Investigate Midwest (https://investigatemidwest.org/tag/monsanto/)
In a normal year we would be debating several worthy agricultural stories as the most important. We certainly would be taking a hard look at the continuing dicamba herbicide saga. 2020 saw the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit de-register dicamba formulations in the middle of the growing season from Bayer AG, Corteva, and BASF because of shoddy regulatory control at the Environmental Protection Agency:
Internal company records show the companies knew crop damage from their weed killer would be extensive. They sold it anyway.
A jury awarded Bader Farms $250 million in punitive damages after finding Monsanto and BASF knew dicamba would harm crops. A judge reduced the amount.
The American Soybean Association and the Plains Cotton Growers contend the EPA overstepped in its new restrictions on the weed killer dicamba.
There’s going to be lots of questions from farmers and concerned environmental groups surrounding Bayer’s new dicamba formulation. Certainly Bayer doesn’t want to be put through the wringer if it can help it.
Bayer has reached a $400 million settlement with farmers whose crops have been damaged by drift from the herbicide dicamba, the company announced Wednesday. The settlement was announced alongside the company’s $10 billion settlement over claims that the herbicide Roundup causes cancer.
Bayer-owned Monsanto and law firms representing about 100,000 plaintiffs reached a settlement on Wednesday over the alleged cancer-causing effects of the popular herbicide Roundup.
Administrator Andrew Wheeler’s Environmental Protection Agency has been eviscerated in a brutal takedown by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for its lack of oversight in registering the controversial herbicide dicamba.
As U.S. soybean and cotton farmers work to get their 2020 crops planted, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments Tuesday in a case that has the potential to disallow the spraying of dicamba this growing season.
This fall, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will decide whether the benefits of having the herbicide available to farmers for combatting weed resistance issues outweighs the harm to other farmers whose crops are damaged and to the environment.