Council of Producers & Distributors of Agrotechnology

Terry Kippley, CPDA

May 8, 2024

Highlights & Scenes from the CPDA 2024 Adjuvants, Inerts & Crop Protection Conference

Sunny Tucson, AZ was the host for last week’s Adjuvants, Inerts and Crop Protection Conference. With more than 250 people in attendance, representing 102 companies, CPDA members and our agricultural allies enjoyed perfect weather, educational and informative sessions, federal and state legislative updates and an insightful and thought-provoking session focused on Artificial Intelligence from our Executive Leadership Panel.

We designed this year’s conference with five goals in mind.

1. With disruptors everywhere, we wanted to provide participants with a range of topics and perspectives on what this means for our industry and your company. This includes the restructuring going on within Chinese pesticide suppliers, 2,4-D anti-dumping, along with disruptive geo-political events in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. On top of that, it’s a Presidential election year and this time next year our world could look very different.
2. With artificial intelligence trending, senior executives from leading national distributors shared their vision on how to successfully leverage the power of AI. One of the take-home lines from this session is this: “If you don’t like change, you will like irrelevance even less.”
3. CPDA efforts over the past year put us on the cusp of several significant achievements. This includes our work to address Endangered Species Act restrictions by using drift reduction adjuvants. Our ESA Mitigation Committee led by Eileen Bernard of Nutrien and Conor Ferguson of Simplot brought us up to speed about their work to include DRAs as an ESA mitigation tool. Scott Addy anchored this session with the Wilbur-Ellis perspective on how retailers will navigate the ESA regulatory labyrinth. We also heard from our EPA Committee on CPDA’s efforts to reduce the non-Pesticide Registration Improvement Act regulatory submission backlog. Special thanks goes to Nathan Ehresman of Albaugh, Sherry Hutcheson of UPL and Dave Bolin of Atticus for their leadership and for providing the participants with an “inside baseball” look at the work they’ve been doing for the last several years to reduce the backlog.
4. Our legislative panel of political experts provided a focus on our priorities in the upcoming Farm Bill along with a look at activities within the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This was provided by CPDA Strategic Advisor Jay Vroom and Ethan Mathews of Wilbur-Ellis who chairs CPDA’s Legislative Committee. We were also honored to be joined by Western Plant Health’s President & CEO, Renee Pinel who brought us up to speed on the latest development from the nation-state of California. Last, but not least, we were delighted to be joined by CropLife America’s new President & CEO, Alex Dunn where she outlined her vision for the crop protection industry given her unique and valuable background as a former EPA official coupled with her experience as an attorney in private practice. Finally, we were pleased to have Richard Gupton join us for our CPDA Board of Directors meeting on Sunday. Richard is the Vice-President of Public Policy for the Agricultural Retailers Association. In an industry and climate where “collaboration is the new currency,” our work with Renee, Alex and Richard highlights the adage that “working alone is no longer an option.”
5. To keep you up to date with emerging technologies, our Adjuvant University addressed the future of application and formulation technology with an emphasis on biologicals.

Lastly, we want to once again thank our conference sponsors for their support. With your generosity, we are able to continue to advocate for our industry and bring thought leaders to these conferences. Thank you.

A reminder that an email to all attendees with presentations from the conference will be sent out later this month.

One more thing…this has become the “can’t miss” meeting for our industry. To make sure you don’t miss another one, the date and location for the 2025 Adjuvants, Inerts & Crop Protection Conference is set. Please join us in Cape Coral, Florida at the Westin Cape Coral on May 4-8, 2025.

CPDA President Terry Kippley with trade association allies Renee Pinel, Western Plant Health Association; Alex Dunn, CropLife America and Richard Gupton, Agricultural Retailers Association.

State and Federal Affairs Panel; Scott Rawlins, CPDA; Ethan Mathews, Wilbur-Ellis; Renee Pinel, Western Plant Health Assoc.; Jay Vroom, CPDA; Alex Dunn, CropLife America.

CPDA President Terry Kippley with our Senior Executive Leadership Panel. Kevin Hall, CHS; Steve Sinkula, Wilbur-Ellis; Dr. Eric Spandl, WinField United; Elizabeth Fastiggi, Amazon Web Services; Brett Sciotto, Aimpoint Research.

Brett Sciotto, Aimpoint Research, led the Executive Leadership Panel in a discussion about AI strategy and adoption.

Scott Addy, Wilbur-Ellis; Dr. Connor Ferguson, Simplot and Eileen Bernard, Nutrien discussed the commercial impact of the Endangered Species Act.

Sherry Hutcheson, UPL, Dave Bolin, Atticus and Nathan Ehresman, Albaugh discussed the EPA collaboration to reduce non-PRIA backlog.

Adjuvant University speakers: Dr. Connor Ferguson, Simplot; Dr. Bryan Young, Purdue University; Dr. Rodrigo Werle, University of Wisconsin; Dr. Jesaelen Moraes, Blue River Technology; Ronnie Liu, DJI Agriculture; Dr. Steve Li, Auburn University; Eileen Bernard, Nutrien; John Hemminghaus, Ethox Chemicals.

Adjuvant University speakers sat down for a Q&A session at the end of the day to answer questions from the audience.

Until next time...