skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina s congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Myorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Public Interest Groups Sue EPA for Reapproving Controversial Herbicide

play audio
Play

Thursday, January 7, 2021   

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Public-interest groups are suing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over the agency's re-approval of products containing dicamba, a herbicide controversial for its tendency to drift into neighboring fields and damage farmers' crops and homeowners' gardens.

Last fall, the EPA green lighted dicamba use for five years, the third time the agency registered dicamba products.

George Kimbrell, legal director at the Center for Food Safety, said last summer a federal court found the Trump administration's 2018 approval of dicamba unlawful, noting the EPA had failed to consider the adverse impacts to farmers and the environment before granting approval.

"And yet five months later, right before the election, they went back and re-approved this same product," Kimbrell observed. "So we're back in court fighting to prevent those harms from again occurring."

The latest lawsuit seeks to stop nationwide use of dicamba during this year's growing season.

The EPA decides when and how much dicamba farmers can spray on their crops, but Kimbrell noted some states are enacting tougher restrictions.

Arkansas has banned farmers from spraying the herbicide after May 25, and Illinois and Indiana have passed similar cut-off dates.

Over the past few years, dicamba sprayed atop soybean and cotton crops has caused drift damage to millions of acres.

In Arkansas, thousands of complaints over the herbicide have been lodged and farmers have sued the makers of dicamba products for damages.

Kimbrell added dicamba use has created a harmful cycle for growers.

"It's not all remedied by money," Kimbrell contended. "You have farmers that are losing the right to plant the crop of their choice, and having to buy these genetically engineered seeds defensively and plant them because they know they're going to be hit by drift and their crops are going to be damaged."

He believes dicamba products are a linchpin of an unsustainable industrial food system and pointed to recent studies showing human exposure to dicamba can increase the risk of developing numerous cancers, including acute and chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

"They're a monocultural crop system that is harming the environment and harming American farmers, on behalf of agrochemical companies to sell more pesticides that then go onto our food and into the environment," Kimbrell asserted.

The EPA said its five-year registration of dicamba products for use on genetically modified soybean and cotton crops meets the regulatory standard of causing no unreasonable adverse effects to either human health or the environment.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
A report from the Tennessee HealthCare Campaign recommended the federal government needs to strengthen 340B drug pricing and other federal negotiation mechanisms to make needed medicines more readily available and less expensive for hospitals to purchase and administer. (Spotmatikphoto/AdobeStock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

A recent report examined how some rural Tennessee hospitals have managed to stay afloat despite financial challenges. The report includes interviews …


Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…


Nearly 13 million Americans receive health coverage through unique plans under both Medicare and Medicaid. They are known as Dual-Eligible Special Needs Plans. (Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Medicare and Medicaid are key sources of health coverage for many Americans and some people qualify for assistance under both programs. With lagging …

Social Issues

play sound

A mix of policy updates and staffing boosts has helped to put wage theft enforcement on the radar in Minnesota, and officials leading the efforts are …

More than six in 10 Americans favor keeping the abortion pill mifepristone available in the U.S. as a prescription drug, while over a third are opposed, according to a Gallup poll. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

New research shows more than six in 10 abortions in the U.S. last year were medically induced, and U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto - D-NV - is …

Social Issues

play sound

Colorado is working to boost the state's agricultural communities by getting more fresh, nutritious foods into school cafeterias - and a new online …

Social Issues

play sound

Missouri lawmakers are concerned with protecting people from the potential risks of the increasing accessibility of AI-generated images and videos…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021