What's new with regulations for the horticulture industry

Jon Gaeta is senior director of government affairs at RISE (Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment).

The GIE Media Horticulture Group recently spoke with him about trends in government regulations, the work of a lobbyist, and how growers can get involved in advocacy.

Matt McClellan: What are the key issues growers should keep an eye on, federally and in their state and local governments?

Jon Gaeta: So, 2027 will be a whole new legislature. We’re going to have massive turnover across the country. When I started my career in government affairs about 12, 13 years ago, everyone that I worked with had been there for 40 years. That’s not the case anymore.

What we’re dealing with now is new seats, people not staying as long, and we’re losing institutional knowledge, which is making it very hard for us in the industry to target who exactly are our champions.

Combine the traditional headwinds of very progressive folks who are opposed to our industry, and then the new element is the folks on the far right, registered Republicans under the Make America Healthy Again banner, who are very opposed to everything we do in this industry.

MM: Do you expect the MAHA movement to slow down in the November elections?

JG: The MAHA movement is hard to pin down, but it has not gone away yet. They will continue to do what they did last year, which is approach our issues without any nuance.

That’s a big, big problem. They are looking to run legislation that targets our industry broadly, and they’re not looking for conversation, because if you’re a true MAHA believer, alignment with the way we think is not going to be there.

MM: What trends are you seeing in local and state governments regarding product bans and restrictions?

JG: If I had to focus on one thing that was very big in 2026 and that would be back in 2027, it is putting restrictions on the use of pesticides within certain distances around certain places, like schools or hospitals.

Traditional horticulturists, perhaps they’re off in the middle of nowhere. They’ve got their own facility, and they’re safe. But this is the continuation of putting new restrictions on pesticides. Once you start doing that, it opens the door to all new types of restrictions.

MM: Are there specific products or product classes growers are in danger of losing access to, and if so, which ones?

JG: Unfortunately, the insecticide neonicotinoids continue to be a hot topic within the activist community. For years, their messaging was focused primarily on bee populations. With the USDA saying varroa mite, loss of forage, temperature, these are the (primary) drivers of what’s shrinking bee populations.

There are other classes of chemistry that activists are looking at in a broader sense, but we have 12 states that have put some form of a restriction on neonics, and three of those have elevated that to professional use.

MM: What actions are happening in response to these new legislative measures?

JG: As RISE, we are here to help. We are the national trade association that helps coordinate with folks in each state where there is an existing green industry group, and if we don’t have an established group, we’ll cobble together all the stakeholders that would be affected. In every state where we’ve dealt with this type of ban, we are not going down without a fight. And we’ve been successful in a number of states.

In 2023, Colorado was facing a proposed bill that would expressly require limiting neonicotinoid use to licensed pesticide applicators, in addition to the limited-use designation and licensed-dealer sales requirement. The final act required limited-use designation and licensed-dealer sales, with specified product exemptions.

Colorado has a phenomenal group of pesticide applicators, and it’s not restricted to just folks who work in the green industry. Whenever there is a piece of pesticide legislation, they work collaboratively with RISE and other trade associations to oppose those pieces of legislation.

Their lobbying effort, in this case, was to remove the application restriction and confine it to the state limited-use designation, which puts the restriction on the location of sales instead of the user applying the product.

That is a pared-down version of what they were seeking. Maybe you don’t win, but you are able to find a middle ground and preserve a majority of uses for those products.

MM: How do you approach those situations, where you’re facing strong opposition?

JG: I can’t stress enough how important it is to be collaborative and to address these issues head-on. Because if you don’t show up to the testimony table, they will just roll you. Whatever product we’re talking about, they will just go ahead and ban it. Because if no one shows up to that side of the table to defend it, why not?

If we don’t show up, they get what they want. If we show up, then you’re at least guaranteeing a conversation. Our end goal is to preserve all uses. But in some situations, if a bill keeps coming back year after year, you do need to figure out a path for some type of compromise.

Something that often works is taking best practices and putting them into statute. Perhaps the state pesticide laws don’t already have an updated version of the rules that applicators must follow when applying these products.

MM: How do you recommend people who use these products for a living get involved in advocacy?

JG: We’d love to have you in the RISE Grassroots Network. We’d love even more if you got involved with your state’s group, because we are reaching an inflection point where the leaders of these groups have been in charge for many years, and they’re reaching retirement age.

My big call to action as a millennial is to say, millennials who work in the green industry, it’s time for us to step up. Gen X as well, it’s time for you to step up. We need you to step up and start looking at leadership roles within these state groups, because without your leadership, we will cease to exist and we will become very vulnerable.

Please get involved and please sign up, because this industry needs defending.

Opinions expressed in this interview do not necessarily reflect the views of GIE Media.