To the horror of farmers across

America’s farm belt, hundreds of thousands of crop acres have been adversely impacted by the apparent misuse of the drift-prone herbicide dicamba on Monsanto’s Roundup Ready Xtend soybean and cotton plants.

According to a recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) compliance advisory, the EPA and state agencies have received an “unusually high” number of reports of crop damage that appear related to the illegal spraying of dicamba.

A soybean plant affected by dicamba drift from a nearby field, roadside or other area where the herbicide was applied. Purdue

The EPA has collected similar reports of crop damage from 10 states: Missouri, Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.

Missouri appears to have suffered the most. According to the Southeast Missourian, the state’s department of agriculture has received 125 complaints of dicamba damage on more than 40,000 crop acres.

Missouri farmers have reported damage on a number of crops including peaches, tomatoes, cantaloupes, watermelons, rice, cotton, peas, peanuts, alfalfa and soybeans, the EPA said.

The reason behind this widespread crop damage is that while Monsanto’s genetically modified (GMO) crops can withstand sprays of dicamba, other crops cannot. The seed […]