To: EPA Office of Pesticide Programs
Force This Destructive Pesticide to Retire
Dicamba has been implicated in damaging 3.6 million acres of non-resistant soybeans in 2017 and more than 1 million acres so far in 2018, not to mention other crops, plants, and trees. This has cost farmers millions of dollars in lost crops at a time when so many farmers are already struggling. It is clear that the EPA erred when it registered dicamba for genetically engineered cotton and soybean plants. Please allow this registration to expire and stop over-the-top use of dicamba. The risk to farmers and our environment is too great.
Why is this important?
Two years ago, the EPA allowed farmers to spray the dangerous pesticide dicamba on genetically engineered cotton and soybean plants. The hope -- for biochemical companies like Monsanto -- was that this system could replace the line of "Roundup Ready" GMOs that are already creating superweeds resistant to Roundup's herbicide.
But the EPA and Monsanto didn't think things through. Dicamba drifted in the air, damaging 3.6 million acres of soybeans in 2017 -- an area larger than Yellowstone and Grand Canyon National Parks combined. This year, more than 1 million acres of soybeans have been damaged. Neighbors are complaining of dicamba destroying trees, flowers, and gardens, indicating even greater environmental damage.
Pesticides must be registered by the EPA, and dicamba's approval runs out for GMO crops in November. Monsanto is telling its seed customers to write to the EPA in a last-ditch effort to save their product from the dustbin of history.
Please write to the EPA and tell them that dicamba is too risky and destructive to continue another year!
But the EPA and Monsanto didn't think things through. Dicamba drifted in the air, damaging 3.6 million acres of soybeans in 2017 -- an area larger than Yellowstone and Grand Canyon National Parks combined. This year, more than 1 million acres of soybeans have been damaged. Neighbors are complaining of dicamba destroying trees, flowers, and gardens, indicating even greater environmental damage.
Pesticides must be registered by the EPA, and dicamba's approval runs out for GMO crops in November. Monsanto is telling its seed customers to write to the EPA in a last-ditch effort to save their product from the dustbin of history.
Please write to the EPA and tell them that dicamba is too risky and destructive to continue another year!