Webinar Recording: Pesticide Risk Tool: Understanding Risk and Measuring Impact
This webinar featured Ariel Larson and Peter Wertz from the IPM Institute as they introduced the online Pesticide Risk Tool (PRT). The tool evaluates pesticide risk — not just hazard — by modeling both toxicity and exposure across 15 different indices covering environmental, human health, consumer dietary, and pollinator impacts. Unlike a simple label or safety data sheet, the PRT gives quantitative risk scores that have standalone meaning, such as representing the probability of an adverse ecological effect or the chance of predicted exposure to an EPA safety threshold.
Larson and Wertz shared several real-world applications of the tool in agricultural certification programs. For example, the EcoApple program used PRT to document a steady decline in pesticide risk over multiple growing seasons as growers phased out organophosphates and synthetic pyrethroids. Other programs like Lodi Rules (California wine grapes), Equitable Food Initiative, and Sustainably Grown each incorporated the tool differently — from setting maximum risk thresholds to requiring growers to identify and document mitigation strategies for high-risk products. A particular area of interest was the pollinator risk index, which accounts for multiple bee species, foraging behavior, pollen consumption, and application timing to generate a more comprehensive picture of pollinator exposure.
Learn more about this tool by watching the full webinar or checking out the Pesticide Risk Tool online. A free 7-day trial is available.
Presenters
Ariel Larson
Department Director, Sustainable Food Group
Ariel leads the IPM Institute’s work with food companies and supply chains, helping companies to envision, develop, implement and verify supply chain sustainable agriculture strategies, programs and policies.
She has a B.S. in Botany and Conservation Biology and an M.S. in Conservation Biology and Sustainable Development with a certificate in Business, Environment, and Social Responsibility, both from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Peter Werts
Department Director, Specialty Crops
Peter Werts has a B.S. in Environmental Studies from Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin. Their work in agriculture and tree fruit production began in college while working on the weekends at an orchard in Bayfield Wisconsin.
As Department Director, Peter is the IPM Institute’s lead consultant working with apple farmers across the upper Midwest to help growers implement bio-intensive IPM programs. Additionally, Peter manages the Sustainable Food Group’s Eco Apple and other specialty crop programs with food companies.