EPA has defended its decision to allow farmers to continue to use three vacated dicamba herbicides — XtendiMax, FeXapan and Engenia — through the end of July. EPA argued that vacating the registrations does not technically affect the use of the now-unregistered herbicides. “Rescission of a pesticide registration (either by judicial or administrative action) only makes it illegal to distribute or sell that pesticide,” EPA said. “It does not outlaw use of products already legally purchased.”
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied a petition that sought to invalidate the Environmental Protection Agency’s cancellation and existing stocks order issued June 8. Congress has provided the certainty growers need in critical times – like planting season right now – by equipping EPA with the “existing stocks” authority it exercised in its June 3 guidance to growers.
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An estimated 64 million acres of dicamba-tolerant seed is already in the ground — importantly, with no viable weed control alternative that can realistically be deployed over the next several weeks. Expected yield loss for soybeans and cotton is as high as 50%, with respective losses estimated at as much as $10 billion and $800 million, the grower groups noted in a release in announcing their joint filing of a request for the amicus brief.
