Court overturns EPA approval of popular herbicide made by Monsanto
Ruling says EPA ignored clear evidence that the new herbicide would cause widespread damage to crops🏛️usrtk.org/wp-content/upl…
Ruling says EPA ignored clear evidence that the new herbicide would cause widespread damage to crops🏛️usrtk.org/wp-content/upl…
Monsanto, BASF and Corteva Agriscience told the EPA that their herbicides would have low volatility and if farmers followed instructions on the product labels, they could prevent drift.
But since the introduction of the new dicamba crops and herbicides, farmer complaints have been filed with state agricultural officials, reporting dicamba damage across several million acres in at least a dozen states.
The court found that the EPA “refused to estimate the amount of dicamba damage”, failed to acknowledge that restrictions it placed on the use of the dicamba herbicides would not be followed, and did not acknowledge evidence that the new use of dicamba herbicides would
“tear the social fabric of farming communities”.
The court said it knew its decision could be costly for farmers who planned to use dicamba on their GMO soybeans and cotton fields, but said the EPA’s failure to acknowledge and address risks to other crops left the court no choice.
