The emerging plant biostimulant industry shows tremendous promise. One of the potential barriers to growth for the industry; however, relates to the current regulatory uncertainty for plant biostimulant products. Several governments, including the United States and European Union (among others) have begun to evaluate the potential regulatory and legislative reforms necessary to ensure regulatory certainty for this product category. Examples of Current Regulatory Challenges: 1) Definitions: The term “biostimulant” is in broad use by industry globally but no U.S. agency, at the state or federal level, includes a legal definition of plant biostimulants. The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 describes a plant biostimulant, “to be a substance or micro- organism that, when applied to seeds, plants, or the rhizosphere, stimulates natural processes to enhance or benefit nutrient uptake, nutrient efficiency, tolerance to abiotic stress, or crop quality and yield”. It is certain that an extensive list of related subcategory terms and definitions will need to be developed to provide all stakeholders greater understanding of this broad category of products.  2) Claims: Plant biostimulant manufacturers/developers are prohibited from calling their products “biostimulants” and limited in the benefit claims they can make.  3) Variance by Regulatory Agency/State: Companies must either register their product as a pesticide with EPA or as a soil amendment, plant amendment, beneficial substance or fertilizer in every state they wish to market. Neither path is truly appropriate for these products and both can be unnecessarily burdensome, costly, complex and confusing for developers, regulators and consumers. 4) Pathways to Reform: We will address potential regulatory and legislative reforms that will help resolve some of the above issues for all relevant stakeholders.

U.S. regulation and legislation impacting the plant biostimulant industry

2019 Fall National Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.