Florida says no to pesticide aldicarb on citrus

Citrus growers in Florida cannot use the pesticide aldicarb to combat citrus greening caused by the Asian citrus psyllid, the state announced April 21. The decision reverses a last-minute approval by the Trump administration allowing use of the chemical on citrus crops in Florida under federal law. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services denied the request from pesticide maker AgLogic Chemical to register aldicarb for use on citrus in the state, claiming that the chemical poses unacceptable health risks to humans, wildlife, and the environment. Aldicarb, an older carbamate insecticide, “is one of the world’s most toxic pesticides and is banned in more than 100 countries,” Nikki Fried, Florida’s agriculture commissioner, says in a statement. The US Environmental Protection Agency declared in 2010 that aldicarb may pose health risks to infants and young children. At the time, Bayer Crop Science agreed to immediately stop selling it for use on citrus and to phase out production of the chemical in the US by 2014. In 2011, the EPA allowed AgLogic to market aldicarb for use on cotton and a few other crops.