Agriculture

Notice of Public Meeting Animal Agriculture and Water Quality Subcommittee

The next meeting of the Animal Agriculture and Water Quality Subcommittee, a subcommittee of the Farm, Ranch, and Rural Communities Advisory Committee (FRRCC) will be held virtually on December 6, 2024 from approximately 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (EST). The goal of the AAWQ subcommittee is to provide recommendations that will inform the Agency’s decisions regarding how to improve the implementation of the Clean Water Act (CWA) National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) permitting program.

For more information, please visit the Animal Agriculture and Water Quality Subcommittee page.
Updates to the Mitigation Menu Website - Options to Protect Nontarget Species from Pesticide Runoff

EPA updated its mitigation menu website to include all current measures to reduce exposure to nontarget species from pesticide runoff from agricultural uses. The menu provides growers with options for reducing runoff as part of future pesticide labels that implement EPA’s Final Herbicide Strategy from August 2024. Please see the news release for a list of updates implemented on the mitigation menu website.
Mitigation Menu
EPA Releases Rodenticide Strategy, Including Final Biological Evaluation on the Effects of 11 Rodenticides on Endangered Species and Associated Mitigation

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is releasing the final biological evaluation (BE), and associated response to comments, for 11 rodenticide active ingredients. The mitigation measures described in this final BE will also serve as the agency’s Rodenticide Strategy as outlined in EPA’s Endangered Species Act (ESA) Workplan. The final BE is available in the docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2023-05 67 on www.regulations.gov.
EPA Announces Funding Opportunities to Support Farmworker Communities

EPA is announcing three new funding opportunities to support pesticide safety education for farmworkers, training for health care providers to better address pesticide-related illness, and technical assistance to support managing these grants. For more information on each opportunities, please see the news release.

EPA is committed to a strong partnership with the agriculture community to assist in fulfilling our mission of protecting human health and the environment.

The Office of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (OARA) serves as the primary liaison between rural and agricultural stakeholders and the EPA. OARA maintains close contact with EPA’s program offices and regions to forge practical, science-based solutions that protect the environment while ensuring a vibrant and productive agricultural system. Learn more about OARA and its leadership by visiting About the Office of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (OARA).
Through the National Agriculture Center, EPA provides growers, livestock producers, other agribusinesses, and agricultural information/education providers with regulatory and non-regulatory agriculture-related information and other items of interest to the agriculture community from across EPA. Learn More by visiting About EPA's National Agriculture Center.