Seed Makers Want Restrictions on Monsanto Weed Killer

CHICAGO (Reuters) - America’s two biggest independent seed sellers, Beck’s Hybrids and Stine Seed, told Reuters they are pushing U.S. environmental regulators to bar farmers from spraying dicamba weed killer during upcoming summers in a potential blow to Bayer AG’s Monsanto Co. 

Rodrigo Werle, a weed scientist at the University of Wisconsin inspects soybean fields as part of the university's research into whether the weed killer Dicamba drifted away from where it was sprayed in Arlington, Wisconsin, August 2, 2018. REUTERS/Tom Polansek

Limiting spraying of the chemical to the spring season, before crops are planted, would prevent farmers from using the herbicide on dicamba-resistant soybeans that Monsanto engineered. The seeds are sold by companies including Beck’s and Stine. 

Last summer, after farmers planted Monsanto’s dicamba-resistant soy seeds en masse, the herbicide drifted onto nearby farms and damaged an estimated 3.6 million acres of non-resistant soybeans, or 4 percent of all U.S. plantings. 

Problems have not gone away. As of July 15, the University of Missouri estimated that more than a million acres of non-resistant soybeans were hurt by dicamba. Homeowners who live near farms have also complained of damage to their trees and flowers. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now weighing such complaints as part of a high-stakes decision on the herbicide’s future.