In the latest chapter of the dicamba herbicide saga, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday re-approved dicamba-based herbicides, namely Bayer’s XtendiMax for soybeans and cotton. The agency first banned the product in June after it was found to cause damage to adjacent crops via drift. The approval comes with a caveat, though; EPA officials say they’ll include new restrictions with the approval on all dicamba-based products that will address the drift issue. In 2020, more than half of U.S. soybean acres included resistance via the Xtend trait. The dicamba news Tuesday came as USDA released its annual Pesticide Data Program report that showed 99% of food samples taken were below federal tolerances for chemical residues, with half of them registering no residue at all. See more on the dicamba news.
EPA Greenlights Dicamba…With ‘New Restrictions’