Bt Corn Farmer Compliance with Insect Resistance Management Requirements in Minnesota and Wisconsin

Abstract

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) re-registered Bt corn in 2001 with mandatory insect resistance management (IRM) requirements in order to promote sustainable use by farmers. Since then studies have reported IRM compliance rates ranging from 79% to 96%. Using survey data from Minnesota and Wisconsin, we show that previous compliance rate estimates are likely too high because they do not use a comprehensive measure for compliance. With a more comprehensive measure, we find compliance rates ranging between 72% and 76%. We also explore the relationship between IRM awareness, farm size, and IRM compliance.