Monsanto, BASF Agree to New Restraints on Controversial Herbicide
October 13 2017 - 11:24AM
Dow Jones News
By Jacob Bunge
Chemical makers Monsanto Co. and BASF SA agreed to new
restrictions on the use of a herbicide blamed for damaging millions
of acres of U.S. crops this year.
Monsanto and BASF over the past year began marketing new
versions of the dicamba weed killer to U.S. soybean and cotton
farmers, who for years have struggled to kill weeds that have
developed resistance to other commonly used herbicides, like
Monsanto's Roundup spray. Monsanto developed new genetically
engineered soybean and cotton seeds that were designed to resist
dicamba, which would allow farmers to spray it onto growing crops
without damaging them.
But farmers and crop researchers say dicamba, historically prone
to drifting onto neighboring fields, has proved difficult to
control. Scientists who study weeds estimate that dicamba over the
summer damaged more than 3 million acres of fields planted with
soybeans that weren't engineered to resist the chemical.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday approved
proposals from Monsanto and BASF that would make dicamba a
"restricted use pesticide." Those products can only be used by a
certified applicator, or someone under direct supervision of a
certified applicator.
The companies proposed the change to address "the high number of
crop damage incidents reported to EPA since June 2017," according
to notices the EPA posted on Friday.
Monsanto and BASF representatives had no immediate comment.
The new limitations on dicamba use fall short of curbs some
critics believe are necessary to avoid a repeat of that damage next
year, when some projections show spraying of the potent chemical on
U.S. farm fields could double.
Write to Jacob Bunge at jacob.bunge@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 13, 2017 11:09 ET (15:09 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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