CropLife America

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This article is part of the Food Rights Network, a project of the Center for Media and Democracy. Find out more here.

CropLife America is a trade association representing the manufacturers of pesticides and other agricultural chemicals. It was formerly known as the American Crop Protection Association, and before that as the National Agricultural Chemicals Association.

CropLife America's rhetoric, and its name, indicates a shift in the pesticide industry's rhetoric and approach to public relations in the last decade. "CropLife America's mission," says its website, "is to foster the interests of the general public and CropLife America member companies by promoting innovation and the environmentally sound manufacture, distribution and use of crop protection and production technologies for safe, high-quality, affordable and abundant food, fiber and other crops."

The pesticide industry hopes to be known as the "crop protection" industry. The image it presents is one of a hi-tech, efficient, responsible, and green industry that is already thoroughly regulated to assure the safety of its products. While the industry quietly pursues an anti-regulatory agenda to assure no pesticides would be removed from the market, its trade association claims its aim is to "promote increasingly responsible, science-driven legislation and regulation."

The agricultural chemicals industry's new public face closely resembles the public image of the chemical industry's largest trade group, the American Chemistry Council, under the umbrella of "Responsible Care."

In 2002, CropLife America launched a public relations campaign that emphasized the everyday uses of pesticides and ag biotech, which it says the public often overlooks. This included safe food, and protecting homes and schools, it said. "For too long our industry had focused exclusively on promoting our successes in safety assessment and management," said CropLife president Jay Vroom. "These messages, including rigorous testing and EPA regulations, are valid and continue to resonate, but they are not enough," said Vroom. (Chemical Week; New York; Apr 10, 2002, volume 164, issue 15, p.5)

CropLife shares office space with Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment (RISE), a lobbying and public relations trade organization for the pesticide and fertilizer industry.

In March 2004, CropLife poured funding into a campaign to defeat a Mendocino County ballot initiative - known as Measure H - that would make the country the first to ban genetically engineered crops. In the lead up the the vote CropLife contributed over $500,000 - more than seven times that of the initiative supporters - to defeat the proposal.[1] Despite the massive campaign against the initiative, the bio-tech industry suffered a humiliating defeat. The measure passed by a margin of 56% to 43%.[2]

Els Cooperrider, the owner of a Ukiah organic brew pub and a champion of the initiative told the Press Democrat "passage of Measure H is just the beginning. We're the first county, but the revolution is just starting".[3]

Documents Contained at the Anti-Environmental Archives
Documents written by or referencing this person or organization are contained in the Anti-Environmental Archive, launched by Greenpeace on Earth Day, 2015. The archive contains 3,500 documents, some 27,000 pages, covering 350 organizations and individuals. The current archive includes mainly documents collected in the late 1980s through the early 2000s by The Clearinghouse on Environmental Advocacy and Research (CLEAR), an organization that tracked the rise of the so called "Wise Use" movement in the 1990s during the Clinton presidency. Access the index to the Anti-Environmental Archives here.

Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council

CropLife America is a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). It is a member of its Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force.[4][5] CropLife America Senior Director of Government Affairs Jeff Case is co-chair of the Agriculture Subcommittee[6][7] as of 2013.[8][9]

About ALEC
ALEC is a corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporations hand state legislators their wishlists to benefit their bottom line. Corporations fund almost all of ALEC's operations. They pay for a seat on ALEC task forces where corporate lobbyists and special interest reps vote with elected officials to approve “model” bills. Learn more at the Center for Media and Democracy's ALECexposed.org, and check out breaking news on our PRWatch.org site.

Lobbying Activities

2012 lobbying data:

Lobbying Firm Amount Reported Issue
Alpine Group $60,000 H.R. 872, Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act of 2011 Reauthorization of the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act S. 3240, Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2012, Issues relating to the implementation of the Food Safety Quality Protection Act of 1996 relating to the use and approval of crop protection chemicals, Toxic Substances Control Act H.R. 553, Endocrine Disruptor Screening Enhancement of 2011 H.R. 901, Chemical Facility Security Improvement Act of 2011.
Bergeson & Campbell $40,000 Issues relating to the Farm Bill and USDA conservation programs, Issues relating to NPDES permits for aquatic pesticides and "Waters of the U.S." guidance. Issues relating to pesticide use and registration.
Cornerstone Government Affairs $20,000 Industry user fees, and FIFRA and Food Quality Protection Act.
Croplife America $1,040,000 H.R. 901, Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Security Authorization Act of 2011 H.R. 908, Full Implementation of the Chemical Facility Antiterrorism Security Act of 2011 H.R. 916, Continuing Chemical Facilities Antiterrorism Security Act of 2011 S. 473, Continuing Chemical Facilities Antiterrorism Security Act of 2011, S. 847, A bill to amend the Toxic Substances Control Act to ensure that risks from chemicals are adequately understood and managed, and for other purposes H.R. 910, Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011 S. 482, Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011

H.R. 1363, Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Amendments, 2011 HJ Res 44, Further Continuing Appropriations Amendments, 2011 HJ Res 48, Additional Continuing Appropriations Amendments of 2011 H Con. Res 34, FY 2012 Budget Resolution H.R. 1, Full Year Continuing Appropriations, 2011 H.R. 2112, Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2012 H.R. 2584, Department of Interior, Enviornment, and Related Agencies Appropriations, 2012 H.R. 2018, Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act H.R. 872, Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act of 2011 S. 718, A bill to amend the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act to improve the use of certain registered pesticides H.R. 553, Endocrine Disruptor Screening Enhancement Act of 2011 H.R. 2521, Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals Exposure Elimination Act of 2011 S. 1361, Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals Exposure Elimination Act of 2011 S. 875, Drinking Water Right to Know Act S. 76, Strengthening Protections for Children and Communities from Disease Clusters Act H.R. 2596, CJS, Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2012 S. 2245, Preserve the Waters of the United States Act

Crowell & Moring LLp $40,000 Advice and counsel of pesticide regulatory matters including application of Clean Water Act permitting requirements to pesticide applications (H.R. 872), and US EPA's Clean Water Act guidance related to "Waters of the US".
EOP Group $60,000 HR 872 - MPDES Permit Bill, H 1473, Consolidated Appropriations Act 2012, FY 2013 Concurrent Resolution Endangered Species effects on agriculture Pesticide Registration - Fees, proposals to register the use of pesticides in schools. Issues relating to the implementation of the Food Safety Quality Act of 1996, relating to the use and approval of crop pesticide chemicals.
James Nichols Ashmore and Associates $160,000 Congressional consideration of issues associated with the development of the congressional budget for fiscal 2013 (H. Con. Res. 112) and how these deliberations might impact onf authorization and appropriations legislation addressing programs and issues of importance to the crop protection industry, Congressional efforts to reauthorize the General Farm Act and how those efforts and issues associated with those efforts and matters under consideration could impact on issues of importance to the crop protection industry in the United States. Administrative actions under consideration by the Environmental Protection Agency pursuant to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), and how those actions could impact on state agencies that have assumed enforcement responsibility under FIFRA or how those actions could impact on other matters of importance to the crop protection industry

In 2008, Croplife spent $2 million on lobbying.[10] It spent $1.8 million in 2009,[11] $2.3 million in 2010, and 2.4 million in 2011.[12]

IRS Reported 990 Forms

Contact

CropLife America
1156 15th St. NW, Ste. 400
Washington DC 20005
Phone: 202-296-1585
Fax: 202-463-0474
Web: http://www.croplifeamerica.org

Articles and Resources

Related SourceWatch Articles

Related PRWatch Articles

External Articles

References

  1. ↑ Mike Geniella, "Biotech backers pile on cash in Mendocino: $150,000 to fight modified crop ban brings total to $500,000", The Press Democrat, March 2, 2004.
  2. ↑ "Mendocino County: Measures", The Press Democrat, March 4, 2004.
  3. ↑ Mike Geniella, "Mendocino County voters ban biotech crops: First county in U.S. to bar gene-altered farming", The Press Democrat, March 3, 2004.
  4. ↑ American Legislative Exchange Council, RE: 35-DAY MAILING -- STATES AND NATION POLICY SUMMIT (Nov.-Dec. 2011), organizational meeting agenda, October 27, 2011, documents made public by Common Cause, April 26, 2012
  5. ↑ American Legislative Exchange Council, Natural Resources Task Force Committee Roster 2 As of 6/30/2011, organizational task force membership directory, June 30, 2011, p. 17, obtained and released by Common Cause April 2012
  6. ↑ American Legislative Exchange Council, JOINT ENERGY AND AGRICULTURE SUBCOMMITTEE 2012 SPRING TASK FORCE SUMMIT MAY 11, 2012 TENTATIVE AGENDA, organizational document, April 6, 2012, p. 6, obtained and released by Common Cause April 2012
  7. ↑ American Legislative Exchange Council, AGRICULTURE SUBCOMMITTEE 2011 STATES AND NATION POLICY SUMMIT NOVEMBER 30, 2011 TENTATIVE AGENDA, organizational document, October 27, 2011, p. 5, obtained and released by Common Cause April 2012
  8. ↑ American Legislative Exchange Council, ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT AND AGRICULTURE TASK FORCE 35-Day Mailing - 2013 Annual Meeting, organizational document, July 3, 2013, on file with CMD.
  9. ↑ Brendan Fischer, What's on ALEC's Agenda for its 40th Anniversary Meeting in Chicago?, PRWatch, August 7, 2013.
  10. ↑ Opensecrets: Lobbying Profile for Croplife: Croplife. Accessed July 27th, 2012
  11. ↑ Opensecrets: Lobbying Profile for Croplife: Croplife. Accessed July 27th, 2012.
  12. ↑ Opensecrets: Lobbying Profile for Croplife: Croplife. Accessed July 27th, 2012
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