AGRICULTURE

EPA Criticized for Allowing Pesticide Use: The head of an environmental group criticized the government for allowing use of an unregistered pesticide by grape growers in California and Arizona. Jay Feldman, executive director of the National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides, called the action taken last month one of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator William K. Reilly’s “parting political gifts to the pesticide lobby.” The pesticide, hydrogen cyanamide, can be used to promote uniform ripening of next spring’s crop, EPA Assistant Administrator Linda Fisher said, and had been used for several years under previous “emergency use” declarations based on showings by the grape industry that it was needed to avert economic losses. A California state application for its use in 1992 was denied, however, and the agency’s pesticide office had refused use again for next year. Reilly reversed that decision, Fisher said, after the manufacturer completed tests to register the product.