HISTORICの発表は、過去2週間の不安で悲劇的なニュースを打ち破り、少なくとも食糧供給の面で、私たちに少しの希望を与えてくれました。

3人の裁判官の委員会は、農作物への除草剤ディカンバの使用を許可するというEPAの決定を却下しました。

農業でグリホサートに取って代わり、何百万ドルもの作物被害を引き起こしてきたこの除草剤。 

Image of Dicamba claims of crop damage as of 2017. More info on Dicamba here.

The court's decision was that, “The EPA made multiple errors in granting the conditional registrations.”

According to the Guardian, the court found that the EPA “refused to estimate the amount of dicamba damage”, failed to acknowledge that restrictions it placed on the use of the dicamba herbicides would not be followed, and did not acknowledge evidence that the new use of dicamba herbicides would “tear the social fabric of farming communities”. 

「今日の決定は、農民と環境にとって大きな勝利です」と、この事件の主任顧問である食品安全センターのジョージ・キンブレルは言いました。 「モンサントやトランプ政権のような企業は、特にこのような危機のときに、法の支配から逃れることができないことを忘れないでください。彼らの計算の日が到来しました。」

The below summary of the situation is from Charles Benbrook, PhD. of Hygeia Analytics

Last Wednesday the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the EPA conditional registrations for dicamba-based herbicides applied to GE, herbicide-resistant soybeans and cotton. This action will have major ag, environmental, and public health impacts -- about two-thirds of the soybeans and three-quarters of the cotton planted by US farmers in 2020 were dicamba-resistant.

The Appeals Court order will likely stop any further, legal dicamba use on these crops, and as a direct result, will almost certainly increase illegal, off-label applications through the next month or so. The implications of this court order will unfold rapidly.

In addition to a sizable financial hit on Bayer and farmers who have stocked up on dicamba herbicides, this will directly and immediately expand demand and use of Corteva’s DuoEnlist soybeans and cotton engineered to resist 2,4-D, glyphosate, glufosinate, and the FOP herbicides. 

XtendiMax and DuoEnlist seeds deliver comparable benefits to farmers. And this means use of 2,4-D will rise rapidly and bypass glyphosate as the most widely used herbicide certainly in the Midwest, and maybe nationwide, within just 2 to 3 years.

There are many issues wrapped up in the regulatory demise of XtendiMax technology that will play out as Trump’s first term comes to an end. If a new Administration takes over next January,  big changes in herbicide regulatory approvals will no doubt be high on the agenda of the new EPA.

Here is a powerful piece posted on Hygeia Analytics two days before the Appeals Court ruling with one, truly memorable line re what XtendiMax technology has done -- “making liars of proponents and fools of enablers.”

And for a deep dive into the checkered history of XtendiMax, see the Dicamba Diary and Dicamba Watch on the Heartland Study website.

Charles Benbrook
Heartland Study Project Coordinator
https://hygeia-analytics.com/