At the Association of American Plant Food Control Officials (AAPFCO) Winter Annual Conference, on February 19th, AAPFCO state membership voted unanimously to approve the “Uniform Beneficial Substances Bill”.

The landmark uniform bill formally defines plant biostimulants and beneficial substances, as well as a standardized label format, across the United States.

The conference hosted 175 attendees from the fertilizer and related agriculture industries, and included U.S. state regulatory control officials from 25 states, plus Canada.

“The importance of a single plant biostimulant label across all 50 states cannot be understated,” said AAPFCO President Mark LeBlanc. “The regulatory landscape for plant biostimulants can vary considerably across the states and leads to inconsistencies and confusion among producers, consumers and regulatory bodies. Our model legislation provides a regulatory platform that will be available for states to adopt to provide a consistent path to market for these important new tools.”

AAPFCO Biostimulant Committee Chairman and former AAPFCO President Nick Young added: “The unanimous passage of this model bill will ultimately save the fertilizer industry and state governments time and money, as it provides the framework to better streamline regulation of these novel products and ingredients.”

AAPFCO’s Methods Forum followed the conference Feb. 21-22, 2024, to discuss lab analysis standards, methodologies and adoption guidance for a number of plant biostimulant ingredients.