeting.

She comes with her staff and acts like she's ready to help and is there for the picture op, right? But when you actually want her to do something and sign on to a petition to audit the Department of Pesticide Regulation or the OCAG, she's crickets.

Right.

Now, is the Ladera Ranch an unincorporated city?

OCAG is not doing their job.

I'm getting basically gas lit.

So I contacted the California Department of Pesticide Regulations, and they're the ones that are supposed to oversee the OCAG.

So I said, I gave them the whole, the lowdown and said, OCAG is not acting.