THE EFFECT OF LABELING HERBICIDES WITH THEIR SITE OF ACTION : A CANADIAN PERSPECTIVE

Industry, public-sector researchers and extension agents, and growers were surveyed in 1998 to determine their perspectives on how labeling herbicides with their site of action (group number) would affect the herbicide use practices of growers. The crop protection industry in Canada represented by the Crop Protection Institute (CPI) generally supports herbicide resistance labeling but has some concerns regarding the wording of the labels, including the identification symbol. Most researchers and extension agents believe that labeling herbicides with their site of action will facilitate herbicide group rotation by growers who frequently use herbicides from the same group. Of the twothirds of the 126 surveyed growers who were familiar with herbicide groupings, 58% practiced herbicide group rotation. Those who did not tended to lack understanding of the basis and purpose of herbicide classification. Grower responses were similar to those from the research and extension community, although only 29% of the growers who currently do not rotate herbicides from different groups believed that resistance management labeling would influence them. Additional index words: Surveys, herbicide group rotation, resistance management labeling. Abbreviations: CPI, Crop Protection Institute; ECW, Expert Committee on Weeds; EPA, Environmental Protection Agency; NAFTA, North American Free Trade Agreement; PCA, principal components analysis; PMRA, Pest Management Regulatory Agency; WSSA, Weed Science Society of America.