Farmers need “new technology to address the weed control challenges on U.S. farms now,” and the EPA should make sure a new weedkiller is available for the spring planting season, said five large U.S. ag groups. In a letter, the farm groups asked EPA administrator Gina McCarthy to reverse a plan to withdraw registration of Enlist Duo, a combination of glyphosate and 2,4-D, two widely used herbicides. The EPA acted in late November, a little more than a year after approving the new weedkiller for use with corn and soybeans genetically engineered to tolerate the chemical. “EPA is in receipt of new information regarding potential synergistic effects between the two ingredients on non-target plants,” including endangered species, the agency said in a court filing.
“There will always be new information to be considered about products EPA has registered,” say the farm groups in their letter, but the government has given exhaustive consideration to Enlist Duo. “We ask EPA to immediately withdraw its requests that the existing Enlist Duo registrations be vacated and do everything in its power to ensure this long-delayed product is authorized for use by American farmers in the 2016 growing season.” The American Soybean Association, American Farm Bureau Federation, National Corn Growers Association, National Cotton Council and the National Farmers Union said Enlist Duo “simply combines two herbicides that have each been on the market for decades and that our members regularly and legally tank mix to enhance weed control where possible.”
Enlist Duo is expected to be a big money-maker for Dow and provide farmers with a way to kill weeds that have developed resistance to glyphosate, best known as Roundup. The agency had approved use of Enlist Duo in 15 states in the Midwest, Plains and South with a requirement that farmers leave a 30-foot downwind buffer around the edges of fields and not spray during windy days.
Dow has argued in U.S. appeals court that the EPA should go through the routine process of proposing a cancellation rather than ask a court to vacate the registration, said Agri-Pulse.
Besides glyphosate and 2,4-D, another widely used herbicide, atrazine, is under challenge, said Civil Eats. California wants to list atrazine as toxic to the human reproductive system. “These are the nation’s most used agricultural chemicals … Between them, glyphosate, atrazine, and 2,4-D are used on nearly all of the corn and soy grown in the U.S. as well as on many other crops, including fruit, vegetables, nuts, and wheat.”