Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
out by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) were
originally developed by a branch of the California Department of Food
and Agriculture and then transferred to CalEPA.
15
One of the DPR's first
actions was to create the Pesticide Use Reporting (PUR) system.
16
The
DPR conducted extensive analysis of its relationship with its stakeholder
groups, which resulted in a pest-management strategy.
17
The DPR's budget is currently about the same as the amount allotted
to the pesticide regulatory programs by the other 49 states combined.
Fewer than ten states even have a pesticide regulatory agency outside
their departments of agriculture. Many states have no pesticide pro-
grams, and devote no state funds to pesticide regulation. The DPR's
relative size can be explained by the juxtaposition in this state of the
largest agricultural economy with many vocal environmental critics of
pesticide use. Many stakeholders make vigorous competing claims on the
DPR's attention and resources. The USEPA oversees the DPR's work on
pesticide regulation, but also the impact of pesticides on natural
resources. Californians for Pesticide Reform and other non-government
organizations advocate for more enforcement. Agricultural lobbyists,
including the Farm Bureau and the Western Plant Health Association
(which represents agrochemical industries), push back and defend the
use of pesticides.
The DPR's 1995 pest-management strategy suggested that it could
achieve its goals more effectively by developing new educational efforts.
Initially, the DPR funded local efforts to demonstrate alternatives and
commodity-wide pest-management planning, which would identify
existing knowledge not fully used, and gaps in applied research. When
the state legislature appropriated its funds generated from pesticide taxes
to pay for the BIFS partnerships, the DPR was further motivated to
launch its own partnership funding program.
In 1997, Jean-Marie Peltier was recruited from the California Pear
Advisory Board, which had been a partner in the Randall Island Project,
to become Deputy Director of the Department of Pesticide Regulation.
Peltier understood the benefits the pear industry had garnered through
this partnership. Her leadership at the DPR emphasized the public/
private industry partnership approach. The DPR launched the Pest
Management Alliance (PMA) program in 1997 to help industry groups,
such as commodity organizations, address pest management on a
