06/28/05 Safe communities, safe environment

The American Agronomic Stewardship Alliance is a partnership made up of three major players within the agriculture chemical and technology industry & Crop Life America, The Agricultural Retailers Association, and The Fertilizer Institute. The purpose of this new group is to launch the first ever consolidated stewardship inspection and accreditation program for agricultural retail facilities that store bulk, mini bulk, and packaged crop protection products. VROOM: The joint confluence if you will and interest of all three organizations and their members is to find newer better ways to secure our products from a homeland security standpoint, as well as improve the overall environmental stewardship performance of our industry at the places most likely to be potential sources of problems. That's Crop Life President and C.E.O. Jay Vroom, who is part of the Alliance. He adds that any program like the one being introduced Thursday at an industry get-together at The McGregor Company's Waitsburg Washington facilities, must also take into account efficiency so that local and national retailers do not waste resources while protecting the environment and stewarding products from fertilizers to seeds. In turn, that efficiency should benefit growers economically from a feasibility standpoint. The single checklist and national schedule for inspecting and accrediting ag retail facilities is designed to replace the duplicative bulk inspections of facilities conducted by manufacturers over the last fifteen years. The hope is that all facilities in the U.S. will be inspected by next year, with then facilities receiving inspection on a three year cycle. Vroom says one reason for the kick-off event being held at The McGregor Company's facilities is their long standing record of complying and exceeding governmental and industry standards for safety and environmental protections. VROOM: And that would include things like insuring that there are paved loading platforms where the spray trucks are loaded at the dealership so that any spills that might occur during loading of those spray rigs or the tender rigs can be collected and don't end up getting into the environment seeping into the ground water and the like. Other safety measures on display include secondary dike containment around large tanks, and safeguards to make sure facilities are secure when personnel are not on site.