Today is the last day for public comment on a draft environmental impact statement for seed corn that is resistant to Dow Chemical Co.'s herbicide 2,4-D, prompting a story from Dakotafire, a cooperative reporting project among rural newspapers in the eastern Dakotas.
“Good fences make good neighbors,” Heidi Marttila-Losure begins the story. “But what happens if a fenceline can’t stop one neighbor’s actions from harming another’s crop? Some agriculture groups are saying new crops resistant to herbicides 2,4-D and dicamba could lead to just those sorts of problems.”
Promoters of the new corn, branded Enlist, say it's needed because of increasing resistance of weeds to glyphosate, which Monsanto sells as Roundup, “which is becoming a stubborn and costly problem for farmers across the country,” Marttila-Losure notes. “Unfortunately, stubborn weeds aren’t the only thing that 2,4-D kills, and gardeners, vineyard owners and even farmers of commodities who don’t switch to the new technology could potentially be affected.”
The Department of Agriculture says the use of Enlist could increase use of 2,4-D as much as sixfold, which could be a problem because the chemical kills all broadleaf plants, “and some of those broadleaf plants, such as tomatoes or grapes, or even commodity crops that don’t have that specific herbicide-resistant technology, we’d prefer not to kill. Second, both 2,4-D and dicamba have a tendency to be volatile, or to turn to vapor. This vapor can then be carried far from where the herbicide was first applied,” depending on weather conditions. “The most important factor in killing Iowa’s grape industry was the use of 2,4-D.”
The Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society opposes Enlist, saying that if many farmers use it, “It may not be easy to tell whose spray has caused the problem on your field,” Marttila-Losure writes. “Dow scientists recognized the potential drift problem, and they say they have addressed it by developing a new formulation of 2,4-D that’s ultra-low volatility. After complaints that just offering a new variety wasn’t enough—especially since it would be more expensive than generic 2,4-D, which is relatively cheap—Dow said they would urge farmers to use the new formulation when they purchased the new Enlist seeds. They also said they’d try to price the new formulation competitively. Whether that’s enough to get farmers to use the more expensive product remains to be seen.”
Marttila-Losure notes in a tagline that she's a member of the NPSAS, through her family's farm. The group's president, Charlie Johnson, “sees herbicide resistance as a signal of a failed technology: After weeds develop resistance to Enlist, scientists will have to come up with something else.” (Read more)
“Good fences make good neighbors,” Heidi Marttila-Losure begins the story. “But what happens if a fenceline can’t stop one neighbor’s actions from harming another’s crop? Some agriculture groups are saying new crops resistant to herbicides 2,4-D and dicamba could lead to just those sorts of problems.”
Promoters of the new corn, branded Enlist, say it's needed because of increasing resistance of weeds to glyphosate, which Monsanto sells as Roundup, “which is becoming a stubborn and costly problem for farmers across the country,” Marttila-Losure notes. “Unfortunately, stubborn weeds aren’t the only thing that 2,4-D kills, and gardeners, vineyard owners and even farmers of commodities who don’t switch to the new technology could potentially be affected.”
The Department of Agriculture says the use of Enlist could increase use of 2,4-D as much as sixfold, which could be a problem because the chemical kills all broadleaf plants, “and some of those broadleaf plants, such as tomatoes or grapes, or even commodity crops that don’t have that specific herbicide-resistant technology, we’d prefer not to kill. Second, both 2,4-D and dicamba have a tendency to be volatile, or to turn to vapor. This vapor can then be carried far from where the herbicide was first applied,” depending on weather conditions. “The most important factor in killing Iowa’s grape industry was the use of 2,4-D.”
The Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society opposes Enlist, saying that if many farmers use it, “It may not be easy to tell whose spray has caused the problem on your field,” Marttila-Losure writes. “Dow scientists recognized the potential drift problem, and they say they have addressed it by developing a new formulation of 2,4-D that’s ultra-low volatility. After complaints that just offering a new variety wasn’t enough—especially since it would be more expensive than generic 2,4-D, which is relatively cheap—Dow said they would urge farmers to use the new formulation when they purchased the new Enlist seeds. They also said they’d try to price the new formulation competitively. Whether that’s enough to get farmers to use the more expensive product remains to be seen.”
Marttila-Losure notes in a tagline that she's a member of the NPSAS, through her family's farm. The group's president, Charlie Johnson, “sees herbicide resistance as a signal of a failed technology: After weeds develop resistance to Enlist, scientists will have to come up with something else.” (Read more)
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