1. Seed Dust Working Group
July 2017 CSTA Annual Meeting Update

2. Genesis Neonicotinoid restrictions in Ontario
Concern other seed treatments could be targeted over time
Raised by multiple stakeholder groups
Industry, grower, academia
Goal to mitigate risks or reasons for government to restrict other seed treatments
Fugitive seed dust identified as key variable to manage given majority of corn and soybeans planted with a negative pressure air planter
ESA previously identified and put protocols in place to benchmark and measure

3. Timeline Original meetings winter 2016
Initial meeting February 18th, 2017
Sub committee meeting March 7, 2018
Subsequent phone conference to discuss next steps

4. Seed Dust Working Group
Working Group Objectives Discussed February 2017:
Establish Canadian stewardship system for fugitive dust
Establish agreed upon benchmarks for fugitive dust measurement and reduction
Ensure third party verification to address industry and public scrutiny
Strive for continuous improvement as technology evolves
Utilize a multi-pronged approach to fugitive dust management

5. Seed Dust Working Group
Working Group Objectives Discussed February 2017:
Engage multi stakeholder group as stewardship initiative is developed and implemented
Seed companies
Seed treatment companies
Farmers
Equipment companies
Regulatory officials

6. Seed Dust Working Group
Industry driven process and protocols to benchmark and improve seed treatment dust-off over time –March Guelph
Goal to create standardized third party testing used by seed companies that can be transparent to the public
To utilize ESA derived standards g/100,000 seeds of corn
To be managed by AWSA as complementary to warehouse protocols
Goal to develop positioning points on testing that can be used by industry
Goal to use with government officials to advocate pro-active stewardship
Agreed to have third party verify testing protocols for public scrutiny
Start with corn and use as potential model for other crops
ESA Standards in place for most crops except soybeans

7. Seed Dust Working Group
Initial discussions re working with Ridgetown College using Heubach
Seed company agreement to submit samples for a set cost as a trial
Discussions and proposal from Art Schaafsma re using current testing protocol and also adding dust
Concerns raised by manufacturers around need for third part testing
Concerns raised about who should be the third party
Concerns around the testing protocol as outlined

8. June 13th Summary and Communication to Working Group Members
Goal:
To create an industry lead stewardship initiative to reinforce industry commitment and action related to dust off of seed treatments with results that can be communicated to government and the general public

9. June 13th Summary and Communication to Working Group Members
June 13th Summary and Communication to Working Group Members
Strategy:
As pilot project CSTA to adopt the European dust-off standard used for corn as the benchmark for voluntary dust-off compliance in Canada (agreed by all)
Use seed corn as the pilot crop and then consider extending to other crops across Canada based on further discussions within the CSTA starting with the Seed Applied Technologies Committee (agreed by all)
Manage stewardship and measurement under the AWSA treatment facility program (agreed by all)
Utilize the Heubach testing method and protocol as used by companies currently as accepted by the PMRA and ESA (no dust)

10. June 13th Summary and Communication to Working Group Members
June 13th Summary and Communication to Working Group Members
On a voluntary basis, corn companies to submit agreed upon number of samples of different hybrids and seed sizes annually to a third party lab for testing using the Heubach method.
Once results collected, data may be compared against PMRA/ESA established criteria
Establish baseline industry numbers  
Need for further discussion to determine number of years the pilot should run
CSTA to coordinate testing with a third party provider
CSTA to reach out to several universities and labs to tender for the service
There are limited options
Research contract and non-disclosure agreement developed by CSTA
Input from seed companies, to be agreed to by the service provider
Template circulated
Data summaries with a comparison against the PMRA/ESA criterion
To be provided to all participants without identification of company or hybrid.
Companies to be contacted ASAP should sample results exceed the PMRA/ESA criterion for further research and/or investigation

11. June 13th Summary and Communication to Working Group Members
June 13th Summary and Communication to Working Group Members
Recommendations
Questions