The American Cotton Producers (ACP) held its spring meeting in Dallas, Texas, April 27th and 28th.
Rod Snyder, Environmental Protection Agency agricultural advisor, updated the ACP on the EPA’s new Endangered Species Act Workplan to address the legal challenges to pesticide registrations that have been prevalent in federal courts. Regarding dicamba, Snyder stated there are no plans by EPA to change the dicamba label for the 2022 crop year. However, EPA is working closely with the registrants to make possible amendments to the label for 2023.
Darryl Earnest, deputy administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service, provided an overview of the labor challenges faced by the classing offices in 2021, which caused significant delay in the grade turnaround to gins and producers. Similar issues are expected in 2022 due to significant labor shortages, increasing wage rates, COVID-19 protocols and supply chain issues. The NCC has requested $4 million in fiscal year 2023 appropriation that would assist in increasing automation at the classing offices to assist with long-term labor challenges. Earnest also announced a $0.20 (from $2.30 to $2.50) increase in the cotton classing fee. Leon Sequeira, former Assistant
Secretary of Labor in the George W. Bush Administration, brief ACP on current issues within the H-2A program and the bureaucratic constraints that hamper H-2A’s effectiveness. He also provided a short and long-term outlook of possible immigration reforms proposed in Congress as well as an update on the Farm Workforce Modernization Act.