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12 Dec

Posted at 10:08h in Regulatory
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On Thursday, December 12, 2024, Kansas Agribusiness Retailers Association (KARA) participated in the Kansas Dept. of Agriculture’s (KDA) Plant Protection and Weed Control Program stakeholder meeting to discuss proposed changes to the noxious weed list in agency regulations. The proposed changes, in the document available via the link below, were recommended to KDA Secretary Mike Beam by the Noxious Weed Advisory Board. KARA maintains a seat on the Noxious Weed Advisory Board. There were about a dozen attendees to the stakeholder meeting. The proposed regulation changes will remove pignut from the state...

06 Nov

Posted at 09:33h in Advocacy
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2024 Election Report The 2024 election was full of surprises. Below is an initial overview. Mail in ballots will continue to be counted until Friday, meaning a couple of close races may still change. The final votes will be certified sometime next week. All unofficial election results can be found on the Kansas Secretary of State’s website. President of the United States Former president Donald Trump won 57 percent of the vote in Kansas, roughly the same as in 2016 and 2020. United States Congress District 1: Incumbent Republican Tracey Mann won reelection in the...

17 Sep

Posted at 06:28h in Regulatory
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is issuing an amendment to the existing stocks provisions for the Kaizen Technologies LLC (Kaizen) chlorpyrifos end-use product “Bifenchlor” to allow for sale, distribution, and use for a limited time. The 2023 court decision vacating the 2021 chlorpyrifos tolerance revocation rule reinstated tolerances for products that registrants had previously voluntarily cancelled. Granting this amendment ensures greater consistency across chlorpyrifos products. Chlorpyrifos is an organophosphate insecticide that has been used for many food crops, including growing soybeans, fruit and nut trees, broccoli, cauliflower, and other row...

26 Aug

Posted at 06:46h in Regulatory
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On June 23, 2024, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a proposed interim registration review and decision for dimethoate pesticide as required by the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, 7 U.S.C. 136a(g). EPA published a notice of its interim decision for public review and comment. As set forth in its interim decision, EPA determined that the benefits of the use of dimethoate on crops such as corn, soybeans, and wheat, were low. As such, EPA proposes to remove dimethoate label registration for use of the product on those crops....

21 Aug

Posted at 07:48h in Regulatory
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released its final Herbicide Strategy, which is designed to protect over 900 federally endangered and threatened (listed) species from the potential impacts of herbicide. The EPA indicated it will use the strategy to identify measures to reduce the amount of herbicide exposure to these species when it registers new herbicides and when it reevaluates registered herbicides under a process called registration review. The agency says the final strategy incorporates a wide range of stakeholder input that will protect species but also preserve a wide range of...

16 Jul

Posted at 13:09h in Advocacy, Regulatory
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Kansas Agribusiness Retailers Association (KARA) joined nearly 200 organizations in sending a letter to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requesting the agency engage with stakeholders to discuss improvements to its Endangered Species Act risk assessment process for pesticides. The letter highlights why EPA has both a responsibility and would benefit from using more refined risk assessment processes, identifies potential improvements that could be used, and calls on the agency to expeditiously engage with stakeholders to improve its ESA risk assessment processes. Under the ESA, all federal agencies, including EPA, are...

08 Jul

Posted at 13:21h in Industry News, Regulatory
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing an update to the level at which atrazine is expected to adversely affect aquatic plants. The new revised atrazine concentration of 9.7 micrograms per liter (µg/L), which was derived following an August 2023 peer review, will be used to develop a revised regulatory decision on the degree at which atrazine affects aquatic plants as well as fish, invertebrates and amphibians. The level at which atrazine is expected to adversely affect aquatic plants is also known as the concentration-equivalent level of concern or CE-LOC....

02 Jul

Posted at 12:18h in Regulatory
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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) today announced the publication of a heat standard proposal that would require employers to develop an injury and illness prevention plan to control heat hazards in workplaces affected by excessive heat. “The nation’s first-ever federal safety standard addressing excessive heat in the workplace,” would apply to all employers conducting outdoor and indoor work in all general industry, construction, maritime, and agriculture sectors where OSHA has jurisdiction. Excluded from the rule would be short-duration employee exposures to heat, emergency response activities, work at indoor sites kept below 80°F,...

01 Jul

Posted at 08:20h in Advocacy
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Kansas Agribusiness Retailers Association (KARA) joined more than 150 national, state and regional organizations in urging United States House of Representatives leaders to pass a bipartisan Farm Bill this congress before the legislative process begins anew in the 119th Congress. The letter explains the need of millions of Americans who rely daily on the provisions of the Farm Bill to produce food, fiber and fuel. The aforementioned organizations who signed the letter expressed the need for the Farm Bill's updated policies, provisions, initiatives and critical funding supporting the group's collective interests. VIEW...

24 Jun

Posted at 07:22h in Advocacy
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On June 18, in response to an action by Governor Laura Kelly, the Kansas legislature convened a one-day Special Session where two matters were debated. The first was a comprehensive tax relief bill. The second item was approval of a Sales Tax and Revenue (STAR) bonding package intended to incentivize the Kansas City Chiefs and Kansas City Royals sports franchises to come to Kansas City, Kan. Both bills were passed, and the governor has indicated she will sign the bills into law. COMPREHENSIVE TAX RELIEF – Senate Bill 1: The House and Senate voted overwhelmingly to pass...

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