If you thought that dicamba based herbicides weren’t going to be a danger after the 9th circuit court ruled EPA’s certification of the products in question ignored basic science and reports of damage, you’d be wrong. While the EPA is required to certify products like this, individual states are actually in control of what farmers can or cannot use on their crops, and it looks like only two or three states where dicamba resistant crops are grown are going to actually halt the use of the product.
To make things even more – interesting, shall we say, the EPA has just issued a statement saying that despite the court ruling, farmers can continue to use “existing stocks” of the herbicides until July 31. So EPA is basically telling the states and farmers that even though the court stated that the certification for the products had to be recinded, what the court said doesn’t matter and you can keep using the stuff.
If you’re confused by all of this, well, so are a lot of people. On the surface it looks like EPA just basically told the 9th circuit court to go eff itself and they’re going to do whatever the hell they want anyway.
grouchyfarmer 