<font color=blue>INDUSTRY BUZZ</font> Summer 2006—Where Did It Go?

It feels like only a couple of weeks since I was writing the first 2006 issue update for Lawn & Landscape. It was six months ago and I cannot recall where the summer of 2006 has gone.

Looking back at legislation and regulation, 2006 has not been unusually challenging; in fact, our industry has known far more difficult legislative years. This year at Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment, we’ve tracked some 300 state bills that appeared to threaten your right to make informed pesticide and fertilizer choices to care for your customer’s turf and ornamentals. Three hundred is a relatively ho-hum number compared to some recent years. The difference this year has not been quantity, but content, diversity and stealth.

Most lawn and landscape professionals I’ve spoken with—except those in Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts or a few other states and Canada—said 2006 has not been a particularly controversial year relative to pesticide and fertilizer issues. This year, your challenges have been unexpected fuel costs, water availability in certain parts of the country, labor issues for some and rising interest rates.

In Tennessee, Florida and Arizona, bills were proposed that would allow non-certified applicators to apply ready-to-use weed control products in the course of maintaining laws. Most of you opposed these bills, while others may have supported them. In the end, the measures passed only in Arizona.

Six states proposed to allow local governments to regulate so-called “cosmetic” or “aesthetic” pesticide use. Those proposals attracted our attention, and yours, in the states where they appeared and with your help, along with our allies from agriculture, structural pest control, golf, turf producers and others all proposals failed again this year.

The movement to allow local regulation will return in 2007—the activist community knows that they have a better chance to pass legislation not supported by science or common sense locally, where issues are more likely to be decided by who shows up and shouts loudest, regardless of the facts.

Despite a relatively low number of direct threats to your product choices at the state and national level, four trends stand out that will not allow us to simply sit back and enjoy the upcoming football season. RISE is already hard at work preparing for these issues, and we hope you will prepare with us so our industry does not see a return in the bad-old-days of the 1980s in 2007.

1. Regulatory agency mission creep or attempting to shift regulatory authority from one department to another. For pesticides and fertilizers we have seen attempts to move regulation from agriculture or environment to departments of health, water quality or others that lack the scientific and practical understanding and infrastructure necessary to fairly and appropriately regulate. These proposals are made by those who have failed to impose their will through the proper channels.

2. Federal and state governments continue to focus on the economy, mid-term elections, national and international security and budgets. While not aggressively moving legislation or regulation directly targeting our industry, unintentional gains and losses become harder to anticipate and defend. Labor and fuel issues are a good example. Though there was no intent to help or hinder the green industry, we are impacted and have only limited ability to turn things around. At the federal level, the November 2006 mid-term election will dominate the political scene for the rest of the year. In several states, key governors’ races may greatly impact some of us for some years to come.

3. Like much of America, federal and state regulators, legislators and university researchers are retiring in record numbers. Replacements may not be familiar with our industry and the products we use and may have different motivations or agendas—or they may just be listening to those showing up and talking to them. Some local elected and regulatory officials, particularly in the growing suburbs, are younger, less likely to know you or your business and want to increase their government’s authority and political base.

4. While you worked to satisfy customers and grow your business, activists have campaigned and been elected locally so they can regulate your choices. We have seen local legislative pressure brought to bear on state legislators to restrict or ban phosphorus fertilizer, pesticides, mosquito spraying, water use and other industry tools. We expect such pressure to accelerate in 2007 and RISE will contract with at least two additional state lobbyists and increase the local efforts of our grassroots manager to work with many of you to defend your tools at the state and local level.

We had the opportunity to work with some of you on local issues in 2006. We look forward to working with you where necessary in 2007.

There is an old saying that there are three kinds of people in the world: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder what happened. Let’s work together to make good things happen for our industry and not look back at the end of our careers and wonder what happened.

Frank Gasperini is the director of state issues for RISE, the national trade association representing manufacturers, formulators, distributors and other industry leaders involved with specialty pesticide and fertilizer products.