Over the past year, the recently formed Biostimulant Council has been working towards developing a universal understanding of biostimulant products. Executive Director of the Biostimulant Coalition, David Beaudreau said the ambiguity in how federal agencies view biostimulants, has somewhat hampered development and adoption. “The biostimulant word itself is not well understood and it means different things to different people. There’s still no legal, federal definition of what a biostimulant is. We are hoping to fix that,” Beaudreau explained.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is still in the process of developing a finalized document outlining how the agency will address biostimulant products. That document is expected to be released in the coming months. Beaudreau noted that the Biostimulant Council has also been engaging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), advocating for a more streamlined path for the development of new products. Progress is being made in bringing more uniformity in the understanding of biostimulants, but efforts will continue moving forward.
“I still think we have work to do in educating members of Congress and other federal officials in the executive branch around what these are. I think there’s a good subset of folks at the USDA and EPA who really understand what we’re talking about,” said Beaudreau. “But we’d like to continue to expand that list so that it’s a more commonly accepted term and it’s a better understanding around ways farmers can improve plant health and all the benefits that some of these products can bring.”
Listen to the full episode with David Beaudreau below.
‘Making Sense of Biologicals’ is a series from AgNet West that dives into various topics with unbiased experts in the field of biologics to help the industry better understand the product category.
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