Japanese Beetle Down & Injunction on Prop 65 Impact on Glyphosate

**The Washington State Department of Agriculture’s Pest Program saw its first substantial decline in Japanese beetle numbers this summer in Yakima, Benton and Franklin counties, but over a wider area.

Japanese beetles were first detected in Grandview and Sunnyside in 2020 and mass trapping helped keep the numbers steady in 2021 and 22.

WSDA conducted a treatment for Japanese beetles this spring and hopes to see a further decline next year.

**The U.S. Ninth Circuit Appeals recently affirmed a district court permanent injunction prohibiting California's Proposition 65 warning requirement related to glyphosate.

The proposition did not ban the use of glyphosate, but California attempted to apply Prop 65 to glyphosate in 2017 following the 2015 ruling that glyphosate is an animal carcinogen and a probable human carcinogen.

The National Association of Wheat Growers welcomed the court's response of a permanent injunction.

**Prices paid for crop seed increased significantly faster than the prices farmers received for crop commodities between 1990 and 2020.

During that period, the average prices farmers paid for all seed rose by 270%, while the crop commodity price index rose 56%.

For crops planted predominantly with genetically modified seed, like corn soybeans, and cotton, those seed prices rose by an average of 463% between 1990 and 2020.