Ninth Circuit Court Gets Sulfoxaflor Decision Wrong, NSP Insists on Solutions – The following is a press release provided by National Sorghum Producers – The Environmental Protection Agency last week issued a cancellation order for all previously registered Sulfoxaflor products, including Transform. This cancellation order is in response to the Sept. 10, 2015, ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals against EPA, which became effective Nov. 12. Transform was widely used to control sugarcane aphids in sorghum during the 2014 and 2015 growing seasons. More than 10 states received Section 18 emergency use exemption to use Transform, mitigating yield, revenue and acreage loss in thousands of U.S. sorghum acres.
“Transform has been an important tool for sorghum farmers across the nation to combat sugarcane aphids,” said National Sorghum Producers Past Chairman J.B. Stewart, “and as an organization, we will work as hard as we can to ensure the product is available next year through the Section 18 process. NSP also stands ready to support Dow AgroSciences and the EPA in re-registering this essential product.”
“This is an example of an activist court,” Stewart said, “and as an organization, we plan to do our part in pushing back on these nonsensical court decisions that unfortunately are becoming more frequent and to the detriment of farmers and ranchers across the nation. We must go to bat for them and keep tools available as we face stricter regulations and declining prices on the farm during trying and uncertain times.”
“This court is known for making rulings that align with activist organizations at the expense of agriculture,” Stewart said, “and we will continue to fight to keep products available for our producers that help them remain profitable.”
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Notice of Intent for TGSA to Change By-Laws at December Meeting – The TGSA board of directors will consider a plan to change it’s board structure by adding a delegate body to the current structure at a November 30 meeting in Amarillo. In addition TGSA will discuss and take action on forming a working committee structure that will require modifications to the current by-law structure. Any dues paying member of TGSA is invited to attend the meeting and provide input and suggestions. For more information please contact Wayne Cleveland at wcleveland@mindpsring.com or call 254.541.5375.
Global Food Security – In 2012 DuPont collaborated with the Economist Intelligence Unit to create the Global Food Security Index, an exhaustive ranking of each nation’s relative food security as weighed by a variety of factors. While you can sort and filter these rankings by variables such as affordability, availability, and political risk, the composite rankings tell a singular story: The United States has the most secure food supply in the world. When considering sorghum’s relationship to the global food infrastructure, it is important to remember that the nations purchasing our product aren’t often as stable as the United States. Consider the top five importers of American sorghum (per U.S. Grains Council):
In addition, considering many of these nations primarily import sorghum for human consumption, there is considerable room for growth in trading opportunities there. We at TGSP will be monitoring these trends and relaying new developments, but also encourage you to explore the data here.
