The state will delay its ban on farmers’ use of treated seeds and extend a waiver process that could allow further use of the seeds.

Delaying the ban was met with approval by the New York Farm Bureau when it was announced earlier this year. In addition to delaying the treated seed ban, the chapter amendment before the state Legislature allows for treated seeds to be used to manage structural pests, removes dinotefuran and acetamiprid from the ban and allows the DEC to add additional treated seeds to its ban through regulation rather than legislation. Pesticide applicators will also be required to take a course each year on the use of treated seeds.

The state Assembly approved the chapter amendment to legislation it passed last year banning the use of treated seeds by a 96-52 vote, largely along party lines with opposition by Assemblyman Andrew Goodell, R-Jamestown, and other Republicans driven by opposition to the ban, not the additional time before the ban takes effect. The legislation already passed the state Senate with state Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, voting against the amendment. It has already been signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul.

“I appreciate that the chapter amendments are a positive step in the right direction because the chapter amendment delays for two years the implementation of a ban that the entire agriculture community opposes,” said Assemblyman Andrew Goodell, R-Jamestown, on the Assembly floor during debate on the chapter amendment. “And I appreciate that the chapter amendment also provides a two-year waiver process because a one-year waiver process is impossible, because by the time you realize you need it you’ve already lost your crop. But even with the amendments this ban does not make environmental sense and it most assuredly does not make sense to our agricultural industry.”

The ban on the sale and use of treated seeds, known scientifically as neonicotinoid treated seeds, will now begin in 2029. A.8571 also delays the state’s prohibition on the use of imidacloprid, thiamethoxam and acetamiprid on ornamental plants and turf by 18 months to 2026 and the usage of clothianidin and dinotefuran by 12 months to 2025. The state DEC will be able to issue waivers that cover two years, but the waivers can’t be issued until the state DEC and state Agriculture and Markets Department create regulations and only if a farm owner completes an integrated pest management training, pest risk assessment for the specific property on which treated are proposed to use, and maintain records of relevant treated seed usage.

The DEC will be required to report each year on the number of waivers it grants.

Fines for those found violating the state’s ban are up to $1,000 for the first violation and up to $2,500 for each future violation.

Goodell continued the argument he made before the ban’s 2023 approval in the Assembly that there is little evidence that treated seeds are causing adverse health effects and that the legislature shouldn’t act until the DEC recommends a ban on treated seeds.

Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, D-New York City, said the ban is warranted in light of chemicals like asbestos and PFAS, forever chemicals that were used in cookware and firefighting foam that were later found to be toxic.

“This material gets into the waterways,” Glick said. “It gets into fish. It gets into our food supply. It is important for us to recognize that not everything that we thought made life easier is actually healthful. This is why we are respecting the concerns and have delayed some of the implementation. But we are behind the curve. There are other places where they have banned these materials long before we have.”