There’s a new killer pesticide in town called Dicamba, manufactured by Monsanto.
Dicamba has actually been around for 50 years. But because of its toxicity, farmers rarely used it. Then Monsanto engineered a Dicamba-resistant crop and started promoting it heavily to farmers. Sales of Dicamba shot up immediately.
And now, all non-Monsanto crops are dying from it.
Arkansas just banned the pesticide in a desperate attempt to protect its farmers. The State Plant Board voted to ban the use and sale of Dicamba, after thousands of acres of soybean fields were damaged by the herbicide drifting into neighbouring fields.
This makes Dicamba the most toxic herbicide known. We need to act now to stop Dicamba in the US before it wreaks its havoc on our local farmers.
Even experts are alarmed by the devastating effects of Dicamba on non-modified crops: “I’ve never seen anything like this”, said Larry Steckel from the University of Tennessee. And the only beneficiary is Monsanto: The more Dicamba is used, the more farmers will be forced to buy Monsanto’s resistant crops seeds.
SumOfUs members have been on the frontline for years, fighting against Monsanto’s Glyphosate and bee-killing Neonics. Time and time again, we cut the agrochemical giants down to size. Let’s make sure we win the fight against Dicamba, too.
Tell the EPA to impose an emergency ban on Dicamba now!
More information
NPR. 7 July 2017.