Chlorpyrifos was banned but 11 crops got exemptions, creating a two-tier system where some farmers have pest control and their neighbors growing other crops do not

In December 2024, the EPA proposed a rule banning most food uses of chlorpyrifos, an organophosphate insecticide that was for decades the most widely used insecticide in U.S. agriculture. But the ban includes exemptions for 11 specific crops: alfalfa, apple, asparagus, tart cherry, citrus, cotton, peach, soybean, strawberry, sugar beet, and spring/winter wheat. As of July 1, 2025, growers of every other crop -- including most vegetables, tree nuts, and specialty crops -- lost access to chlorpyrifos with no guaranteed equivalent replacement. The United Nations' Stockholm Convention subsequently listed chlorpyrifos for global elimination under Annex A, further cementing the phase-out. The two-tier system creates perverse outcomes. A peach grower can still use chlorpyrifos to control Oriental fruit moth, but a nectarine grower next door cannot, even though the crops are botanically almost identical and face the same pests. Vegetable growers who relied on chlorpyrifos for soil-dwelling pests like wireworms and root maggots must now use alternatives that are often less effective, more expensive, or have narrower pest spectra. For some pest-crop combinations, there is simply no registered alternative with comparable efficacy. University of Florida researchers have explicitly advised producers on cancelled crops that 'finding alternatives is advisable,' acknowledging that good alternatives may not exist. The transition cost -- trialing new products, adjusting application equipment, potentially accepting higher pest damage -- falls entirely on the farmer, with no government assistance for the transition. This problem persists because of how pesticide regulation handles risk-benefit analysis. The 11 exempted crops were those where EPA determined the benefits of chlorpyrifos use outweighed the health risks, considering the availability of alternatives and the economic importance of the crop. But this crop-by-crop calculus ignores the reality that pests do not respect crop boundaries. A root maggot population that thrives in an untreated vegetable field migrates to adjacent fields. More fundamentally, the exemption system was a political compromise between agricultural interests that wanted continued access and health advocates who documented chlorpyrifos's neurodevelopmental toxicity in children. The result satisfies neither side: farmers growing non-exempt crops lose a critical tool, while health advocates point out that any continued use exposes farmworkers and communities. Meanwhile, the exemption creates a competitive distortion where cotton and soybean growers retain a cost-effective pest control option that vegetable growers -- often smaller, more diversified operations -- do not.