University of Arkansas weed scientists Jason Norsworthy and Tom Barber find a bit of shade to shelter in and talk the latest about the dicamba drift fallout in the Mid-South.
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The researchers say the continuing national attention on Mid-South dicamba drift is ultimately perilous.
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There’s “a bad downside” to the attention, says Barber. “A lot of folks are using this to promote negative opinions about agriculture. It’s given the anti-GMO, anti-big ag groups fodder to skew press releases and whatever.
“Go look at the story done on this by NPR. There are hundreds of comments on that story. After the first few comments, the discussion – and I’m paraphrasing — turned towards things like ‘this is why GMOs shouldn’t be allowed.’”
Norsworthy agrees. “When you start getting a tremendous amount of media attention on something like this, it’s a negative for the whole agriculture sector.”
Both men say the Pesticide Committee’s proposal to increase spraying violation penalties from $1,000 to $25,000 is understandable. . . .
“Whether $25,000 is the right number or not, there has to be more bite in the penalty,” says Barber. “I don’t think there’s a question about that.”
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“Something has to be done. Period. Otherwise, it’ll have a major impact not only on this technology but on other technologies and spray applications as a whole.”
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Read full, original post: Dicamba drift expected, no ‘blind-siding’
