Arkansas

In FERN’s latest story, published with Switchyard Magazine, reporter Robert Kunzig takes us to the upper Mississippi River Delta, where the idea of growing more fruits and vegetables — to ease the burden on California in the climate-change era — is taking root.

Citing a new state law against foreign ownership of land in Arkansas, state Attorney General Tim Griffin ordered Syngenta, one of the world's largest seed companies, on Tuesday to sell 160 acres of farmland in northeastern Arkansas within two years. Gov. Sarah Sanders said Arkansas was the first state to take such action.

A broiler breeder flock in northwestern Arkansas was infected by highly pathogenic avian influenza, part of an autumn resurgence of the viral disease (HPAI), said the Agriculture Department. Arkansas ranks third among states in production of broiler chickens, which are grown for human consumption.

House Agriculture chairman David Scott easily won nomination for his 11th term in Congress from a suburban Atlanta district, defeating three challengers during Georgia's primary elections on Tuesday.

Soybean and cotton growers in Arkansas are free to spray the weedkiller dicamba on their crops until June 30 under an order from the Arkansas Supreme Court on Tuesday. It was the latest turnabout in court for use of the herbicide, which has been embraced by farmers as a tool against invasive weeds but criticized as too likely to evaporate from its target areas and land on nearby fields.

The controversial weedkiller dicamba, which has wreaked havoc in soybean country over the last two years, is dividing communities and pitting neighbor against neighbor as the 2019 growing season gets underway. FERN's latest story, a radio piece produced with Reveal and the podcast Us & Them, takes listeners inside these divided communities in Arkansas.(No paywall)

A new investigation by FERN and Reveal, from the Center for Investigative Journalism, shows that the EPA "ignored scientists’ warnings and extensive research that showed dicamba would evaporate into the air and ruin crops miles away, according to documents obtained through public records requests and lawsuits. Instead, the EPA’s approval was based on studies by the companies that manufacture dicamba, which independent scientists say were seriously flawed." (No paywall)

After nearly 1,000 complaints from neighbors about damage from the weedkiller dicamba, the Arkansas State Plant Board banned use of the herbicide on soybeans and cotton during the growing season this year. Yet state officials still are receiving complaints about dicamba, especially in the northeastern corner of the state, near the Missouri border, says NPR's The Salt, and the state is looking for the culprits.

A class-action lawsuit filed in U.S. district court in St. Louis says Monsanto and BASF genetically engineered dicamba-resistant crops knowing the weedkiller was likely to harm neighboring crops, and that "everything they did and failed to do increased the risk," reports Harvest Public Media.

As a young man, Johnny Carroll Sain dreamed of owning an industrial hog farm like his uncle. Eventually, he did, raising hogs for Cargill on 55 acres in northern Arkansas. He's out of the business now, and in FERN's latest piece, published with Arkansas Life, he explores how industrial meat production has damaged the environment, the economy, and the social cohesion in his rural community. (No paywall)

An Arkansas judge ruled that a State Plant Board regulation that bars use of the weedkiller dicamba on cotton and soybeans from April 16-Oct. 31 does not apply to six farmers, said DTN/Progressive Farmer. The growers sued the board last year over the ban and wound up in a legal limbo due to a state Supreme Court ruling that state agencies are protected from lawsuits under the doctrine of sovereign immunity.

The world's largest seed and ag-chemical company, Monsanto, says it is considering its options after a court dismissed its lawsuit challenging the Arkansas ban of its weedkiller dicamba on row crops during the growing season, said the Associated Press. "Arkansas has the toughest restriction in place on dicamba, though several states have imposed other restrictions or requirements."

The Arkansas State Plant Board, responding to nearly 1,000 complaints of crop damage due to dicamba, voted in January to bar use of the herbicide on cotton and soybeans during the 2018 growing season. Now Monsanto, dicamba’s maker, has “sued the board and each individual member,” reports NPR.

The bicameral Arkansas Legislative Council approved a ban on spraying the weedkiller dicamba on cotton and soybeans from April 16-Oct. 31 in hopes of preventing damage to neighboring crops. By essentially banning the herbicide for the growing season, Arkansas is at the forefront of several states that set stricter rules on the chemical than mandated by the EPA, which itself tightened its rules on when and how the weedkiller can be used.

A legislative subcommittee supported the Arkansas State Plant Board’s plan to ban use of the weedkiller dicamba from April 16 to Oct. 31 this year. The bicameral Legislative Council is scheduled to take a final vote on the proposal on Friday, said the Associated Press.

The little-known U.S. Judicial Panel on Mulitdistrict Litigation is scheduled to hear arguments on Jan. 25 in Miami on one of the hottest issues in agriculture — claims of crop damage due to the weedkiller dicamba, said the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. The panel will decide whether to centralize more than a dozen lawsuits filed in four states against the makers of dicamba, which would mean one court would oversee the cases.