Environmental groups sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on January 27th in attempt to force the agency to take another look at the conditional use permit approved for the herbicide dicamba as it relates to Monsanto’s Xtend soybean and cotton traits, according to a petition for review filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco.
[Monsanto’s Roundup Ready Xtend Crop System includes tolerance to glyphosate and dicamba in crops including soybeans.]
In November 2016, the EPA registered the first dicamba-based herbicide to use with the Xtend trait. XtendiMax with VaporGrip, a DGA salt-based formulation the contains an additive that Monsanto has said helps reduce volatility compared to previous DGA formulations by 90%. In December 2016, EPA registered BASF’s Engenia, a new BAPMA-salt low-volatility formulation.
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“[F]armers need new tools for weed control, and the EPA approved XtendiMax with VaporGrip technology for in-crop use after more than seven years of exhaustive scientific review and evaluation,” Monsanto spokesperson Charla Lord said in an email to DTN. “Dicamba-based herbicides have a 40-year history of safe use and we are confident the government’s exhaustive assessment will prevail.”
Center for Food Safety senior attorney George Kimbrell said in a statement EPA’s approval of dicamba means “federal regulators have abandoned the interests of farmers, the environment, and public health. We won’t allow our food to be dragged backward into a pesticide-soaked nightmare — not without a hell of a fight.”
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: Lawsuit Targets Dicamba
