Please join the PRIA Coalition and officials from EPA’s Office to Pesticide Program (OPP) for an interactive workshop to discuss key implementation issues for the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act of 2022 (PRIA 5).  In addition to providing additional funding and resources for OPP, PRIA 5 includes numerous policy changes and process improvements related to renegotiation rates, registrant submissions not covered by a PRIA code, employee training, and bilingual labeling.  Learn what has changed from PRIA 4 to PRIA 5 and hear about some of the law’s new provisions, implementation deadlines, and plans for implementation.

Click here for the detailed workshop agenda. You do not need to register to attend the workshop twice. 

This session is designed for EPA and government agency staff and others interested in learning more about pesticide labels. This year’s event is an interactive in-person event that features content focused on the pesticide label, from concept to the finished product label to application of the product. Participants will leave this event with a better understanding of the specialty pesticide industry and how we develop, design, and apply pesticides to protect the areas where we live, work, and play.  

Join us for a special evening reception to celebrate the retirement of Ray McAllister, CropLife America's senior director of Regulatory Affairs. The evening event is located just steps away from the Marriott Marquis at the historic Morrison-Clark Hotel. 

Join us at your leisure for a light breakfast before programming begins!

Keynote Speaker - Rod Snyder, Senior Advisor for Agriculture to the EPA Administrator

We are excited to announce Rod Snyder as this year's Keynote Speaker. Rod is recognized for his nearly two decades of leadership at the intersection of agricultural and environmental policy. Previous to his current role, he served as president of Field to Market, Public Policy Director for the National Corn Growers Association, and the Government Affairs Leader for CropLife America.

Rod will discuss EPA and pesticide priorities, as well as other industry topics of interest.

Session Presentation

Pest pressures and climate change affect people by threatening food security, damaging infrastructure, ecosystems, and public health. Pesticide use in agriculture and non-agricultural settings can play a significant role in helping ensure food security and in the protection of public health from the threat of vector-borne diseases. In this session, industry leaders will talk about sustainable agriculture and pest management practices intended to help preserve the environment, improve biodiversity, and protect human health followed by a EPA Senior Science Advisor highlighting the work of EPA’s Climate Adaptation Program and how the Office of Pesticide Program’s supports efforts to prepare for and adjust to both the current and projected impacts of climate change.

Moderator: Rachel Lattimore

Jeff Dawson

Session Presentation (with slides from Andy Lee and Karen Larson)

With the passage of the fifth version of the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act (PRIA), comes the new requirement of bilingual pesticide labels, with staggered compliance dates based on the category and type of pesticide. This session will begin with a review of CLA and RISE’s prior work on and support of bilingual labeling followed by an overview of the requirements and compliance dates for the bilingual labeling provision in PRIA 5. EPA will then discuss their communication plan to registrants regarding these new requirements, their current progress to educate and consult with the states on implementation, and how the addition of bilingual labeling language can be added to the label through non-notification. Lastly, a representative from the American Association of Pest Control Officials (AAPCO) will discuss consultations with the states and any implementation challenges the states foresee with bilingual labeling to achieve compliance.  

Session Presentation

Gary Bahr

As agriculture is getting disrupted with new digital/robotics technology, EPA OCSPP is undergoing its own digital transformation. The Agency is gearing up for the future by modernizing its information technology infrastructure, incorporating machine learning and artificial intelligence where necessary to streamline the pesticide registration process. In this session, you will hear an overview from EPA and industry on the digital transformation, including electronic labels.

EPA in their New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) Workplan reaffirmed their priority to reduce the use of vertebrate animals for toxicity testing and the Agency is working on the development and application of NAMs to help ensure reasonable certainty of no harm to human health and the minimum likelihood of adverse ecological effects. In support of its Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP), EPA recently released a draft white paper that describes validated NAMs that EPA may now accept for certain tests. This session will discuss the white paper and future plans for EDSP and EPA’s adoption of NAMs.  

Moderator: Steve Levine

Scott Lynn

Ellen Mihaich

Codex standards and their wider adoption will facilitate international trade for the benefit of importers and exporters. CropLife is among several organizations that are advocating for improvements in Codex processes.  

Moderator: Michelle Sharp

Julie Chao

Rachel Cumberbatch

Epidemiology is a complimentary public health discipline that seeks to understand the effects of chemicals in the environment on human health. The purpose of the session is to bridge the gap between epidemiology and other sciences, with a particular emphasis on what industry should know about epidemiology when conducting human health risk assessment of chemical hazards. The session will include recent industry efforts to integrate epidemiology data and EPA’s views towards progress on this topic.

Moderator: Claire Koenig

Sandrine Deglin

Jennifer Reed

Dana Vogel

The life cycle assessment (LCA) is a method to identify all the inputs and outputs necessary to make a product and quantify the associated environmental and socioeconomic impacts. The application of LCA findings is wide-ranging, from corporate decision-making on product development and marketing to policy development, evaluation, and implementation. This session will go through the University of Arkansas LCA on the impact of pesticides, including data, results, and impacts of the research.  

Moderator: Leslie Garcia

Marty Matlock

Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) continue to garner attention both at the Environmental Protection Agency and increasingly by U.S. states. This session will highlight recent EPA initiatives to address PFAS and close scientific data gaps. This session also will explore how federal efforts to curtail PFAS release into the environment may intersect with the formulation and packaging of pesticides. 

Moderator: Megan Provost

Jeff Dawson

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) Workplan Update is a major step in EPA’s strategy to improve the ESA review process and reflects the Agency’s new direction of using ESA mitigations in the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA)-portion of pesticide review (FIFRA Interim Ecological Mitigations), and in particular, in EPA’s interim decisions during the FIFRA registration review process. The Workplan Update is complex and uses a new approach for introducing measures to reduce offsite movement of pesticides, which would reduce pesticide exposure to all non-target species, before the evaluation and consultation process is complete. It also requires the consideration and review of experts and stakeholders familiar with the subject matter, including USDA and grower groups. During this session, speakers from EPA along with stakeholders will discuss this approach and its implementation.

Moderator: Spencer Mortensen

Elyssa Arnold

Ashlea Frank

Jan Matuszko

Elissa Reaves

We know you understand the science behind pesticides, but do you know how to most effectively discuss the topic with those outside the industry? This session will walk you through CLA’s consumer research, including messages that resonate as well as tips and tricks to help you tell an effective story about today’s agriculture.

Gen O'Sullivan and Sarah Macedo

Food insecurity is a household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food. Government policies play a critical role in mitigating or creating food insecurity. In this session, representatives from US agencies will discuss agricultural trade priorities with a focus on those relevant to the pesticide industry and the impact of these policies on food insecurity. 

In February, the California Sustainable Pest Management Work Group released their final report “Accelerating Sustainable Pest Management: A Roadmap for California.” The report outlines long term goals for reductions in pesticide use in California. In this session, state experts will discuss the SPM roadmap and recommended policies and highlight the potential impacts in California and in other states. 

Moderator: Scott Dahlman

Taylor Roschen

Gabriele Ludwig

The Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP) plans to develop a systematic review methodology. It will likely contain elements of programs already used in the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) program, Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), and OPP. This session will include information on the current systematic review. 

Nancy Beck

Monique Perron

Join us for cocktails and canapes as well as continued discussions on the topics we've heard today with colleagues and sponsors!

Join us at your leisure for a light breakfast before our final day of programming begins!

Close out this year’s Regulatory Conference with a panel from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Pesticide Programs discussing current and future agency priorities. EPA leaders will provide an overview of their division’s priorities with opportunity for audience questions. 

Session Presentation

 Emerging technologies are part of the solution towards increased sustainability and can improve the future of farming. This includes facilitation of site-specific pesticide application and reducing off-target pesticide movement. In this session, representatives from equipment manufacturers and technology providers will discuss some of these technologies and their benefits.  

The last year brought new developments in the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) space. These include the EPA ESA Workplan and the Workplan Update focusing on upfront mitigations. This panel will provide an overview of some of ongoing efforts to improve the efficiency of the ESA consultation process.  

For pesticides formulated in oil, petroleum distillates, or mineral oils, EPA recently developed a method for analysis of PFAS in oily matrices. This session will discuss the creation and efficacy of testing methods and future plans for furthering the science around PFAS testing and validation. 

Moderator: Jess Vargas

Thuy Nguyen and Anne Overstreet

Soon after the successful passage of PRIA 5 on December 29, 2022, efforts transitioned from the passage of PRIA 5 to the implementation of process improvements outlined in that legislation. This session will begin with a brief review of the process improvements and new initiatives PRIA 5 requires the Agency to implement. Afterwards, hear from the Agency on their progress towards implementing PRIA 5 fee charts and associated interpretation guides along with their current work on the backlog of actions not associated with a PRIA code (formerly known as non-PRIA actions). Note: This session does not cover bilingual labeling as that is covered in prior breakout sessions. 

Moderator: Megan Provost