As the theme of the symposium notes, introduction of genetically modified row crops to the Midwestern U.S. and Southern Canada some 25 years ago signaled the beginning of a new agronomic era. With the introduction of insect- and herbicide-resistant crops, there was a dynamic shift in the profile of pesticide use. Coupled with this shift have been three eras of regulatory overhaul of pesticide regulation: 1) health-assessment-driven changes in labeling resulting from 1988 amendments to FIFRA ("reregistration") and the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act, 2) environmental-assessment-driven changes in labeling resulting from registration review, now a 15-year cyclical process emerged reregistration, and 3) now a third era driven by endangered species review and consultation. This presentation will examine historical "regulatory eras," defining the "New Era" as endangered species review in the context of Midwestern agriculture, environmental quality, human well-being, and the agrochemical enterprise. Within the New Era, there have also been cycles. For agriculture, each era, and its internal cycles, have meant regulatory retooling, registration uncertainties, and often what seemed as sudden and major product cancellations, leaving growers scrambling to find alternate products to protect their crops until a slew of cancellations was overcome by the introduction of new active ingredients. Considering the attention now given to environmental protection, we forget the first formative years when society began to recognize a greater need to protect imperilled species, and the time - and cost - it has taken to impose a new paradigm. For example, concern about the effect of DDT on the enviornment resulted in a series of cancellations of uses of DDT beginning in 1958, with few domestic crop uses remaining when DDT was cancelled completely in 1972. Despite their having been the "campaign species" for lobbying for DDT cancellation, the perigrine falcon was not listed as an imperilled species until 1970 (under the Endangered Species Conservation Act of 1969) and the bald eagle was not listed until 1978, six years after the modern Endangred Species Act was passed in 1972. Both have been delisted, the perigrine in 1999 and the bald eagle in 2007. This presentation will explore how these older lessons, and the scene playing out in the "New Era," result in what we will call an agricultural "Lurch Effect:" the abrupt, unsteady, uncontrolled impact of series of regulatory actions.

Endangered species and the row crop revolution: Finding a balance between agricultural efficiency, environmental sustainability, and regulatory stability

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