Court nixes use of dicamba on crops, again

In a win for environmental groups, a federal court has overturned the US Environmental Protection Agency's approval of the herbicide dicamba for use on genetically modified soybeans and cotton. The agency failed to provide notice and any opportunity for stakeholders to comment when it registered three dicamba products in 2020, the court ruled Feb. 6 . The products in question, made by Bayer, BASF, and Syngenta, are prone to volatilization under high temperatures and temperature inversions. Under such conditions, the herbicide can drift off-site and wreak havoc on plants in its path. Dicamba has been used for decades to control weeds in late winter or early spring, before crops are planted. But use of the herbicide in the US increased dramatically in 2017 after the EPA allowed farmers to spray it directly on genetically modified soybeans and cotton. Over the next 2 years, states received thousands of complaints about damage