From The Roots Up Stewardship goes further than complying with rules and regulations.
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he idea of product stewardship is not new in the ag industry. Everyone knows it’s good to be kind to the land, give a crop a fighting chance and protect an investment from start to finish. But stewardship involves more than an arsenal of crop protection products and a prayer that things will turn out reasonably well by the end of the season. It also involves a proactive approach from the field to Washington D.C. Simply keeping a product on the market is a daunting challenge, says Steve Brown, Peanut Research Foundation executive director. “You want to protect your privilege to use a product to produce crops. Stewardship and understanding of the products and how to handle them is critical for keeping products on the market.” Proactive Stewardship At The Top When AgLogic Chemical Co. decided to bring aldicarb (formerly branded as Temik) back to the market, leadership decided upfront that product stewardship would be not only forefront, but also mandatory. Currently, anyone buying, selling or applying AgLogic aldicarb must pass a written certification test designed to reinforce the understanding of product stewardship. The intent was obviously not to make it more difficult to sell the product, but to reinforce the importance of complying with all regulations regarding its use. “In our current modern world of agriculture, you have to go through re-registration every so often,” Brown says. “You’re building a record the whole time you’re out there on the market. Every time there’s a misuse or a complaint, it goes into a file. It’s a black mark against you. It can be any kind of product.”
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THE PEANUT GROWER • MAY 2022
Steve Brown, The Peanut Foundation executive director, says growers have a lot of clout in Washington D.C. “When growers make their voice heard through their local organizations, I think it carries a lot of weight in the halls of Congress.”
A Voice To Be Heard Stewardship goes further than complying with the rules and regulations. It’s also the idea of standing up for science and the merits of a product. While that concept is not new, it’s become increasingly important to maintain product availability across the entire agricultural industry. That means getting involved, according to Vern Crawford, long-time former Pest Control Advisor (PCA) with Wilbur-Ellis in Shafter, California. Now retired, he still advocates for the responsible use of pesticides in the industry and the impor-
tance of getting involved from the grower level up regardless of how small one grower might think his or her voice might be. “I’ve seen it a lot of times over the course of my career,” Crawford says. “Growers tend to want to concentrate on their strengths — production and equipment — and leave the marketing and industry oversight to others so they can stay focused on the furrows and the equipment. However, it’s just as important to take a stand in policy that affects the industry. “Growers shouldn’t just leave it up to a company that markets a product,” PEANUTGROWER.COM
