WASHINGTON – Following a ruling from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in the case of Anderson v. EPA this week, the American Soybean Association (ASA) welcomed a significantly positive development in the ongoing fight to protect farmers’ rights to use proven-safe seed treatments. In the court, the ruling sided with EPA and an industry coalition of intervenors including ASA, CropLife America, American Seed Trade Association, Agricultural Retailers Association, National Cotton Council of America, National Association of Wheat Growers and National Corn Growers Association in confirming that additional regulation would unnecessarily duplicate EPA’s existing science-based regulatory review. ASA President Richard Wilkins, who farms in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed in Greenwood, Del., issued the following statement on the news: “Monday’s ruling is a big step forward in the push for a science-based system. The federal ruling underscores how activists use lawsuits to force duplicative additional regulations to tie up farmer productivity. Our farmers make their decisions based on science, and as such, need regulations based on that same sound science. We appreciate the ruling today, and hope that it will signal a respect for pragmatic regulation moving forward.”