Johnathan Hettinger, “EPA eased herbicide regulations following Monsanto research, records show,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 1, 2018.

SUMMARY:

Reports on a document review investigation that reveals that Monsanto’s own science played a key role in how the use restrictions for the new dicamba formulations for use with Xtend crops were set. EPA had originally proposed a larger, more comprehensive, all-direction buffer for all of the new dicamba formulations, the first to be approved for post-emergent use over growing crops.  Then, Monsanto submitted updated research on dicamba drift that, according to the company, demonstrated little to no volatility. EPA was apparently convinced, since it reduced the buffer to just 110 ft on the downwind side of fields on which the herbicide is applied — a big difference. This story reports that Monsanto research used to justify this was conducted in Georgia and Texas, two states that have had only modest problems with dicamba drift and crop damage, likely due to local weather conditions. FULL TEXT