On farm seed treating. Crop Life says...

[ColevilleH2S]

I fired off an email to Russel Hurst the Executive Director of Sustainability and Stewardship, for Crop Life Canada, asking about the new seed treatment regulations.

He replied that it only applies to new products, who's manufacturer wants said product to be put on the designated list. So if you are a farmer, and would like to apply a designated seed treatment; good luck with your audit. But non- designated products will remain accessible to end users.

I appreciated his prompt response, and have posted a copy of it for your scrutiny:
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Hi David,

Thank you for the email. We have had a number of calls to our office about the scope of the accredited seed treatment standards the past couple of days. Some answers to your questions and some additional background information:

Applicability to on-farm seed treatment:

- The ST standards will be required only for “designated” seed treatment products. The “designated” products will be products designated by registrant(s) that in their view would typically be used at commercial ST facilities (i.e. seed companies, ag-retailers, seed growers, etc). The scope of the initiative is to not have products that are destined for the “on-farm” ST segment of the industry be required to achieve the ST accreditation status. Our policy since we began the development process was to not have the standards reach to the on-farm treatment segment of the industry.

- The list of “designated” ST products will be determined by the product registrant. (i.e. if they would like their product(s) used exclusively through accredited seed treatment operations then they would designate the product(s) be used by accredited operations). We anticipate having an initial list of products released by the end of the year. Thereafter the list would expand when a registrant chooses to add a ST product(s) to the designated list (these would typically be new registrations that they view destined for the commercial treating segment of the marketplace). New “on-farm” ST products would continue to be used as they are currently.

Overview of the standards:

- The accredited seed treatment standards were first conceived in 2009 and from 2010-13 a multi-stakeholder group of industry and government stakeholders developed the standards (registrants, ag-retailers, seed growers, seed cleaning coops, PMRA, AB Envt, etc).

- There are 76 audit protocols. Of which 66 are existing regulations (federal of provincial). The remaining 10 are industry best management practices.

- To achieve accreditation status the facility is required to complete an audit every 2 years. The audit typically takes approx. 3 hrs at a cost of $400-500 to the seed treatment operation.

- The scope of the standards encompass the storage and application of the designated seed treatment product(s). And include seed treatment operations that treat indoors, outdoors and as mobile units.

- The standards are expected to come into effect in 2017. Currently seed treating operations have the opportunity to complete a pre-audit until the end of March 2015 to gauge any gaps their facilities have with the standards several years prior to implementation.


I hope this information if of use and hopefully clears up some of the speculation in the marketplace about on-farm seed treatment activities.


I appreciate you flagging the issue with me and if you have any other questions don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Thanks

Russ.
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[Hopperbin]

Is the usa doing the same thing.

[oneoff]

Anyone think farmers should thank manufacturers for keeping any and all chemicals on the "designated list"...at their sole discretion.



As they say "Thereafter the list would expand when a registrant chooses to add a ST product(s) to the designated list (these would typically be new registrations that they view destined for the commercial treating segment of the marketplace). "

Why was there a need to add that rider ("typically")

Just what fraction of those decisions will be based on those catchphrases of "stewardship"" and "liability" and "environmental safety" as opposed to tying to access to "seed supplies" and creating "captive controlled markets for "newest advances in technology". And does anyone think there aren't any farmer desired overlaps between "commercial seed treatments" and "onfarm seed treatments" doing exactly the same job.

Someone needs a committment that details what criteria; justfy that arbitrary decision of placing in a "designated class"

Maybe not freeing up Helix and Proseed etc. etc. demonstrates exactly what can be expected from our "manuufacturing partners".

Somehow there needs to be a way to give those agricultural industry representatives a "designated farmer memorandum""

[Hopperbin]

So what I see happenning is eventually the manufactuers will have all seed treatment as designated.

[tstep]

More ****ing control by the seed and chemical conglomerates

[farmaholic]

We are so ****ed it isn't even funny, with no real way of being able to recoup the extra costs. It worked so well for them in canola, now it can be cereals too.

[Klause]

A few years ago you needed a pesticide App license to apply CruiserMaxx.... Which is how I ended up with one. Then they wanted more sales so they dropped the requirement.

I think this is another go at the same type of deal.

[farmaholic]

If I said what I really felt about the whole situation and the people proposing it and those creating/allowing the regulations, I would be like BTO, the moderators would banish me from this site. Where the hell are all the "freedom" fighters????

[sumdumguy]

Think they'd throw us in the hoosecow Farmaholic? We might have to turn into smugglers.

[bgmb]

Basically this just regulates certain treatments, certain ones are already only available to commercial treaters like gaucho, helix, prosper....

So sounds like status quo for on farm treating. Current products will continue to be available along with more and more generics.

I do agree with other comments tho, in the long run this is a play to force certified seed and limit farmer saved seed.

[bgmb]

Basically this just regulates certain treatments, certain ones are already only available to commercial treaters like gaucho, helix, prosper....

So sounds like status quo for on farm treating. Current products will continue to be available along with more and more generics.

I do agree with other comments tho, in the long run this is a play to force certified seed and limit farmer saved seed.

[farmaholic]

bgmb:

1: set up the regulations
2: classify all new products "designated"
3: de-register old products for "safety"
reasons.
4: reap the rewards....


Helix, Prosper, Lumiderm. Ya, I can buy those anywhere. A blind man can see this coming.

[wmoebis]

And once a few new varieties are out. Deregister all old ones.

[bgmb]

How do we go about stopping this?

[bgmb]

I think its awesome that last thread caused a shit storm of calls and emails to crop life canada, lets them know farmers arent oblivious to whats going on.