Pesticide Restrictions and Registration Delays: Implications of California’s Sustainable Pest Management for the Lettuce Industry

Effective pest management ensures the safety and quality of California produce, protects producers, and maintains export market access. California’s new Sustainable Pest Management (SPM) framework targets removal of certain priority pesticides but also seeks to reduce economic risk to growers and activate new markets to drive SPM. Removing pesticide products from the registered list of allowable pest control agents increases the need for new pesticides. However, pesticides that are federally approved can be delayed for use in California by 1–3 years. We evaluate the economic implications of SPM and California’s registration process for lettuce.