Ga. debate swirls around pesticide labeling legislation
ATLANTA, Ga. - Georgia state senators approved a measure that could change the rules surrounding pesticides.
Senate Bill 144 was filed in response to an ongoing debate surrounding pesticide labeling. The bill would clarify that federally approved pesticide labels remain the standard for health and safety warnings, and that manufacturers cannot be held liable for failing to warn consumers of health risks beyond federal requirements.
The bill’s sponsor, state Sen. Sam Watson, is a vegetable farmer who lives in south Georgia.
He said the legislation is a labeling bill. Federal Environmental Protection Agency standards would still apply.
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“The label is the law,” Watson said. “The EPA approves the label, and they’re not going to let any manufacturer put anything on the label that they don’t say is OK to put on the label.”
Health groups like Stand for Health Freedom oppose the bill. Advocates have sent more than 25,000 emails urging Georgia senators to vote no.
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Leah Wilson, the director of Stand for Health Freedom, said the bill protects manufacturers like Bayer, which makes the pesticide Roundup.
The company faces claims their product Round-up causes non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
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“Millions of farmers around the world are already farming without glyphosate or toxic chemicals, so there are ways to do farming, and it would undoubtedly potentially cause a major shift,” Wilson said.
For decades, American farmers like Bart Davis have used pesticides to control weeds and keep crop yields high. Davis grows peanuts, corn, and cotton in Colquitt County.
“If they put them out of business, we’re going to go out of business, and people are going to get hungry,” said Davis.
That concern drove a report from insight firm The Directions Group. It found that without glyphosate, the most widely used pesticide, farmers would lose crops, and it could increase food prices.
The research shows without it, farmers, consumers, and taxpayers could pay $15 billion more per year.
The bill ed 42-12. It now faces a vote in the Georgia House.
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