A Monsanto executive “acknowledged the company misjudged the timeline” for EPA approval of its lower-volatility formulation of the weedkiller dicamba in 2016, reports Reuters. The result was that some farmers, worried about invasive weeds, planted Monsanto’s new dicamba-tolerant soybean seeds and used older versions of dicamba, blamed for damage to neighboring fields.
In court filings in Missouri, Monsanto says the illegal misuse of older dicamba formulations “was not foreseeable” and therefore the company “is not liable for harms caused by other manufacturers’ products.” Reuters says its “review of regulatory records and interviews with crop scientists shows that Monsanto was repeatedly warned by crop scientists, starting as far back as 2011, of the dangers of releasing a dicamba-resistant seed without an accompanying herbicide designed to reduce drift to nearby farms.”
State regulators believe growers continued to use older or unapproved versions of dicamba this year because they were cheaper than the new formulations designed to be less volatile, said the wire service. Dicamba-tolerant GE varieties were planted on a quarter of U.S. soybean land this year and there were estimates of damage on 3.6 million acres. “Even the damage from dicamba may have boosted sales. Some farmers whose crops were harmed said in interviews that they bought Monsanto’s new dicamba-resistant seeds as a defense against drift from nearby spraying,” said Reuters.