Loss of Atrazine Would Wipe Out 21,000 to 48,000 Jobs Dependant on Agriculture

Released on: July 08, 2010, 4:25 am
Author:
Triazine Network/Kansas Corn Growers Association
Industry:
Agriculture
Banning the agricultural herbicide atrazine would cost between
21,000 and 48,000 jobs from corn production losses alone, according to
University of Chicago economist Don L. Coursey, Ph.D.
Dr. Coursey announced his findings at a briefing sponsored by the Triazine Network
today at the National Press Club in Washington.
Coursey estimates atrazine’s annual production value to corn alone to be between
$2.3 billion and $5 billion. Atrazine’s additional value to sorghum, sugar cane and
other uses increases these totals.
“The economic data on atrazine are very clear. As a first-order estimate, banning
atrazine will erase between 21,000 and 48,000 jobs related to or dependant on corn
production, with additional job losses coming from both sugar cane and sorghum
production losses,” Coursey said. “The range is wide because we have never before banned a product on which so many
depend and for which suitable replacements have a wide variety of prices and
application regimes.”
“If all of that job loss were concentrated in the agricultural sector, its
unemployment would grow by as much as 2.6 percent. Replacement costs for corn
farmers could reach as high as $58 per acre,” Coursey said.
Atrazine has been a mainstay of corn, sorghum and sugar cane production for 50
years. The second most-used herbicide in the U.S., it controls a broad range of
yield-robbing weeds, is safe for the crop and supports a variety of farming systems,
including soil-saving conservation-till agriculture.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) re-registered atrazine in 2006 based
on the evidence of nearly 6,000 studies and more than 80,000 public comments. It
began an additional, unscheduled review of atrazine in late 2009.
“Atrazine is essential to U.S. agriculture. We appreciate Dr. Coursey’s findings
and will distribute them to our members, the EPA and to our elected representatives.
With unemployment still painfully high across the nation, we can’t afford to lose
as many as 50,000 jobs and the corn yield that sustains them,” said Jere White,
Triazine Network chairman and executive director of the Kansas Corn Growers
Association.
EPA cited a media report and claims by a longtime anti-atrazine group when it
announced the additional, unscheduled review. It was the first time in history EPA
did not cite sound science to initiate a review process.
Coursey’s statement can be viewed at http://agsense.org/.
Coursey is the Ameritech Professor of Public Policy Studies in the Harris School at
the University of Chicago, where he served as dean from 1996 to 1998.
About The Triazine Network
The Triazine Network was established in 1995 in response to U.S. EPA’s November 1994
decision to initiate a special review of the triazine herbicides, including
atrazine, simazine and cyanazine. Since its inception, Triazine Network members have
advocated use of sound science and established scientific methods to evaluate the
health and environmental impacts of the triazine herbicides.
Contact:
Sue Schulte
Triazine Network/Kansas Corn Growers Association
785-448-6922
kansascorn@embarqmail.com

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