The Road Ahead For Enlist Duo

The day before Thanksgiving is normally a very slow news day. In fact, we here at CropLife magazine were sitting in the office that afternoon, counting down to our early close and the start of a long weekend.

Then, without warning, the Internet started buzzing regarding a breaking agricultural story. News sources ranging from the Wall Street Journal and New York Times to television station Websites from across the Midwest started reporting that the EPA had “revoked” the registration for Enlist Duo herbicide from Dow AgroSciences after receiving some new data from the company regarding possible “unintended consequences for non-target plants” from this blend of 2,4-D choline and glyphosate.

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However, according to Robyn Heine, global public affairs leader for Dow AgroSciences, “revoked” wasn’t the correct word to use in this case. “EPA did not revoke the Enlist Duo registration,” wrote Heine in an email to CropLife. “Instead, the organization asked the court to vacate the registration so it can further review the data. There has been no ruling yet from the court, so the registration of Enlist is still in place.”

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Being that this news broke on the day before Thanksgiving, Dow AgroSciences still managed to quickly respond to this story. By the evening of Wednesday, November 25, the company released a statement from its President/CEO Tim Hassinger pledging to work with EPA to reaffirm Enlist Duo’s safety.

“We believe the questions raised about any potential synergy between 2,4-D choline and glyphosate can be promptly resolved in the new few months, in time for the 2016 crop use season,” wrote Hassinger. “It’s possible that we could see some changes to use conditions on the existing Enlist Duo label. However, based on the ongoing dialogue with EPA, we do not expect these issues to result in the long-term cancellation of the Enlist Duo product registration.”

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With EPA and Dow AgroSciences working to quickly address this issue, the question remains if everything will be worked out fast enough for Enlist Duo to make its way into the cropping plans for the nation’s growers that planned to use it to combat herbicide-resistant weeds in their fields. This should become clearer once more information regarding the revised registration is made available in the weeks ahead.

As always with this kind of rapidly evolving agricultural story, stay tuned . . .

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