CropLife America reviews its 2012 accomplishments

Each year, CLA focuses on all four of its overarching strategic plan goals: lead on the top priority issues in our annual business plan; further enhance the reputation of the crop protection industry; retain and increase our membership; and operate our organization in an efficient and ongoing manner.

CLA is proud to represent an industry that continues to evolve and provide farmers and ranchers with the tools they need to grow food for people across our country, and around the world.

We have celebrated many successes in 2012 including:

• The passage of PRIA III and the defeat of California Proposition 37;

• CLA continued to argue that the spray drift label language proposed by EPA was contrary to the FIFRA standard and needs to be revised;

• CLA developed numerous public comments addressing public health, registration issues and support for public funding of food and ag research;

• The resulting paper from the 2011 CLA Science Forum was published in Environmental Health Perspectives (see story below);

• CLA engaged in a proactive and frank discussion about the issues ignited by Rachel Carson's seminal book Silent Spring, and directly addressed the immense progress made by regulatory agencies, industry, farmers and environmental groups over the last 50 years to advance agriculture and human health; and

• CLA began our Pollinator Engagement Program which helps CLA staff and our members proactively engage with key leaders in the beekeeping industry and the public on pollinator health issues through platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.

I encourage you to review CLA's 2012 Annual Report (click here to access the electronic version) to read more about the work and outreach done over the past year.

CLA's tier I business plan priorities (ESA, water issues, modern ag communications outreach, spray drift, sustainability) all saw significant progress, and we remained vigilant on the advancement of our tier II issues, such as chemical site security, adjuvants and electronic labeling as well. Stewardship has remained a key focus, and CLF's director of stewardship initiatives Sarah McLallen unveiled the new CLA Stewardship Strategic Plan which offers a fresh look on more proactively driving product stewardship in the crop protection industry.

All of CLA's 2012 major meetings continue to raise the bar: our annual Spring Conference (in conjunction with RISE), the third annual CLA National Policy Conference, and our incredible joint CLA/RISE Annual Meeting in Amelia Island, FL. All are excellent examples of conferences with stellar content, engaging speakers and landmark member attendance.

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