Inputs and safety.
The chain runs: find the label, check the registration, check organic status if it matters to you, know your state's enforcing agency, and keep the poison-control and drift-reporting numbers where you can find them. Each link in that chain is a card below.
This is one shelf of The Agriculture Resource Library, 39 entries strong. Search every shelf at once in the card catalog, or suggest a resource we missed.
The grower's lookup chain
The question every input decision comes down to: can I spray this product, on this crop, in my state, and is it safe for my bees and my neighbors? No single site answers it. This chain does, five steps, all free, in order:
- Pull the current label. EPA's Pesticide Product Label System has every federally accepted label as a searchable PDF. The label is the law: which crops, what rate, the re-entry interval, the pre-harvest interval, the protective equipment. Industry databases like Greenbook offer friendlier search, but the EPA or state label is what is authoritative.
- Check your state. Federal registration is not enough; every state runs its own list. NPIRS at Purdue searches most states at once. California growers use CDPR; New York, where labels lag and restrict, uses NYSPAD.
- Check for a bulletin. If the label points to Bulletins Live! Two, that bulletin is enforceable label law for your location and month, and since 2024 more labels point there every year.
- Check the bees. UC IPM's bee precaution ratings grade bee hazard for most actives, often more strictly than the label, so you can pick the least hazardous legal option and time it right. Organic does not mean bee-safe: spinosad and pyrethrins both carry real bee hazard.
- Check the neighbors, and register yourself. FieldWatch maps registered apiaries and sensitive crops in about 27 states so applicators can see them before spraying. Listing your own hives or organic fields is free and takes minutes, and it is the highest-leverage safety action available near row-crop country.
Stuck at any step? Call a human. The National Pesticide Information Center at Oregon State runs a free hotline, 1-800-858-7378, staffed by people whose whole job is answering exactly these questions.
Five resources almost nobody knows
- The NPIC hotline: a free pesticide scientist on the phone. Growers routinely pay consultants for what this answers at no charge.
- The Pesticide Properties Database at the University of Hertfordshire: the actual toxicity and environmental-fate numbers behind the label warnings, free to view for about 1,800 active ingredients.
- FieldWatch self-registration: most beekeepers and organic growers have never heard that they can put themselves on the map applicators check.
- The IR-4 Project: the program that gets pesticides registered on specialty crops takes clearance requests from individual growers. If nothing is labeled for your minor crop, you can ask for it.
- PERC: the complete EPA-approved Worker Protection Standard training library, free, in English and Spanish. Farms pay for training that is sitting there at no cost.
The shelf
Every link in the chain, plus the rest of the input landscape: state enforcement, organic compliance, IPM, drift and runoff, and the industry associations, honestly framed as industry perspective where that is what they are. Swept nightly.
Nothing on the shelves matches your filters. Try fewer, or suggest a resource we missed.
Frequently asked questions.
How do I look up a pesticide label?
EPA's Pesticide Product Label System has every federally registered label, searchable by product name or registration number, free. The label is the law: rates, crops, intervals, and protective equipment all come from it. Our card links the search, and the companion entries cover state registrations, which can differ from the federal list.
Who regulates fertilizer?
Your state, not the federal government. There is no federal fertilizer registration; every state runs its own program under model rules written by AAPFCO, the association of state fertilizer officials. That is why a product can be sold in one state and not the next. The cards here point you to the state control officials and what a guaranteed analysis legally means.
How do I protect bees and neighbors when spraying?
Register and check FieldWatch. Its BeeCheck and DriftWatch registries map beehives and sensitive crops so applicators can see them before spraying, and listing your own apiary or organic field is free and takes minutes. Astonishingly few growers know these registries exist, which is most of the reason drift accidents still happen.