The Re-Assault and Battery on Crop Protection
August 31, 2020 Briefly over the past few months, there was a time I believed anti-modern agriculture advocates would finally start focusing on things other than getting certain crop protection products banned. After all, settlement agreements were in place for various lawsuits involving these items, meaning that these opponents would no longer have the legal community on their side, so to speak.
This hasn’t been the case, however. Anti-modern agriculture critics apparently are following the example of the battery-powered Energizer Bunny — they keep going, and going, and going.
Truthfully, it looked as if crop protection product opponents had already won the day earlier this year, in a manner of speaking. Back in early June, a motion to invalidate EPA’s re-registration of dicamba back in 2018 was upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. This immediately took three of the dicamba formulations from Corteva, Bayer, and BASF off the table for grower-customers to use.
Naturally, the agricultural industry objected to potentially losing all of these products for an already underway growing season. In the end, EPA issued new regulations, which allowed the use of these dicamba products to continue until the end of July.
This largely satisfied the industry. The opponents, not so much.
The Center for Food Safety (CFS), whose lawyers argued the case for petitioners, said in a statement that the EPA’s action was “disingenuous” and “ignores the well-documented and overwhelming evidence of substantial drift harm to farmers from another disastrous spraying season. We will bring the EPA’s failure to abide by the court’s order to the court as expeditiously as possible.”
Still, seemingly energized with their court win against dicamba, anti-modern agriculture critics next took aim at another product, Enlist Duo (2,4-D) from Corteva. In a filing in the Ninth Circuit Court, CFS argued that the use of Enlist was harmful to Monarch butterflies and that EPA’s registration of this product should also be vacated as a result.
Proving that lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place, Enlist Duo use was allowed to continue. While the Ninth Circuit Court did decide EPA had failed to protect Monarch butterflies in registering the product, it decided the agency otherwise acted “lawfully,” and Enlist Duo could remain in use.
Again, naturally, CFS was not pleased with this ruling. “The panel majority’s unprecedented decision is contrary to controlling law and established science, and CFS is analyzing all legal options, including seeking a full court rehearing, ” said the group.
In addition to these fights, anti-modern agriculture advocates haven’t forgotten about their favorite crop protection product whipping boy, glyphosate. So, the assault on crop protection will likely keep going, and going, and going for many more years to come . . .
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