Atlanta, GA |

Each and every day, farmers and producers across the country work to produce the food and fiber we all need and depend on – with tools they need and depend on, and thanks to lawmakers in Atlanta, those tools are one step closer to being protected by state law as Senate Bill 144 has passed through the General Assembly and is now headed to the Governor’s desk.

“It’s a labeling bill and we’re basically, we’ve got a failure to warn clause in there, and we’re just saying that the manufacturers of products could not put anything on the label other than what EPA allows them to put on the label. At the end of the day, the EPA is the final say so. They’re the ones that do the research on top of what the manufacturers are doing to make sure products are safe. So, it’s truly a labeling bill – the label is the law. The EPA is in control of that and the federal government. So we’re just stating that in the bill and it’s just a failure to warn clause and that the EPA is the final say so in that,” says Senator Sam Watson from Georgia’s 11th District.

Though the bill only addresses labels, it assures farmers they’ll continue to have vital access to technologies they depend on.

“Currently, there is only one manufacturer of glyphosate in the United States. So they’ve obviously had difficulties with this failure to warn claim, so when you start talking about food security, food safety, and farmers livelihoods; trait technology is an important tool that we have in our toolbox as farmers and we couldn’t farm without all of the trait technologies and the use of herbicides, insecticides, and pesticides in general,” says Watson.

Watson, who is a producer himself, says these tools are essential to their operations now more than ever, as rising costs require them to be as efficient as possible – something that wouldn’t be the case without those trait technologies.

“I’m more on the vegetable side, and we have to use a lot of hand labor. H-2A just went up another two dollars an hour and so we use herbicides to help control weeds in our crops. So it became an issue of, is this product going to be around for the future generations to use? And are we going to have this tool in the toolbox? If you go to your local hardware store or your local Home Depot or Lowe’s, I don’t think you’re going to find glyphosate on the shelf because it’s been removed from the shelf. That active ingredient has already been removed. So, that’s where the fear from agriculture came, that what else is going to come off the shelf?,” says Watson.

Beyond protecting American agriculture, Watson believes the bill also safeguards American manufacturing and ultimately national security.

“The Chinese manufacture a lot of these products and if we have to buy it from the Chinese to feed Americans and to stay in business, then we’re probably going to get it from the Chinese. When there’s a problem, how do you go after someone in another country? We want to make sure that we protect American manufacturing and especially American manufacturing of these products,” says Watson.

By: John Holcomb