Credit: Tamina Miller| Flickr

Pesticide drift is a severely underreported problem in rural, agricultural communities. And now we’re in the middle of an epic summer of drift thanks to Monsanto’s new dicamba-resistant seed line, Xtend. Expanded planting of Xtend soy and cotton is leading to more spraying of the herbicide. As a result, farmers in Southern and Midwestern states are reporting extensive and debilitating crop damage from dicamba traveling from where it’s applied to nearby fields.

This is a crisis moment for many, but drift damage is not a new problem. For years, we at PAN have been been working with those impacted by drift — farmworkers, farmers and rual families who have experienced health harms or crop damage from drifting pesticides — and we’ve been pushing for preventative policies to protect these communities.

Now we have a new tool to offer in helping rural residents respond to drift incidents on farms, at work sites and in homes. This just-released guide, “In Case of Drift,” was created to help anyone facing drift from agricultural […]