Trump Rescued a Nasty Pesticide from an EPA Ban. Now Corteva Will Stop Making It.

Posted On Feb 8, 2020 By admin With Comments Off

Back in 2017, in the early days of the Trump administration, the Environmental Protection Agency rejected a project by its own scientists to ban chlorpyrifos, a neurotoxic pesticide suspected of causing to lower birth heaviness, lower IQs, attention deficit disorder and other developmental issues in brats. The decision engendered wrath and spurred several states–Hawaii, New York, and only recently, California–to ban it.

On Thursday, the pesticide’s top US supplier, Corteva announced it would stop building the chemical.” Due to this reduced demand, Corteva has stirred the strategic business decision to phase out our production of chlorpyrifos in 2020 ,” the company said during a statement.

The decision scores quite a reversal from the company’s push to keep chlorpyrifos on the market, detailed by this Union of Concerned Scientist’ report. Corteva’s corporate predecessor, Dow, nurtured a chummy affair with the Trump administration, as I laid out here 😛 TAGEND

The company lent$ 1 million to the president’s inaugural committee, the Center for Public Integrity notes. In December, Dow Chemical Chairman and CEO Andrew Liveris attended a post-election Trump rally in the company’s home state of Michigan, and used the occasion to announce plans to create 100 new jobs and bring back another 100 more from foreign subsidiaries. Around the same time, Trump named Liveris chair of the American Manufacturing Council , swearing the chemical exec would “find ways to bring industry back to America.”( Dow has another reason beside chlorpyrifos’ demise to get chummy with Trump: its pending mega-merger with erstwhile adversary DuPont, which still has to clear Trump’s Department of Justice .)

The Trump administration eventually blessed the Dow-DuPont merger; Corteva was spun out of the combined fellowship in 2018 as a standalone seed-pesticide firm.

Corteva’s decision to halt pesticide marketings came on the same day that California’s ban on the chemical took effect. Generic accounts will still be available to farmers in countries where it’s not boycotted. But its forsaking by its biggest purveyor and champion will compile the pesticide harder to come by, and could ultimately spell its collapse, said Jennifer Sass, senior scientist at the Natural Riches Defense Council, in a statement.” This is a victory for our kids, farmworkers and rural communities nationwide ,” she said.” After years of pressure and increasing populace concern, the end of chlorpyrifos is lastly in sight .”