By Clint Thompson
Fruit and vegetable growers must be aware of an important comment period for five important neonicotinoid insecticides under review.
Brett Blaauw, assistant professor at the University of Georgia (UGA) College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, noted in the UGA Peach Blog that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is deciding whether five insecticides should continue to be allowed on food crops.
These insecticides include Acetamiprid, Clothianidin, Dinotefuran, Imidacloprid and Thiamethoxam.
“These are five of the main neonicotinoids that are used, and so the loss of those I think would be devastating not only to peaches but to many of the crops that are produced in Georgia and nationwide,” Blaauw said.
The EPA is accepting public comments until Sept. 21.
“Having growers comment during these periods is a really good way of telling them, ‘These are what we use the insecticides for. These are why they’re important, and the loss of them would be detrimental to the production of crops in the United States,’” Blaauw said. “Right now is a great time to tell the EPA really that these are things that we need. That will allow them to make those educated decisions.
“It’s one thing for me as a scientist to tell the EPA, but it’s another for the actual stakeholders to say that we are the ones that use them and we need them.”
Final Decision Expected By April 30, 2027
Blaauw said the Natural Resources Defense Council is petitioning the EPA to revoke all food-residue tolerances for those insecticides. The EPA agreed to make a final decision by April 30, 2027.
“They are really taking a hard look at pesticides now. A good example was with chlorpyrifos, because they made a pretty rash decision to just get rid of all the tolerances right away, which ended up being the wrong decision. They got sued again, and they brought back the tolerances, and now they’re allowing the tolerances for 11 specialty crops,” Blaauw said. “That was, I think, a good example for them to be like, ‘We need to really make educated decisions.’”
Growers who would like to express their concerns for the potential ban on these neonicotinoids and let the EPA understand how important they are to crop production, submit a comment at Regulations.gov or directly here: https://www.regulations.gov/document/EPA-HQ-OGC-2026-6172-0001.