Farmers Sue Over ‘Unrealistic’ Pesticide Instructions

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U.S. farmers are suing the agriculture giant Monsanto over a pesticide with instructions so complex the chemical is nearly impossible to use, Reuters reports.

Monsanto’s weed killer dicamba is used to complement new strains of soybeans and cotton engineered to be resistant to the pesticide. Farmers have problems with the chemical drifting from field to field while being sprayed, however, and killing their own or others crops, according to NPR.

Dicamba comes with a 4,550-word instruction label directing farmers with rules such as only spraying when the wind is blowing between three and 15 miles per hour and keeping the sprayer no higher than two feet above the crops. All spraying equipment must be washed out three times after using the chemical to remove all the residue, according to Reuters.

“The restriction on these labels is unlike anything that’s ever been seen before,” Iowa State University agronomy professor and weed specialist Bob Hartzler said, according to Reuters.

The lawsuit against Monsanto over dicambra describes the chemical’s application instructions as “unrealistic,” Reuters reports.

Monsanto is standing by the pesticide, however.

“When farmers and applicators follow these instructions, [dicambra] works,” Monsanto said in a July report on the chemical. “It is also important to understand that the kind of symptomology we are seeing can have many possible causes … The only scientifically sound way to solve any problem is to consider all of the possible causes, and then run them down — as efficiently and systematically as possible.”

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