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The EPA will require new buffer zones and limits to the application of Bayer herbicide in an effort to prevent it from drifting.
Photo:
Nati Harnik / Associated Press
The Environmental Protection Agency will continue to allow farmers to spray with a controversial weedkiller, while tightening restrictions, the agency said.
The EPA extended by two years of its approval of XtendiMax, a version of the herbicide dicamba made by
Bayer
AG, which some farmers and researchers have blamed for damaging millions of acres of crops over the past two years.
The decision is a win for Bayer, which also markets soybean and cotton seeds genetically engineered to survive the chemical. Bayer this year U.S. seed and giant Monsanto pesticide, which in 2018 sold about 50 million acres' worth of dicamba-tolerant soybean and cotton seeds to farmers while training them to spray the herbicide and prevent damaging other crops.
"EPA understands that this is a valuable control tool for America's farmers," said acting EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler.
For Bayer, the EPA's approval will be estimated at $ 159 million in profits from dicamba in 2019, according to Bernstein analysts. The EPA will require new buffer zones and limits the hours of farmers in the world, in an effort to prevent it from drifting.
Monsanto started marketing XtendiMax after initial EPA approval in late 2016. The company is pitching it as a glyphosate, the herbicide Monsanto markets as Roundup. Dicamba, the main ingredient in XtendiMax, historically has been prone to drifting.
Monsanto said its new version of dicamba was far less prone to drift. But some farmers and weed scientists blamed dicamba for hundreds of damaged fields. Monsanto officials attributed the vast majority of harmed fields to farmers spraying on windy days and other errors.
University of Missouri 1.1 million acres of soybeans were affected this year, including 500,000 acres in Illinois, the top soybean-producing state.
Write to Jacob Bunge at [email protected]
Appeared in the November 1, 2018, print edition as 'EPA Allows Use of Bayer Herbicide.'
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