Dicamba Disaster

Rogue weedkiller vapors are threatening soybean science

It’s not just non-GMO soybean fields, peach and cypress trees, and tomato plots being decimated by drift from the herbicide dicamba—it’s harming research being done at universities. Pengyin Chen, professor of soybean breeding and genetics at the University of Missouri, has seen soybean damage—curly leaves, fragile side branches—for three years, since introduction of Monsanto’s dicamba-tolerant […]

Dicamba disaster: herbicide drift damage reports pour in nationwide

Farmer says dicamba drift damage is a “real black eye” for agriculture For the fourth year in a row, drift from dicamba herbicide used with genetically engineered dicamba-tolerant soybeans and cotton is damaging crops, fruits, vegetables, and ornamental trees nationwide. Jennie Schmidt is an advocate for genetically modified crops but this year her farm, which […]

Ignoring evidence of damage, EPA continues to approve weed killer

Since 2015, when Monsanto launched soybean and cotton seeds genetically modified to resist dicamba, use of the toxic weed killer has surged. Since then millions of acres of soybeans and other broadleaf crops have been decimated by dicamba drift, amounting to millions of dollars in losses. Early in 2017, when dicamba was first allowed on […]

Seed companies move to restrict dicamba spraying

Pushing back against widespread dicamba injury to non-target plants, the two largest independent U.S. seed sellers, Beck’s Hybrids and Stine Seed, are encouraging the EPA to disallow farmers from applying Monsanto’s herbicide during summer months. Dicamba is sprayed on Monsanto’s Xtend GM soybeans as a weed killer—but its volatility and drift potential caused an estimated […]

When dicamba drift hits home

Dicamba herbicide damage generates losses, polarizes communities