How many products are under review right now, in 2023? Te answer is 131. Again, wow. Do all of these products impact our industry? No, but some do, and we will continue to work with EPA, so they understand our needs when making key decisions on them in years to come.


We also shared with them the impact on our producers from local grass bans, building codes and regulations that limit grass, water restrictions, etc. Do they have a quick, short, easy answer for any of these items? No. Do they now understand our industry’s perspective and are they willing to continue to work with us to make sure we have a voice? Absolutely.


We wrapped up the trip with a frenzy of legislative meetings where we split our group and hustled between U.S. House and Senate buildings to meet with 16 legislative offices in a little over five hours.


Our Future Leaders got to meet with their legislators from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, and Wisconsin.


Topics of discussion during these meetings included farm labor shortages, natural grass vs. synthetic turf, the role of forever plastics (PFAS) in local communities and the importance of EPA’s Strategic Plan to address them, athlete safety, Farm Bill funding for turfgrass research, and a National Turfgrass Statistics Survey to truly determine the economic impact of our industry.


While in DC, the Future Leaders Fellowship group made a visit to the stadium field of Major League Baseball’s Washington Nationals. Pictured from left to right are Ryan Menken, Matt Duncan, Sarah Nolte, Dr. Casey Reynolds, Ben Boehme, Adam Russell, Kelsey Sandbothe, and Mark Graf.


American Farm Bureau and Legislative Visits


After a full day of agency visits, we switched gears on Wednesday, September 13th


, for meetings with the


American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) and legislative visits in the U.S. House and Senate. Te main topics of discussion at AFBF were labor, the recent change to H2A Wage Rate Calculations that were discussed in detail in the July/August issue of Turf News, grass bans, and checkoff programs. Tey are aware of the impacts of labor being short, and increasingly expensive, and are actively working on legislative support to ease the burden on farms.


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In closing, what is the value of bringing nine seed and sod producers from all over the U.S. and TPI staff to Washington, DC? What is the value of our policy consultant Jonathan Moore setting up meetings with various agencies and legislators? Well, what’s the value of farm plates, agricultural exemptions, not having to purchase electronic logging devices (ELDs),


Covid-19 relief payments, protecting seed and sod acreage through crop insurance, and so on? It’s certainly thousands, or even tens of thousands of dollars, per sod farm and millions of dollars for the industry as a whole.


All of these are things that would not have happened without TPI’s work in recent years. Tey are also key objectives for members of the Future Leaders program to get involved in so that we can continue to have an impact for years to come.


TPI Turf News November/December 2023


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