{"id":32305,"date":"2023-02-03T00:01:03","date_gmt":"2023-02-03T05:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/?p=32305"},"modified":"2023-02-04T11:33:25","modified_gmt":"2023-02-04T16:33:25","slug":"with-environmental-collapse-on-the-horizon-californias-sustainable-pest-management-roadmap-misses-mark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2023\/02\/with-environmental-collapse-on-the-horizon-californias-sustainable-pest-management-roadmap-misses-mark\/","title":{"rendered":"With Environmental Collapse on the Horizon, California’s Sustainable Pest Management “Roadmap” Misses Mark"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

(Beyond Pesticides<\/em>, February 3, 2023) On January 26, California\u2019s Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA), Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR), and Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) announced a new \u201croadmap<\/a>\u201d for sustainable pest management (SPM). The plan is promoted by the agencies as an accelerator of the state\u2019s commitment to transitioning away from \u201chigh-risk pesticides\u201d and toward \u201cadoption of safer, sustainable pest control practices,\u201d and to eliminating \u201cpriority [high-risk] pesticides\u201d by 2050. Although Sustainable Pest Management: A Roadmap for California<\/em><\/a> obviously recognizes the state (and federal) failure of current pesticide policies and land management practices to restrict pesticides sufficiently, advocates say that even this plan does not \u201cmeet the moment.\u201d Its relative ambition (compared to what most states are doing), still does not, according to those advancing transformative change, adequately address the current existential health, biodiversity, and climate crises. \u00a0With these crises being especially urgent<\/a>, advocates identify meaningful change as the adoption of approaches predicated on ensuring healthy soil biology<\/a>. This calls for the deployment of a plan for the wholesale transition to organic systems<\/a> that eliminate all materials\/inputs that are harmful to soil health, ecosystems, natural resources, and the health of humans and all living organisms.<\/p>\r\n

The California roadmap was developed by a team of 33 people \u2014 25 members of the Sustainable Pest Management Work Group and eight comprising the Urban Subgroup. The designation of the Urban Subgroup was a wise move, according to Beyond Pesticides, because although public perception is that \u201cpesticides\u201d are related to agriculture \u2014 and certainly agriculture is the central focus of much discussion about pesticides \u2014 the reality is that pesticide use in urban areas is real and not insignificant. In fact, studies have documented that the poundage of pesticide use per acre is often higher in nonagricultural areas, such as golf courses and lawns. These urban uses happen in residences, businesses, and institutions, and have been evidenced through studies that focus on wastewater, surface waters, and stormwater.<\/p>\r\n

The plan defines SPM<\/a> as an \u201cevolution\u201d of the IPM (Integrated Pest Management) concept \u2014 defined by the University of California Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program (UCIPM) as an ecosystem-based strategy that focuses on long-term prevention of pests or their damage, using strategies such as habitat manipulation, biological controls, resistant plant varieties, and modified horticultural practices. But UCIPM goes on to add, \u201cPesticides are used only after monitoring indicates they are needed according to established guidelines, and treatments are made with the goal of removing only the target organism. Pest control materials are selected and applied in a manner that minimizes risks to human health, beneficial and nontarget organisms, and the environment.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Beyond Pesticides has been critical<\/a> of IPM as it has generally been executed in agriculture because IPM has largely failed to achieve the goals of its original conceit \u2014 significant reduction of synthetic pesticide use. Researchers on IPM have noted that over the decades since the inception of the IPM concept some 60 years ago, deployment of strategies has focused far more on reducing negative environmental impacts than on using ecological processes to replace chemical pesticides \u2014 an approach that would advance sustainability. Other factors mitigating against the original ideal have included: poor education of practitioners on the concept, multiple and competing definitions of IPM, lack of understanding of ecological concepts that were to underlie IPM, inadequate research and funding, and agrochemical industry lobbying against IPM programs.<\/p>\r\n

The roadmap document describes SPM<\/a> as a \u201ca process of continual improvement that integrates an array of practices and products aimed at creating healthy, resilient ecosystems, farms, communities, cities, landscapes, homes, and gardens. SPM examines the interconnectedness of pest pressures, ecosystem health, and human wellbeing.\u201d It identifies its goals as (1) eliminating the use of Priority Pesticides by transitioning to sustainable pest management practices, and (2) adopting SPM as the de facto pest management system in California, all by 2050. Beyond Pesticides considers 2050 far, far too late in the game for meaningful changes in the faces of the above-referenced crises.<\/p>\r\n

Those Priority Pesticides are defined as<\/a> \u201cpesticide products, active ingredients, and groups of related products within the context of specific product uses or pest\/location use combinations that have been deemed to be of greatest concern and warrant heightened attention, planning, and support to expedite their replacement and eventual elimination. The criteria for classifying pesticides as \u2018Priority Pesticides\u2019 includes . . . hazard and risk classifications, availability of effective alternative products or practices, and special consideration of pest management situations that potentially cause severe or widespread adverse impacts.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

The keystone actions<\/a> the plan sets out are these:<\/p>\r\n