{"id":27117,"date":"2020-06-10T00:01:59","date_gmt":"2020-06-10T04:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/?p=27117"},"modified":"2020-06-09T21:56:58","modified_gmt":"2020-06-10T01:56:58","slug":"federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2020\/06\/federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Court Halts Use of Drift-Prone Dicamba on Millions of Acres of GE Soy and Cotton"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(Beyond Pesticides<\/em>, June 9, 2020) Use of the weed killer dicamba on genetically engineered (GE) cotton and soybeans is now prohibited after a federal court ruling<\/a> against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week. A coalition of conservation groups filed suit in 2018 after EPA renewed a conditional registration<\/a> for dicamba\u2019s \u2018over the top\u2019 (OTT) use on GE cotton and soy developed to tolerate repeated sprayings of the herbicide. “For the thousands of farmers whose fields were damaged or destroyed by dicamba drift despite our warnings, the National Family Farm Coalition is pleased with today’s ruling,” said National Family Farm Coalition president Jim Goodman in a press release.<\/a><\/p>\n

First registered in the late 1960s, dicamba<\/a> has been linked to cancer<\/a>, reproductive effects, neurotoxicity, birth defects, and kidney and liver damage. It is also toxic to birds, fish and other aquatic organisms, and known to leach into waterways after an application. It is a notoriously drift-prone herbicide. Studies and court filings show dicamba able to drift well over a mile off-site after an application.<\/p>\n

Bayer\u2019s Monsanto thought they could solve this problem. The \u201cRoundup Ready\u201d GE agricultural model the company developed, with crops engineered to tolerate recurrent applications of their flagship glyphosate weedkiller, was in trouble. Repeated glyphosate spraying on the same plots put natural selection into overdrive and fueled rapid and widespread weed resistance.<\/a><\/p>\n

Rather than move to an alternative model, Bayer\u2019s Monsanto doubled down and determined that the solution to weed resistance was to bring more herbicides into the mix. After all, GE agriculture allows chemical companies to increase profits by vertically integrating seed and chemical divisions; glyphosate\u2019s failure is a business opportunity for the industry. The company\u2019s new line of seeds would see dicamba use in agriculture explode from roughly one million pounds to nearly 10 million per year.<\/p>\n

There were problems from the start. Bayer\u2019s Monsanto had developed new dicamba-tolerant seeds<\/a> and received approval to sell them from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2015. But EPA was not as fast to register the company\u2019s patented \u201cvapor grip\u201d formulation of dicamba and glyphosate (Xtendimax), intended to be sprayed on its GE seeds. Nonetheless, Bayer\u2019s Monsanto urged farmers to plant its seed<\/a> because it claimed they would increase yields. The results of this were predictable: farmers began to use older, unapproved dicamba formulations on their new GE seeds<\/a>, and reports of damage began to spring up throughout the US.<\/p>\n

Non-soybean farmers began taking action. Bader Farms, the largest peach farm in Missouri, filed suit against Bayer\u2019s Monsanto seeking compensation for damage and defoliation of its trees after illegal dicamba use. The dicamba scandal pitted farmer against farmer, tearing apart many agricultural communities. As reported by NPR<\/a>, one Arkansas farmer was killed in a dispute with his neighbor that involved use of dicamba herbicides. That state became one of the first to consider regulatory action, with the Arkansas Plant Board voting 12-0<\/a> to move forward on measures to restrict agricultural use of dicamba and stop illegal spraying.<\/p>\n

By the end of 2016, EPA had approved<\/a> the company\u2019s new \u201clow volatility\u201d herbicide formulation under a two year conditional registration. The label required a range of restrictions intended to minimize drift. However, by the end of 2017, according to court records and reporting from Reuters<\/a>, state agriculture departments were fielding over 2,600 incident reports and scientists estimated over 3.6 million acres of non-GE soybean crops had been damaged by dicamba drift \u2013 likely an underestimate according to EPA\u2019s own staff.<\/p>\n

Despite accumulating data to the contrary<\/a>, Bayer\u2019s Monsanto continued to blame crop damage on farmers using older dicamba formulations. Conservation groups (National Family Farm Coalition, Center for Food Safety, Center for Biological Diversity, and Pesticide Action Network North America) filed their first lawsuit against EPA<\/a> in early 2017, and by the end of the year Arkansas and Missouri banned the sale and use of OTT dicamba, with Arkansas\u2019 decision coming on the heels of a public advocacy campaign run by Beyond Pesticides<\/a>. In October 2017, EPA announced, alongside Bayer\u2019s Monsanto and other chemical companies<\/a>, further label restrictions on OTT dicamba use. \u201cWe\u2019re very excited about it,\u201d said Scott Partridge, Monsanto\u2019s vice president of global strategy<\/a> at the time. \u201cIt directly addresses what we found to be the causes of the off-target movement in 2017, and we think it sets the stage for all growers and applicators to have a positive experience in 2018.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the bad press rampant, Bayer\u2019s Monsanto made plans to cover more than half the cost<\/a> of its Xtendimax dicamba herbicide as an incentive to get farmers to plant its GE seeds. By the beginning of 2018, Arkansas had announced an official ban<\/a> on dicamba use during the growing season (April- October), the toughest restrictions from any state to date. The company sued, but quickly lost a court battle<\/a>, as the judge cited recent precedent holding that the state cannot be made a defendant in court.<\/p>\n

The new label language did little to abate the damage the herbicide was causing, and another lawsuit was filed in 2018<\/a> by a Kansas farmer alleging damage to his row crops. In mid-August an investigative report found indications as to why new labels were insufficient: EPA let Bayer\u2019s Monsanto write the new rules themselves. <\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

In late 2018, prior to the expiration of its conditional registration, EPA announced it would renew registration of dicamba products conditionally<\/a> for another two years, alongside yet more label changes intended to address \u201cpotential concerns.\u201d As a result, a federal court ruled that conservation groups’ 2016 lawsuit was moot, but the groups quickly repetitioned the court in January 2019.<\/p>\n

One key aspect of the 2018 label changes was the implementation of a buffer zone of 57 ft. An investigative report from the Arkansas Democrat and Chronical<\/a> (ADC) found that number to be far smaller than what scientists and EPA staff had recommended. Emails retrieved by ADC found that Bayer\u2019s Monsanto worked closely with University of Arkansas weed science Professor Jason Norsworthy, PhD, on a field study to assess dicamba drift from its Xtendimax product. The collaboration was copacetic until results of the study showed that a 443 ft buffer would be required to avert adverse impacts. After disputes with the company, EPA\u2019s scientific staff agreed. However, even in the face of earlier press coverage on how the agency let Bayer\u2019s Monsanto write its own rules, it appears that political staff and then-Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler overruled the science again in favor of the chemical industry\u2019s economic benefit.<\/p>\n

Subsequent independent studies have found that the combination of glyphosate with dicamba is likely to increase the probability that dicamba will drift<\/a>. \u00a0\u201c\u2026[O]ur data shows the addition of glyphosate to a dicamba spray solution increased dicamba detection in the atmosphere which would point to increased volatilization,\u201d said Tom Mueller, PhD<\/a>, a professor in the University of Tennessee Department of Plant Sciences. Synergy between dicamba and glyphosate had already been shown to damage the DNA of of toads<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Drift and environmental damage continued throughout 2019, with July seeing reports of soybean field research plots damaged in several states, including Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and Arkansas, making it near impossible to carry out public research on non-GE crop varieties. Not only did drift harm public research, it eroded the market for non-GE soybeans, as growers saw GE dicamba seeds as their only way to avoid dicamba damage to their farm.<\/p>\n

A report in late 2019 by Arkansas Audubon found widespread impacts to the habitat of birds and other wildlife. The organization wrote<\/a> that it \u201cpredicts that in a landscape full of GMO crops [genetically modified organisms] (on which dicamba is typically used), the atmospheric loading of volatile dicamba could be enough to cause landscape scale damage to our state natural areas, wildlife management areas, national wildlife refuges, family farms, and the wildlife they harbor.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2020, the tide finally began to turn away from chemical industry damage and destruction, and toward compensation and comeuppance. Missouri\u2019s Bader Farms was awarded $265 million in compensation<\/a> from Bayer\u2019s Monsanto and BASF (another maker of a GE dicamba-based herbicide) for the damage caused to their peach farm. Critically, the jury determined that the joint venture between the two companies amounted to a conspiracy to create an \u201cecological disaster\u201d in the name of profit.<\/p>\n

The written court ruling by the Ninth Circuit released in early June clearly spells out the violations of federal pesticide law (Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act) by EPA in re-approving OTT dicamba under another conditional registration. The court ruling was made on the basis that \u201cEPA substantially understated the risks it acknowledged and failed entirely to acknowledge other risks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the violations cited by the court were EPA\u2019s understatement of the amount of dicamba tolerant seed planted, whether formal complaints were accurately reported, and it\u2019s complete refusal to estimate actual damage. Instead of estimating damage in real numbers, the court chastised the agency for referring to dicamba damage as \u201cpotential\u201d or \u201calleged,\u201d an approach that lines up with the gaslighting the chemical industry perpetrated on affected farmers.<\/p>\n

The judge also took EPA to task in three areas rarely considered under FIFRA. First, EPA\u2019s failure to acknowledge that the iterative tightening of dicamba\u2019s label language over the years effectively made it \u201cdifficult if not impossible to follow for even conscientious users.\u201d Second, that EPA failed to consider the \u201canti-competitive economic effects\u201d of GE dicamba on the non-GE cotton and soybean markets. And lastly, that the agency failed to consider how \u201cOTT dicamba use would tear the social fabric of farming communities.\u201d These critical components provide important precedent for future lawsuits challenging egregious abuses under federal pesticide law.<\/p>\n

“This is a massive victory that will protect people and wildlife from uses of a highly toxic pesticide that never should’ve been approved by the EPA,” said Lori Ann Burd, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s environmental health program. “The fact that the Trump EPA approved these uses of dicamba despite its well-documented record of damaging millions of acres of farmland, tree groves and gardens highlights how tightly the pesticide industry controls EPA’s pesticide-approval process. But this ruling is a powerful rejection of their lawlessness.”<\/p>\n

As the court acknowledged, vacating all OTT dicamba registrations (including those by Bayer\u2019s Monsanto, BASF, and Corteva [DowDupont]) would result in difficulties to some growers (the court noted it was not growers\u2019 fault), but was compelled to do so as a result of \u201cthe absence of substantial evidence to support the EPA\u2019s decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

While celebrating this victory and the new legal approaches it may provide conservation groups, it is important to acknowledge that this win is one that has only stopped damage. It has not created new more sustainable systems, but tamped down on an approach that has gone on for a long time. Dicamba\u2019s failure is indicative not only the failure of GE agriculture, but the failure of public agencies to work in the public\u2019s interest. Make no mistake, it is expected that EPA and the chemical industry will double down again, as it always does. In fact, there are already reports that EPA plans to allow farmers to use existing stocks of GE dicamba products.<\/a><\/p>\n

Farmers and consumers can work together to move agricultural economies away from practices that line the pockets of executives while poisoning food and the surrounding environment. The longest running field trial in the country<\/a> found that organic practices get higher returns than chemical- intensive agriculture. Organic agriculture is a boon for local economies<\/a>, and a critical way to promote economic security, health equity, and climate resilience.<\/a> Help create the sustainable agricultural industry we all deserve by engaging with and holding public officials accountable, and making food choices that protect your health and the environment.<\/p>\n

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.<\/em><\/p>\n

Source: Center for Food Safety Press Release<\/a>, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Court Ruling<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo: Dicamba drift damage on soybeans – K-State Research and Extension<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Beyond Pesticides, June 9, 2020) Use of the weed killer dicamba on genetically engineered (GE) cotton and soybeans is now prohibited after a federal court ruling against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week. A coalition of conservation groups filed suit in 2018 after EPA renewed a conditional registration for dicamba\u2019s \u2018over the top\u2019 (OTT) use on GE cotton and soy developed to tolerate repeated sprayings of the herbicide. “For the thousands of farmers whose fields were damaged or destroyed by dicamba drift despite our warnings, the National Family Farm Coalition is pleased with today’s ruling,” said National Family Farm Coalition president Jim Goodman in a press release. First registered in the late 1960s, dicamba has been linked to cancer, reproductive effects, neurotoxicity, birth defects, and kidney and liver damage. It is also toxic to birds, fish and other aquatic organisms, and known to leach into waterways after an application. It is a notoriously drift-prone herbicide. Studies and court filings show dicamba able to drift well over a mile off-site after an application. Bayer\u2019s Monsanto thought they could solve this problem. The \u201cRoundup Ready\u201d GE agricultural model the company developed, with crops engineered to tolerate recurrent applications of their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[249,114,158,69,354,5,62,68,1,368],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agriculture","category-basf","category-bayer","category-dicamba","category-environmental-protection-agency-epa","category-genetic-engineering","category-litigation","category-monsanto","category-uncategorized","category-us-department-of-agriculture-usda"],"yoast_head":"\nFederal Court Halts Use of Drift-Prone Dicamba on Millions of Acres of GE Soy and Cotton - Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2020\/06\/federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Federal Court Halts Use of Drift-Prone Dicamba on Millions of Acres of GE Soy and Cotton - Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(Beyond Pesticides, June 9, 2020) Use of the weed killer dicamba on genetically engineered (GE) cotton and soybeans is now prohibited after a federal court ruling against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week. A coalition of conservation groups filed suit in 2018 after EPA renewed a conditional registration for dicamba\u2019s \u2018over the top\u2019 (OTT) use on GE cotton and soy developed to tolerate repeated sprayings of the herbicide. “For the thousands of farmers whose fields were damaged or destroyed by dicamba drift despite our warnings, the National Family Farm Coalition is pleased with today’s ruling,” said National Family Farm Coalition president Jim Goodman in a press release. First registered in the late 1960s, dicamba has been linked to cancer, reproductive effects, neurotoxicity, birth defects, and kidney and liver damage. It is also toxic to birds, fish and other aquatic organisms, and known to leach into waterways after an application. It is a notoriously drift-prone herbicide. Studies and court filings show dicamba able to drift well over a mile off-site after an application. Bayer\u2019s Monsanto thought they could solve this problem. The \u201cRoundup Ready\u201d GE agricultural model the company developed, with crops engineered to tolerate recurrent applications of their […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2020\/06\/federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/beyondpesticides\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/beyondpesticides\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-06-10T04:01:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/dicambadamage-Kstate.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Beyond Pesticides\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ByondPesticides\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ByondPesticides\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Beyond Pesticides\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"10 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2020\/06\/federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2020\/06\/federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Beyond Pesticides\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#\/schema\/person\/1b5c0a0981b549cc5b628770073031f4\"},\"headline\":\"Federal Court Halts Use of Drift-Prone Dicamba on Millions of Acres of GE Soy and Cotton\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-06-10T04:01:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2020\/06\/federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton\/\"},\"wordCount\":2021,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2020\/06\/federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/dicambadamage-Kstate.jpg\",\"articleSection\":{\"0\":\"Agriculture\",\"1\":\"BASF\",\"2\":\"Bayer\",\"3\":\"Dicamba\",\"4\":\"Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)\",\"5\":\"Genetic Engineering\",\"6\":\"Litigation\",\"7\":\"Monsanto\",\"9\":\"US Department of Agriculture (USDA)\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2020\/06\/federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2020\/06\/federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2020\/06\/federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton\/\",\"name\":\"Federal Court Halts Use of Drift-Prone Dicamba on Millions of Acres of GE Soy and Cotton - Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2020\/06\/federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2020\/06\/federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/dicambadamage-Kstate.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-06-10T04:01:59+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2020\/06\/federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2020\/06\/federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2020\/06\/federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/dicambadamage-Kstate.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/dicambadamage-Kstate.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2020\/06\/federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Federal Court Halts Use of Drift-Prone Dicamba on Millions of Acres of GE Soy and Cotton\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/\",\"name\":\"Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog\",\"description\":\"News on Pesticide Science, Policy and Activism\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Beyond Pesticides\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/BeyondPesticides-Logo-Stacked-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/BeyondPesticides-Logo-Stacked-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":2501,\"caption\":\"Beyond Pesticides\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/beyondpesticides\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/ByondPesticides\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/beyondpesticides\/?hl=en\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/beyond-pesticides\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/bpncamp\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#\/schema\/person\/1b5c0a0981b549cc5b628770073031f4\",\"name\":\"Beyond Pesticides\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e26b7558fcb265e244c6e159abe5f0aab551822dc82fd0b1607e809bdfbed20a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e26b7558fcb265e244c6e159abe5f0aab551822dc82fd0b1607e809bdfbed20a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Beyond Pesticides\"},\"description\":\"Beyond Pesticides is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., which works with allies in protecting public health and the environment to lead the transition to a world free of toxic pesticides. The founders, who established Beyond Pesticides (originally as National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides) as a nonprofit membership organization in 1981, felt that without the existence of such an organized, national network, local, state and national pesticide policy would become, under chemical industry pressure, increasingly unresponsive to public health and environmental concerns. Beyond Pesticides believes that people must have a voice in decisions that affect them directly. We believe decisions should not be made for us by chemical companies or by decision-makers who either do not have all of the facts or refuse to consider them. Learn more about our work, read A Year in Review\u20142021, our accomplishments are your victories! Beyond Pesticides seeks to protect healthy air, water, land, and food for ourselves and future generations. By forging ties with governments, nonprofits, and people who rely on these natural resources, we reduce the need for unnecessary pesticide use and protect public health and the environment. Beyond Pesticides provides hands-on services to the public and supports local action by: identifying and interpreting hazards; and, designing safe pest management programs. With the information provided by Beyond Pesticides, people may not only be able to make informed choices and adopt practices that protect themselves and their families from unnecessary exposure to pesticides, but they will be able to effect changes on community-wide pest management decisions and policies that govern pesticide use, such as pesticide uses in parks, schools, for community insect control and along roadsides. Beyond Pesticides believes that people must have a voice in decisions which affect them directly.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.beyondpesticides.org\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/beyondpesticides\/\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/beyondpesticides\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/beyond-pesticides\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/ByondPesticides\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/bpncamp\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/author\/beyond-pesticides\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Federal Court Halts Use of Drift-Prone Dicamba on Millions of Acres of GE Soy and Cotton - Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2020\/06\/federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Federal Court Halts Use of Drift-Prone Dicamba on Millions of Acres of GE Soy and Cotton - Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog","og_description":"(Beyond Pesticides, June 9, 2020) Use of the weed killer dicamba on genetically engineered (GE) cotton and soybeans is now prohibited after a federal court ruling against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week. A coalition of conservation groups filed suit in 2018 after EPA renewed a conditional registration for dicamba\u2019s \u2018over the top\u2019 (OTT) use on GE cotton and soy developed to tolerate repeated sprayings of the herbicide. “For the thousands of farmers whose fields were damaged or destroyed by dicamba drift despite our warnings, the National Family Farm Coalition is pleased with today’s ruling,” said National Family Farm Coalition president Jim Goodman in a press release. First registered in the late 1960s, dicamba has been linked to cancer, reproductive effects, neurotoxicity, birth defects, and kidney and liver damage. It is also toxic to birds, fish and other aquatic organisms, and known to leach into waterways after an application. It is a notoriously drift-prone herbicide. Studies and court filings show dicamba able to drift well over a mile off-site after an application. Bayer\u2019s Monsanto thought they could solve this problem. The \u201cRoundup Ready\u201d GE agricultural model the company developed, with crops engineered to tolerate recurrent applications of their […]","og_url":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2020\/06\/federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton\/","og_site_name":"Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/beyondpesticides","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/beyondpesticides\/","article_published_time":"2020-06-10T04:01:59+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/dicambadamage-Kstate.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Beyond Pesticides","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ByondPesticides","twitter_site":"@ByondPesticides","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Beyond Pesticides","Est. reading time":"10 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2020\/06\/federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2020\/06\/federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton\/"},"author":{"name":"Beyond Pesticides","@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#\/schema\/person\/1b5c0a0981b549cc5b628770073031f4"},"headline":"Federal Court Halts Use of Drift-Prone Dicamba on Millions of Acres of GE Soy and Cotton","datePublished":"2020-06-10T04:01:59+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2020\/06\/federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton\/"},"wordCount":2021,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2020\/06\/federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/dicambadamage-Kstate.jpg","articleSection":{"0":"Agriculture","1":"BASF","2":"Bayer","3":"Dicamba","4":"Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)","5":"Genetic Engineering","6":"Litigation","7":"Monsanto","9":"US Department of Agriculture (USDA)"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2020\/06\/federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2020\/06\/federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton\/","url":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2020\/06\/federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton\/","name":"Federal Court Halts Use of Drift-Prone Dicamba on Millions of Acres of GE Soy and Cotton - Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2020\/06\/federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2020\/06\/federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/dicambadamage-Kstate.jpg","datePublished":"2020-06-10T04:01:59+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2020\/06\/federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2020\/06\/federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2020\/06\/federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/dicambadamage-Kstate.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/dicambadamage-Kstate.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2020\/06\/federal-court-halts-use-of-drift-prone-dicamba-on-millions-of-acres-of-ge-soy-and-cotton\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Federal Court Halts Use of Drift-Prone Dicamba on Millions of Acres of GE Soy and Cotton"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/","name":"Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog","description":"News on Pesticide Science, Policy and Activism","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#organization","name":"Beyond Pesticides","url":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/BeyondPesticides-Logo-Stacked-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/BeyondPesticides-Logo-Stacked-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":2501,"caption":"Beyond Pesticides"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/beyondpesticides","https:\/\/x.com\/ByondPesticides","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/beyondpesticides\/?hl=en","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/beyond-pesticides","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/bpncamp"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#\/schema\/person\/1b5c0a0981b549cc5b628770073031f4","name":"Beyond Pesticides","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e26b7558fcb265e244c6e159abe5f0aab551822dc82fd0b1607e809bdfbed20a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e26b7558fcb265e244c6e159abe5f0aab551822dc82fd0b1607e809bdfbed20a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Beyond Pesticides"},"description":"Beyond Pesticides is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., which works with allies in protecting public health and the environment to lead the transition to a world free of toxic pesticides. The founders, who established Beyond Pesticides (originally as National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides) as a nonprofit membership organization in 1981, felt that without the existence of such an organized, national network, local, state and national pesticide policy would become, under chemical industry pressure, increasingly unresponsive to public health and environmental concerns. Beyond Pesticides believes that people must have a voice in decisions that affect them directly. We believe decisions should not be made for us by chemical companies or by decision-makers who either do not have all of the facts or refuse to consider them. Learn more about our work, read A Year in Review\u20142021, our accomplishments are your victories! Beyond Pesticides seeks to protect healthy air, water, land, and food for ourselves and future generations. By forging ties with governments, nonprofits, and people who rely on these natural resources, we reduce the need for unnecessary pesticide use and protect public health and the environment. Beyond Pesticides provides hands-on services to the public and supports local action by: identifying and interpreting hazards; and, designing safe pest management programs. With the information provided by Beyond Pesticides, people may not only be able to make informed choices and adopt practices that protect themselves and their families from unnecessary exposure to pesticides, but they will be able to effect changes on community-wide pest management decisions and policies that govern pesticide use, such as pesticide uses in parks, schools, for community insect control and along roadsides. Beyond Pesticides believes that people must have a voice in decisions which affect them directly.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.beyondpesticides.org","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/beyondpesticides\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/beyondpesticides\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/beyond-pesticides\/","https:\/\/x.com\/ByondPesticides","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/bpncamp\/"],"url":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/author\/beyond-pesticides\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27117"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27134,"href":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27117\/revisions\/27134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}