The EPA has until the end of September to decide whether to grant or deny a petition calling for the regulation of pesticide-treated seeds, after a federal court last week approved a consent decree between the agency and the Center for Food Safety and the Pesticide Action Network North America. The consent decree comes as a result of a lawsuit filed by the groups last December.

 

For years treated seeds were exempted from regulation as a pesticide as part of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, or FIFRA. The environmental groups sued because the agency has not responded to a 2017 petition to regulate treated seed.
 
The EPA will decide whether to draft regulations on treated seeds or to deny the environmental groups' demands, according to the decree approved by the U.S. District Court for the District of Northern California in San Francisco.  USDA stated last year that treated seeds are now planted on an estimated 180 million acres.