06 Oct EPA responds in part to Kansas Agribusiness Retailers Association’s coalition letter on decisions regarding dicamba registration
United States EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler has responded to Kansas Agribusiness Retailers Association (KARA) and other industry stakeholders regarding calls for swift decisions on Dicamba herbicide product label registrations.
“The Environmental Protection Agency is working to complete registration decisions on dicamba by the middle of this month. We are currently reviewing the registration by two of the companies that produce dicamba, and we hope to have a decision by middle of October,” Wheeler said.
KARA organized a coalition of crop production stakeholders and sent a letter to EPA regarding timely consideration in September.
“One of the criticisms of the 9th Circuit was that there were too many restrictions on the label, it was too hard to follow,” Wheeler said. “So, we’re taking a hard look at the old label and we’re looking at the updated science we’ve gotten from the companies. We want to make sure that we can make a decision on whether or not to go forward with dicamba and if we do, what the label looks like, so it provides certainty for all the farmers once and for all who either want to use dicamba or want to be told that they can’t use dicamba, either way.”
As new formulation dicamba products, when applied in accordance with the label directions and in conjunction with dicamba-tolerant trait crops, have been used effectively in the production of soybeans and cotton in Kansas, stakeholders in production agriculture wrote to the EPA urging expedited agency action on the issuance of new registrations.
The Kansas groups included on the letter included: KARA, Kansas Soybean Association, Kansas Cotton Association, Kansas Farm Bureau, Kansas Association of Conservation Districts, Kansas Cooperative Council, Kansas Grain and Feed Association and Renew Kansas Biofuels Association.
“Members of our coalition of Kansas agricultural stakeholder organizations are requesting the timely consideration and approval of registration of dicamba herbicide product labels that include directions for over-the-top, post-emergent application on dicamba-tolerant crops,” KARA President and CEO Ron Seeber said. “As crop rotation and input decisions for next year are being made by agricultural producers right now, we urge the agency to issue new registrations for these products as soon as possible.”