<b>By KEVIN WALKER<br>
Michigan Correspondent</b></p><p>

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The pesticide with the active ingredient azinphosmethyl (AZM), also known by the brand name Guthion, may be given another reprieve from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) chopping block if no viable alternative is found for crops for which it is used.<br>

That’s according to Allen Jennings, director of the Office of Pest Management Policy at the USDA and co-chairman of the EPA’s AZM Transition Issues Workgroup, an ad hoc group formed to help producers transition away from the use of Guthion. Guthion has been a mainstay of several fruit crops for many years, including cherries, blueberries, apples and pears.<br>

Right now, Guthion is scheduled to be canceled in September 2012 for use on the crops listed above, as well as several others. The problem with the tart cherry crop, and, to some extent, the blueberry crop, is that there is no viable alternative for them, and they must be 100 percent pest-free. This means Guthion is the only pesticide that tart cherry and blueberry producers can rely on.
Jennings said he thinks it’s premature to discuss what might happen in four years, but he was willing to venture that if two more years of research do not yield a viable alternative to AZM for use on tart cherries, there will be serious discussions about what to do. The USDA has funded four more years of research for answers to this problem.<br>

“I would look for the industry to look to the EPA to lengthen the phase-out period again,” he said.<br>

“Extending the phase-out period would be a logical choice. The industry has been doing a good job of keeping the EPA and me informed. It would be pretty remote that EPA would restore AZM’s registration in full.”<br>

He cautioned that “you have to rebuild the integrated pest management system. It’s not a one-to-one exchange of chemicals.” He also acknowledged “growers are not happy losing AZM as a tool.”<br>

Indeed, blueberry growers weren’t pleased when they showed up at the first Blueberry Guthion Transition Task Force meeting in Fennville, Mich., two weeks ago. Brian Verhougstraete, a pesticide registration manager for the Michigan Department of Agriculture, was there and said the blueberry growers weren’t happy at all about the situation – and were letting the EPA’s point man at the meeting know.<br>

“EPA is the king, what they say goes,“ Verhougstraete said. “There’s not a thing we can do about it.“<br>

Nikhil Mallampalli, the EPA’s person on the scene, didn’t see the event as adversarial.<br>

“It was a pretty cordial event,” he said. “They weren’t happy about it, but they weren’t antagonistic towards me. This sort of transitional effort by MSU (Michigan State University) is really important to help individual growers move toward other alternatives.<br>

“I think it’s a very proactive attitude they’re taking.”<br>

Mallampalli, who is an entomologist by training, acknowledged the alternatives to AZM for blueberries are a work in progress.
“Some of the alternatives show promise, but more work is definitely needed,” he said.<br>

Rufus Isaacs, a small fruit entomologist at MSU, was at the meeting and helped organize the task force. He is also a member of the AZM Transition Issues Workgroup. He said 60 percent of the blueberry acreage in Michigan is completely reliant on Guthion. The other 40 percent is grown in areas where the cranberry fruit worm doesn’t thrive.<br>

“I think we’re in the same situation as tart cherries,” Isaacs said. “It’s fair to say that the industry relies on Guthion to meet the crop’s demands. I hope that we have something in place by the end of 2012. There’s a lot of nervousness in the industry.”<br>

Blueberry growers rely heavily on aerial spraying, which the EPA is phasing out for blueberries at the end of 2009. Isaacs said this means that there is much pressure on researchers to find a viable alternative pesticide for blueberries in two years, not four.
He also said it’s difficult for growers to get in the fields with a tractor to apply pesticide around May and June, when the cranberry fruit worm needs to be controlled.