{"id":6255,"date":"2024-05-17T08:53:33","date_gmt":"2024-05-17T13:53:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toxinfreeusa.org\/?p=6255"},"modified":"2024-05-19T15:47:35","modified_gmt":"2024-05-19T20:47:35","slug":"tell-the-epa-three-strikes-and-youre-out-do-not-approve-bayer-monsantos-dicamba-herbicide-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toxinfreeusa.org\/tell-the-epa-three-strikes-and-youre-out-do-not-approve-bayer-monsantos-dicamba-herbicide-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Tell the EPA: Three Strikes and You\u2019re Out. Do Not Approve Bayer-Monsanto\u2019s Dicamba Herbicide Again!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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TAKE ACTION TODAY TO HELP STOP DICAMBA<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Public comments to the EPA are due by 11:59PM Eastern Time, Monday, June 3, 2024.)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Less than four months after a U.S. District Court overturned the Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s (EPA) 2020 approval of several dicamba herbicide formulations, Bayer-Monsanto is back with yet another dicamba formulation. Banned by federal courts not once, but twice, Bayer wants the EPA to rubber-stamp it again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this application for new use<\/a> to the EPA, Bayer is proposing new rules for dicamba\u2019s use that would supposedly limit the herbicide\u2019s ability to cause the massive damage that it has previously caused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve seen it all before. These new rules are a sham and will not prevent future damage. First, dicamba is ultra-volatile and can drift for miles beyond its area of direct application. Nothing will change this. Second, as conventional GMO farmers have proven in the past, they will not follow the rules even if the rules help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eight years of dicamba use on dicamba-tolerant GMO crops shows us that there is no way to use this toxic herbicide without causing immeasurable collateral damage and harm. Dicamba must be banned once and for all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unless you raise your voice, the EPA will, once again, bend to Bayer. Tell the EPA: Three strikes and you\u2019re out. DO NOT APPROVE DICAMBA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dicamba is a highly toxic, volatile, and drift-prone herbicide known to be able to spread for miles beyond its area of application, killing or damaging all vegetation in its path. The herbicide is so volatile that it has the potential to re-aerosolize and drift days after its application in certain weather conditions, making it very difficult, if not impossible, to track back to the source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GMO farmers\u2019 reliance and overuse of glyphosate on GMO glyphosate-tolerant crops since the mid-1990s has caused weeds to evolve resistance to the herbicide. These \u201csuperweeds\u201d can’t be killed with glyphosate. So Monsanto developed new GMO crops able to tolerate over-the-top spraying of both glyphosate and dicamba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Field of Monsanto genetically engineered Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans
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The USDA deregulated Monsanto\u2019s dicamba-tolerant soybean and cotton seeds in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2016, the EPA approved certain dicamba formulations for over-the-top spraying on Monsanto\u2019s GMO soy and cotton. Despite the sounding of alarm bells by some farmers and environmental groups like GMO\/Toxin Free USA, EPA gave these dicamba formulations the rubber stamp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Advertisement for Monsanto\u2019s XtendiMax herbicide to be used with Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans and cotton
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Since EPA\u2019s approval, dicamba drift has been responsible for damaging or destroying many millions of acres of non-GMO soy, cotton and other food crops like sugar beets, rice, sweet potatoes, peanuts, peaches, and grapes and harming the livelihoods of non-GMO and organic farmers, and even GMO farmers who didn\u2019t want to buy the new, expensive seeds. Dicamba drift has also caused widespread damage to oak trees, home gardens and landscape plantings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And to add insult to injury, the USDA does zero testing of food crops for dicamba contamination. So we also don\u2019t know how much of this chemical is entering into people\u2019s diets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Little Shire Farm, South Dakota
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In South Dakota, Little Shire Farm, an organic farm run by John and Lisa Zuhlke, was devastated multiple times over multiple years by dicamba drift. \u201cWe got completely wiped out. We had to stop production. All of our CSA shares, community-supported agriculture shares-gone; farmers markets\u2013gone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Coy\u2019s Honey Farm, Mississippi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Richard Coy was forced to shut down Coy\u2019s Honey Farm in Arkansas, the largest family-operated beekeeping operation in the state, and move it to Mississippi. Dicamba drift damaged the vegetation his bees depended on to live, and also resulted in \u201cundesirable product.\u201d “It’s very emotional, but you can’t let emotions get in the way of business decisions, and the best business decision is to not go broke,\u201d said Coy.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Peaches from Bader Farms, Missouri<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Bader Farms, the largest peach orchard in Missouri, reported 1,000 acres of peaches damaged by dicamba drift over multiple years. Bill Bader\u2019s peach farm was put out of business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are only a few of the thousands of cases of farms devastated by dicamba. Read more about Little Shire Farm, Coy\u2019s Honey Farm, Bader Farms, and more.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dicamba drift damaged an estimated 5 million acres of crops, trees<\/a> and backyard gardens between 2016 and 2017 alone. Despite the massive reports of drift damage, in 2018 the EPA re-approved and expanded its use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020, a National Institutes of Health study<\/a>, published in the journal International Journal of Epidemiology<\/em>, found that the use of dicamba can increase the risk of developing numerous cancers, including liver and intrahepatic bile duct cancers, acute and chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and mantle cell lymphoma which may manifest up to 20 years after exposure. With dicamba\u2019s ability to drift for miles, people in many areas of the country are now routinely forced to breathe in this dangerous chemical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July of the same year, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated EPA\u2019s registration of dicamba. But the Trump administration ignored the court order and re-registered dicamba through 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2021, the EPA introduced minimal restrictions on dicamba use to address the drift issues. But by the Agency\u2019s own admission, this did nothing to reduce dicamba drift damage. EPA\u2019s own data shows dicamba has harmed thousands of farmers to date. The Agency\u2019s December 2021 report states that these numbers are likely an undercount by 25 times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through the 2022 and 2023 growing seasons, it was the same song, different verse. With EPA\u2019s inaction, more damage and health harms were documented across America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would like everyone to contact the EPA\u2026 If we can get enough people to rise up and say \u2018enough is enough, we don\u2019t want to poison our food\u2019, maybe we can get something changed,\u201d said beekeeper Richard Coy in a past interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On February 6, 2024, the U.S. District Court of Arizona overturned the 2020 dicamba registrations that allowed over-the-top applications of three dicamba products, XtendiMax, Engenia and Tavium. The second court order in four years!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, in May 2024, the Biden administration\u2019s EPA announced it is considering an application from Bayer-Monsanto to register a new dicamba formulation. The EPA is colluding with Bayer to perpetuate a scam on Americans, again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When will this end? After eight years of devastation caused by dicamba use, there is a single sane conclusion: The only way to use dicamba safely is to not use it at all. Demand that the EPA reject Bayer\u2019s new dicamba application. Ban dicamba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CLICK HERE. TAKE ACTION TODAY TO HELP STOP DICAMBA.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TAKE ACTION TODAY TO HELP STOP DICAMBA.\u00a0 (Public comments to the EPA are due by 11:59PM Eastern Time, Monday, June 3, 2024.) Less than four months after a U.S. District Court overturned the Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s (EPA) 2020 approval of several dicamba herbicide formulations, Bayer-Monsanto is back with yet another dicamba formulation. Banned by federal …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":{"2":"type-post","6":"category-the-non-toxic-sleuth","7":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toxinfreeusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toxinfreeusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toxinfreeusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toxinfreeusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toxinfreeusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6255"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/toxinfreeusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6264,"href":"https:\/\/toxinfreeusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6255\/revisions\/6264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toxinfreeusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toxinfreeusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toxinfreeusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}