Letter to the Editor: Pesticides are vital tool for today’s farms

Greetings from the Gillis farm in Delaware County. Along with my husband, Craig, and our son, Adam, we grow soybeans and corn near Dunkirk in east-central Indiana. We’ve chosen this life, and we’ve been blessed to do what we love since 1999.

Have you been following the news lately? These days, I think you need to work very hard to avoid it.

Fortunately, we farm. And in the spring the days are long as we prepare and plant another crop. This can insulate us from some of the media noise.

No one is immune from the news — even farmers. Today, farmers find themselves in the news quite a bit.

Changes to our markets overseas, rising costs for fuel and fertilizer, and an inability to plan without a long-term farm bill in place from Congress are just a few of the farm issues in the news.

We appreciate the Trump administration’s efforts to help, and we ask Congress to promptly adopt a new farm bill for the security of U.S. agriculture.

This letter, though, addresses a different issue — an issue that can be handled directly by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

I am among the thousands of farmers who support maintaining a science-, risk-based regulatory process for pesticide approvals and managing environmental issues by EPA.

Pesticides are an important tool for farmers, protecting billions of dollars in damages each year from weeds, insects and other pests.

Pesticides help enable other important conservation practices, such as no-till and cover crops. Indiana farmers are national leaders in implementing these conservation practices.

It is essential that EPA’s review process is based on the best available science to ensure these tools are safe for everyone and where we live.

The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, Rodenticide Act and the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act each provide a robust, thorough framework to review pesticides and ensure their use is safe for people and the environment.

As a farmer, how important is this to me?

We live, work and eat every day not far from where we spray — like nearly all farmers across America. We’re not going to spray something harmful and risk the health of our own families.

We support the goals of the Make America Healthy Again movement. We want all children in the United States to be healthy, and we believe that effort starts at the farm.

We believe, with the help of EPA and other agencies, that pesticides are also a tool in achieving that goal.

The old saying that harvest is a marathon, but spring planting is a sprint becomes more and more true every year.

We are dodging weather challenges, family schedules and delays for government approvals on tools that will help us produce another bountiful crop for America again.

Any help that EPA can provide would be greatly appreciated so we can get down to the business of farming — which is what we do best.

Elaine Gillis

Dunkirk, Ind.