00:00I recognize the gentleman from Alabama for five minutes.
00:04Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I appreciate all the witnesses being here today.
00:06You know, Ronald Reagan had a say, and he said,
00:08the government's idea on the economy is when it's moving, you tax it.
00:11If it keeps moving, you regulate it, or if it fails, you subsidize it.
00:14And very often we see regulations being a huge problem and inefficiency in government.
00:19So, well, that, Mr. Abbott, you testified that more than a half a billion dollars worth of your members' products
00:26and are currently delayed in EPA's regulatory review process,
00:32products that include both post-patent tools and adjuvants critical for crop protection.
00:38Can you explain how this backlog is affecting grower access to proven technologies
00:42and what consequences that has on production efficiency and cost?
00:48Well, as I mentioned already before, it puts a tremendous strain on the tools that are already out there, right?
00:54So we need to have access, or they need to have access, to those tools from a rotational purpose
01:00and to continue to apply the adjuvants that are part of that tank mix as well,
01:05and they need to have timely access to those as well.
01:09Somebody mentioned earlier that there's just like a chemical.
01:12It's already been approved, but somehow it's still backlogging the process.
01:16Is that the case, too, as well?
01:17I think one of the witnesses mentioned that earlier.
01:19Are you all familiar with something that may have been approved that's still being held up
01:21because it's in some sort of new technology?
01:24Anything like that?
01:25Maybe I misunderstood when I heard that.
01:27But, yeah, the regulatory environment is certainly crippling, and we get that in business.
01:32I grew up on a row crop farm.
01:33Mr. Weatherby, the technology has changed dramatically.
01:37I can remember standing in a peanut field.
01:39Mr. Cameron, you may have seen one of these, an old span sprayer,
01:42where the product was in the tank, and you literally just sprayed it out across the field.
01:46And so I think we were spraying Bravo for Least Spot at the time.
01:49And I remember my dad and uncle complaining about how expensive that stuff was.
01:54I can't imagine what the â they were always griping about costs in farming, and we always are, right?
01:59But with inflation and the restrictions now that government tends to put on production is certainly harassing.
02:05But, Mr. Weatherby, I'm going to move to you for a second.
02:08You mentioned that without updates to our regulatory system, the U.S. risks falling behind in sustainable pest control innovation.
02:16What would that mean for American growers and our agricultural competitiveness if the technology like PG-SIT were delayed
02:25or even possibly adopted in competing markets, say, in China, Brazil, or the EU?
02:30I think that's the tough part is that we already do see some of those technologies going to South America and others
02:37because the regulatory environment moves a little quicker and able to get those out in the fields.
02:44And so you're allowed to do some testing there.
02:45So we're already behind in some aspects.
02:48The other part of it is that those innovations are stopping from getting to the growers.
02:53And the growers, you know, most of what we work on here is trying to make the cost of doing â we know that our product has to be cheaper.
03:02You know, that's important to the growers.
03:04We also know it has to be safer.
03:05So we're all working on safer, cheaper innovations that can go out there to the grower.
03:10Unfortunately, they're just not getting there because we can't get through that regulatory process.
03:14The regulatory process in the U.S., how does it stack up compared to some of the other countries on timelines?
03:20The timelines are a little longer.
03:22I think the part is that it's hard to judge because, you know, there are certain things that say there are timelines.
03:29And you do pay money into going into those, but you often get delayed or there might be not enough staff.
03:36And so you're kind of left to guess that you're going to hit that timeline or not.
03:41And then there's extensions.
03:42So it's unpredictable.
03:44It probably takes a long time to just get an extension, doesn't it?
03:46Absolutely.
03:47I can't imagine.
03:48And so, yeah, when I was first out of college, I worked with Elanco Animal Health.
03:52And I think it was 12 years then.
03:54If we found something that we thought might work, the science behind it was pretty darn good, it would take us 12 years to actually get that to the market.
04:02So I think that's about the timeline you're looking at now.
04:05You say 12 years possibly to get something.
04:07And if you find something that might be good for the growers, it takes maybe 12 years now.
04:11Is that what kind of the timeline for you in the U.S.?
04:14Yeah.
04:14It's from development through registration and into hands about 12 years and about $300 million.
04:19It's tough to cash flow for 12 years, guys, if you haven't got a product.
04:22Go ahead, Mr. Cameron.
04:23I've got about 40 seconds.
04:24I'd love to hear from you.
04:25I'll talk quick.
04:26Since you're from California, we want to hear from you too.
04:27No, we see that Brazil is taking the lead in biological use on farms.
04:34And their government has partnered with the companies that are producing this to get the product in the field to the growers.
04:41I'm leaving Saturday to Brazil for a week with Secretary of Ag out of California.
04:45We're going to see what they're up to.
04:46It would be nice if government would come alongside instead of right on our back sometimes, guys.
04:50I appreciate it.
04:51I'll yield back.
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