Reduced-risk fungicides help manage brown rot and other fungal diseases of stone fruit

IN 1996, the U.S. Congress unanimously passed the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA). Among other things, the law formalized the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Reduced-Risk Pesticide Program (initiated in 1993) and mandated that EPA continue to enhance it (EPA 2003, 2004). The FQPA expedited EPA’s review and registration decision-making process for pesticides that are classified as less risky to human health and the environment than existing conventional products. The advantages of reduced-risk pesticides may include: low mammalian toxicity, and in turn fewer risks to human health; low toxicity to nontarget organisms (such as bees, birds, fish and plants); low potential for groundwater contamination; low use rates; and compatibility with integrated pest management (IPM) practices (Adaskaveg et al. 2002). Concurrently, agrochemical companies were on the verge of developing a plethora of new fungicides and fungicide classes, many of which qualified for reduced-risk status. The simultaneous development of these new fungicides by several manufacturers was unparalleled in the history of fungicide or other pesticide discovery and registration (Hewitt 1998; Uesugi 1998). At the same time, however, the ongoing reregistration of older fungicides and other pesticides — mandated by Congress with amendments to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) in 1988 — made it financially prohibitive for agrochemical companies to reregister fungicides in the low-profit postharvest market. Postharvest fungicides that were not reregistered after 1996 included benomyl (Benlate), thiophanate-methyl (TopsinM), triforine (Funginex) and iprodione Ja ck K el ly C la rk