State Registration Provides Specialty Growers Nationwide with Proven Biological Fungicide

Research Triangle Park, NC (September 1, 2020) -- AgBiome^®, a leader in developing innovative products from the Earth's microbial communities, announced that Howler^® fungicide has been approved by the state regulators in California, making the product approved for sale and use in 49 of the 50 U.S. states (Hawaii pending). Building on the continued growth and success of Howler, these additional registrations allow even more growers access to the biological fungicide, providing effective, long-lasting activity on a broad spectrum of soilborne and foliar diseases across the continental U.S.

“California growers continue to demand new solutions for protecting their high-value crops from diseases,” says Toni Bucci, COO of AgBiome Innovations. “We’ve seen strong retail adoption with Howler in other states, and we are thrilled that California growers now have the opportunity to experience Howler.”

Howler has multiple modes of action and shows off its flexibility in minimal pre-harvest and re-entry intervals. The product was developed using AgBiome’s proprietary GENESIS™ discovery platform, which efficiently captures and screens the company's diverse, unique microbial collection for agriculturally relevant applications. GENESIS unlocks the potential of microbes in a systematic and targeted manner to identify the best candidates for advancement in AgBiome’s biological crop protection product pipeline.

Howler received EPA approval in the second half of 2017, and has gained individual registration in forty-nine states in the three years following this initial approval.

“In a few short years, the AgBiome team has taken Howler from the lab to being available to all growers in the continental U.S.,” said Jason Kuhlemeier, Vice President of Marketing at AgBiome. “This milestone paves a path for a strong pipeline of products coming out of AgBiome -- our first big commercial step toward feeding the world responsibly.”