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Courts banned this herbicide twice. The EPA wants to bring it back.
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of Washington Post

Brad Rose looks at rows of soybean plants that show signs of having been affected by Dicamba use. He doesn't use it on his crops and he's assured by neighbors within a mile and a half that they haven't used it either. According to him, that means that the chemical had to travel about two miles to reach his crops. (Andrea Morales/For The Washington Post)

Washington Post, July 23, 2025
Posted: August 7th, 2025
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/07/2...

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday its proposed decision to reregister dicamba, a herbicide widely used on soybean and cotton farms that has been banned twice by federal courts. The EPA originally approved dicamba’s use on genetically engineered soybeans and cotton in 2016. Environmental groups sued the EPA over dicamba in 2020 because of its potential drift away from the intended target, especially during warmer temperatures, and harm neighboring crops, nearby ecosystems and rural communities. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled against the EPA and said the agency “understated the amount of dicamba damage.” The court determined that dicamba “caused substantial and undisputed damage” that tore the “social fabric of the farming communities.” After the court vacated the herbicide’s registration, the EPA re-registered it months later, and was again challenged by environmental groups. A second federal court vacated that registration in 2024 and prohibited the sale of the herbicide. The popularity of dicamba, which was first introduced in 1967, arose from a need to find solutions to Roundup-resistant weeds, also known as “superweeds.” Monsanto ... began selling genetically engineered seeds that could survive being doused by dicamba and Roundup in 2016. Between 2016 and 2019, dicamba use across the country nearly quadrupled to an estimated 31 million pounds a year.

Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on government corruption and toxic chemicals.


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