EPA Will Allow Farmers to Spray Dicamba After Court Blocks Use

By Dan Gunderson

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says farmers can use “existing stocks” of the chemical dicamba this year, despite a federal court ruling that vacated the chemical registration (meaning the EPA’s approval for dicamba use is no longer valid).

Farmers plant crops that are genetically modified to be resistant to the herbicide, allowing them to spray the chemical on weeds without damaging the crop.

But dicamba often drifts from fields where it is applied, damaging crops in neighboring fields and causing significant financial loss for farmers.

This is not the first court battle over dicamba. The herbicide was registered for use on genetically modified crops in 2016.

A federal court vacated the registration in June 2020 on the basis that “EPA substantially understated risks that it acknowledged and failed entirely to acknowledge other risks.”

The EPA registered dicamba again in 2020.

Environmental groups sued, challenging the EPA process for approving the chemical. A federal judge early this month ruled the agency violated procedures requiring public input when it registered the chemical in 2020.