U.S: Shock, Confusion Surround Ruling on Dicamba
After a tumultuous three-plus years, dicamba application is no longer legal in the U.S., reports Jackie Pucci at CropLife.
On Friday evening, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a statement that it was “disappointed” in the unprecedented June 3 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to vacate the registration for dicamba use over the top on soybean and cotton. The 56-page ruling is linked here.
EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said: “The 2020 growing season is well underway and this creates undue burden for our first conservationists – farmers. EPA has been overwhelmed with letters and calls from farmers nationwide since the Court issued its opinion, and these testimonies cite the devastation of this decision on their crops and the threat to America’s food supply. The Court itself noted in this order that it will place a great hardship on America’s farmers. This ruling implicates millions of acres of crops, millions of dollars already spent by farmers, and the food and fiber Americans across the country rely on to feed their families.”
Wheeler added that EPA is “assessing all avenues to mitigate the impact of the Court’s decision on farmers.”
The Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Association, the ag trade group representing the No. 1 soybean-producing state in the nation, remarked that is “highly unusual” for a pesticide registration to be vacated immediately.
“Even when labels are cancelled, there is a process that EPA follows and it includes instructions from EPA to the states and to the industry for the cancellation to ensue,” IFCA President Jean Payne said. IFCA reached out to the Illinois Department of Agriculture, which has pesticide regulatory authority in Illinois, for guidance on the ramifications of the court ruling on use of the three products in Illinois.
“The suddenness of the Court ruling has caused much confusion, and we apologize (to our members) that IFCA had no clear guidance to provide until IDA was able to make that determination,” Payne said, adding, “Whatever we surmised outside of IDA’s guidance could be construed as a ‘stop’ or a ‘keep going’ message, when we have no idea which is correct. IDA was also caught off guard by this ruling and had to carefully determine the best steps in which to respond knowing of the serious implications for the industry.”
IDA issued a statement in response to the ruling, confirming that effective June 3, Xtendimax, FeXapan, and Engenia cannot be sold, used, or distributed.
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