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Environmental Fate
The commercial release of agricultural chemicals in the environment must be done in such a way as to protect our natural resources and preserve the delicate ecological balance for future generations.
 
 

pesticide effects to natureEvery agricultural product has unique chemical and biological characteristics that affect it’s longevity in the field. This environmental persistence determines many important usage variables, such as potential geographic markets, cropping groups, formulation types, harvest intervals, crop irrigation allowances, and the total active ingredient registered on a crop. It is well known that long lived compounds are more difficult to work with and register through governmental agencies. In these cases, mitigation measures such as reduced rates, extended pre-harvest intervals, limits on the number of applications, or the use of buffer zones in ecologically sensitive areas are often used to protect the environment.

Pacific Ag Group can assist with such studies that help determine the specific environmental half lives of active ingredients. This is accomplished through a staff of trained field biologists and technicians that work in the field to support laboratory determinations in soil and aquatic dissipation studies, crop and rotational crop residue (RAC) trials and air monitoring (flux) studies. The equipment inventory at the San Luis Obispo facility includes a tractor mounted soil sampling unit for sampling of cores up to 10 m in depth, a GLP unit for RAC studies including current software for electronic notebook documentation, ample GLP maintained cold storage, and a staff that includes scientists with published work on pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables. This level of expertise is simply unavailable outside of a few major Universities or key agrichemical manufacturer’s laboratories.