weedkiller

Months after suspending work, the Food and Drug Administration "has resumed its first-ever endeavor to evaluate how much of a controversial chemical is making its way into the U.S. food supply," says a blog post by Carey Gillam of U.S. Right to Know. The FDA began the "special assignment" last year but stopped the work because of a disagreement over a standard methodology for the agency's laboratories to use.

The most widely used herbicide in the world, glyphosate, faces hundreds of legal challenges from cancer victims, primarlly agricultural and landscape workers, who blame the chemical for their illnesses, says the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Attorney Tim Litzenburg says the total could run into the thousands in the next two months because the statute of limitations is running out in many states.

The world's largest seed company, Monsanto, says it will challenge a ruling by a federal judge that allows California officials to require a cancer warning on its weedkiller Roundup, said The Associated Press. If carried out, it would be the first such state-level warning on the herbicide, made with glyphosate, the most widely used weedkiller in the world.

The wine industry contributes an estimated $2 billion to the Texas state economy, but winegrowers say their livelihood is under threat by weedkillers intended for use on genetically engineered cotton. They are not placated by EPA assurances that new herbicides use formulations that are less prone to drift onto neighboring land in the No. 1 cotton state, or that spray rigs will use anti-drift nozzles, says the Texas Tribune.

The FDA found trace amounts of glyphosate, the most widely used weedkiller in the world, "in a variety of oat products, including plain and flavored oat cereals for babies," says a blog post by Carey Gillam of U.S. Right to Know. It appeared a day after European officials said they would release data from their assessment that glyphosate is "unlikely to pose a carcinogenic risk to humans" and two days after a Monsanto-commissioned study said the herbicide was not a threat.

Special agents from EPA's Criminal Investigation Division served federal search warrants on several locations in Cape Girardeau, Dunklin, New Madrid and Stoddard counties in southeastern Missouri, tied to complaints of crop damage from pesticide drift, said the Daily Dunklin Democrat. The EPA is investigating possible misuse of the herbicide dicamba.

A USDA agronomist in Minnesota has invented an air-powered device that shoots out farm residues — "from seed meals to nut shells, fruit pits, and corn cob grits" — at weeds and pulverizes them while leaving corn shoots standing tall, reports Modern Farmer. Dried chicken manure is a current favorite to target the pesky plants. “We can weed and feed at the same time,” Frank Forcella told the magazine.

In a decision that removed a roadblock to adoption of a new genetically engineered soybean variety, the European Commission approved import of the Monsanto soybean that is resistant to two types of weedkillers, said Reuters. The soybean went on sale in the United States and Canada this year surrounded by questions about whether there was a market for it.

One of the greatest threats to cotton and soybean producers is Palmer amaranth, an invasive and aggressively growing weed. The weed has developed resistance to the widely used weedkiller glyphosate and now Palmer amaranth populations in Arkansas are resistant to a class of herbicides known as PPO inhibitors, compounding the challenge of weed control, says a University of Illinois researcher.

A coalition of nine environmental and consumer groups says it submitted more than 500,000 comments in opposition to a Dow weedkiller that combines the herbicides glyphosate and 2,4-D. The Environmental Protection Agency says it hopes to make a final decision later this year, "perhaps by late summer or early fall," on the Enlist Duo weedkiller. It tentatively has decided the herbicide is safe for use.

Rapidly spreading palmer amaranth is the headliner among a list of 16 types of weeds that have developed resistance to glyphosate, one of the most widely used herbicides.

Researchers looking at health records and blood, urine and saliva samples found "an association between early-life exposure to glyphosate and liver inflammation and metabolic disease in young adults" in California's Salinas Valley, according to the lead scientist Brenda Eskanazi. Glyphosate is the most widely used weedkiller in the world.