During a House Agriculture Committee hearing in July, Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-IL) asked Don Cameron, Vice President and General Manager of Terranova Ranch, about layoffs at the Environmental Protection Agency.
00:00He's recognized the gentleman from Illinois, Mr. Jackson, for five minutes.
00:04Thank you very much, Chairman. I appreciate each one of you coming out today for your testimony.
00:08I'd like to first start with Mr. Abbott. You noted in your testimony that the Maha Commission's report,
00:15quote, undermines trust in the regulatory process by citing unverifiable sources,
00:22omitting key stakeholders' voices, including farmers.
00:25How about that? We're missing farmers at the table.
00:28Food producers and scientists and making sweeping claims not grounded in the science or structure of the current systems, close quote.
00:38I agree and I'm concerned that Maha's stated goals diverge strongly from that what was reported in this document.
00:46Moving forward, what would you like to see from the Commission to believe that they are actually engaging in honest scientific process?
00:54Well, thank you for your question, Congressman.
00:59I just would really like to see it based in science.
01:03I mean, that's how we've gotten to where we're at today.
01:06That's how we've gotten the tools that the farmers use today and where we're going to go in the future.
01:11So we need sound science reviews.
01:14And then I can't speak for the Maha Commission and what they've been doing, but what I can say is we all want safe, healthy food for not only our children, but our own families and everybody, right?
01:27So it's all about food security and food safety.
01:30Well, thank you so much.
01:31We need a few more farmers and producers at the table and a few less lawyers, correct?
01:35Absolutely.
01:37Thank you so much.
01:38Mr. Cameron, in your testimony, you mentioned EPA being understaffed.
01:42I share this concern and I worry that EPA will not be able to approve the novel products or get through their backlog of registrations review.
01:52As we see increasing resistance to existing pesticides and a shift in consumer sentiment towards a reduction in pesticides, how critical is it that you get access to new products?
02:04I think it's actually really critical for farmers to have new products in their hands, either biologicals or more specific, targeted crop protection products.
02:19We know that the public would like to see more of these.
02:22There's a hesitancy in traditional pesticides being used on crops.
02:28You know, we know they're safe, but we would really appreciate seeing new products get through the process much quicker.
02:36We're dealing, even ones that are coming out now have been in that process for five to ten years.
02:41So we're dealing with older technology already.
02:44We know that technology is moving fast with AI.
02:48New products are coming quicker, but they're getting backlogged at EPA and they're not getting into the farmer's hands.
02:55We'd love to see that changed.
02:59I agree with you as well.
03:00We need to make sure there are more scientists, not fewer, that we can keep and preserve this great benefit we have on being a nation that can feed the world.
03:08And that innovation starts with education and research.
03:12Unfortunately, we have taken a retreat on cutting back on that scientific progress.
03:17And also, let's be clear, you don't always get the thing that you were investigating.
03:20Sometimes there's an ancillary, there's something serendipitous, another surprise just from doing the research.
03:27For Mr. Witherby, thank you so much for your time and attention being here.
03:32You've seen an increase in resistance to pesticides over the years with limited new chemical development.
03:38How do technologies such as arginines improve our ability to fight pests and limit chemicals in the environment?
03:46And I must say, as a nation, as we speak today in 2025, and we're experiencing a heat dome, and we've seen flash floods, and we've seen these new weather patterns where some parts of the nation are experiencing drought, others are experiencing rainfall, and now we're under this heat.
04:03That this just doesn't start with the pesticides, there are heat-resistant grains that have to be produced because our climate is altering.
04:12Will you please speak to that?
04:14Yeah, I still think it's the science that's going to lead us there, and part of it is part of these solutions.
04:20You know, as the climate changes, as the pests change, how they migrate, how they move, we're going to need these tools available.
04:29It's not going to be one silver bullet that ever solves it.
04:31It's going to be the science that leads us there.
04:33It's going to be multiple products.
04:34It's going to be putting it into the hands of the users to best find out how to do that.
04:39Part of that research is really important that, you know, we're talking about these land-grant universities having land where they can test these new products in the environments that they're going to be used.
04:50Part of that investment's got to be on crops.
04:53Part of early development, you can't, you have to do crop destruct.
04:57No grower, no farmer is really going to want to test something new if they have to destroy the crop and not take profit from it.
05:03So we need the land-grant universities to be able to do some of that testing.
05:07They're also trusted by the growers and the farmers.
05:09It's very important.
05:10Well, I thank each and every you, Dr. Ward.
05:12I look forward to working with you in the future.
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