Skip to main content
Natural Society
Store
MENUMENU
  • Latest News
    • Coming Soon!

      • With 79.4 Million Obese Citizens, the U.S. is Leading in Obesity

        With 79.4 Million Obese Citizens, the U.S. is Leading in Obesity

      • U.S. Life Expectancy Drops Amid Rising Suicide, Drug Overdose Rates

        U.S. Life Expectancy Drops Amid Rising Suicide, Drug Overdose Rates

      • Are Farmers Being Manipulated Into Buying GMO Soybean Seeds?

        Are Farmers Being Manipulated Into Buying GMO Soybean Seeds?

  • Healthy Living
    • Healthy Living

    • Coming Soon!

      • EWG Report: Your Tap Water is Contaminated with Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’

        EWG Report: Your Tap Water is Contaminated with Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’

      • Is “Non-Toxic” Nail Polish Really Non-Toxic? Maybe Not, Study Shows

        Is “Non-Toxic” Nail Polish Really Non-Toxic? Maybe Not, Study Shows

      • A Broccoli Anti-Aging Enzyme may Hold the Fountain of Youth

        A Broccoli Anti-Aging Enzyme may Hold the Fountain of Youth

  • Home Remedies
    • Natural Medicine

    • Popular

      • Hemorrhoids
      • Strep Throat
      • Gout
      • Teeth Whitening
      • Gum Disease
      • Kidney Cleanse
      • 6 of the Best Natural Remedies for Arthritis

        6 of the Best Natural Remedies for Arthritis

      • Kidney Cleanse: 22 Foods for Kidney Health

        Kidney Cleanse: 22 Foods for Kidney Health

      • How You’re Probably Chewing and Drinking Yourself Sick

        How You’re Probably Chewing and Drinking Yourself Sick

  • Food as Medicine
    • Food as Medicine

    • Popular

      • Importance of MAGNESIUM
      • Dates
      • Chamomile Tea
      • Black Cumin (Nigella Sativa)
      • Nettle Tea
      • Sesame Seeds and Sesame Oil
    • Recent Posts

      • A Broccoli Anti-Aging Enzyme may Hold the Fountain of Youth

        A Broccoli Anti-Aging Enzyme may Hold the Fountain of Youth

      • 11+ Reported Health Benefits of Basil Seeds

        11+ Reported Health Benefits of Basil Seeds

      • Ancient Medicine: Black Seed Oil’s 21 Powerful Health Benefits

        Ancient Medicine: Black Seed Oil’s 21 Powerful Health Benefits

  • Health Science
    • Health Science

    • Coming Soon!

      • Is “Non-Toxic” Nail Polish Really Non-Toxic? Maybe Not, Study Shows

        Is “Non-Toxic” Nail Polish Really Non-Toxic? Maybe Not, Study Shows

      • A Broccoli Anti-Aging Enzyme may Hold the Fountain of Youth

        A Broccoli Anti-Aging Enzyme may Hold the Fountain of Youth

      • Acetaminophen may Increase Stroke Risk in People with Diabetes

        Acetaminophen may Increase Stroke Risk in People with Diabetes

Toxic Weedkiller Dicamba Drift Damages Crops Across America

There's less damage this year, but still plenty of it

Environment

Julie Fidler
By Julie Fidler
Posted On May 27, 2019

Roughly 383,000 acres of soybean crops have been injured by the weed-killer dicamba as of June 2018, according to University of Missouri plant sciences professor, Kevin Bradley.

Dicamba destroys everything it touches, other than the crops that are genetically engineered to withstand it. “Dicamba drift” is a well-known term associated with the herbicide because the chemical can be picked up by the wind and land on neighboring non-targeted fields, stunting plants’ growth, and leaving them wrinkled or cupped.

Non-targeted crops and trees have been harmed by dicamba drift for numerous growing seasons, according to Bradley, who has tracked the damage caused by the weed-killer extensively.

In 2017, Monsanto’s (now Bayer) new dicamba-based herbicide, XtendiMax, was approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for use on the company’s Xtend soybeans and cotton. That growing season, XtendiMax reportedly damaged an estimated 3.6 million acres of off-target crops in more than 2 dozen states.

Many crops were also devastated in 2016 when 10 states reported hundreds of thousands of crop acres damaged by the apparent misuse of older, unapproved versions of dicamba.

The summer of 2018 has fared a bit better, but the damage was still palpable, according to Bradley.

“Many growers in [Missouri] have adopted the Xtend trait so they don’t experience dicamba injury on their soybean crop for a third season in a row. Since the adoption of the Xtend trait is so high in this area, relatively speaking there seem to be fewer soybean fields with injury this year compared to last.

However, just as in the past two seasons, there are still fields of non-Xtend soybean in this area showing injury from one end to the other.

More surprising to me than that has been the extent of the trees that are showing symptoms of growth regulator herbicide injury in that part of the state where the adoption of this trait is so high.”

Compared to 2017, 2018 has seen more cases of off-target movement of the chemical to specialty crops, vegetables, ornamental plants, and trees, said Bradley. [2]

Read: Complaints About Crop Damage Spur Temporary Ban on Dicamba in 2 States

He writes in the report:

“I have personally witnessed this increasing problem of off-target dicamba injury to “other” crops and tree species in the calls I have received, field visits, and “windshield surveys” of Missouri that I have taken the past few weeks, especially when driving around southeast Missouri last week.”

Here are the soybean injury numbers in 2018 (could actually be much more), by acres, in individual states, according to the University of Missouri: [1]

  • Arkansas 100,000
  • Illinois: 150,000
  • Indiana: 5,000
  • Iowa: 1,200
  • Kansas: 100
  • Kentucky: 500
  • Nebraska: 40
  • Missouri: 25,000
  • Mississippi: 100,000
  • Tennessee: 2,000

Sources:

[1] EcoWatch

[2] NY Times

PrairieFarmer


Post written byJulie Fidler:
Julie Fidler has written hundreds of articles on key world topics such as health, drugs, and law. She is also the author of Adventures in Holy Matrimony: For Better or the Absolute Worst. Oh, and she loves to take care of two ridiculously- spoiled cats in her free time.

One response to “Toxic Weedkiller Dicamba Drift Damages Crops Across America”

  1. GMOs Live Long & Prosper says:
    September 13, 2019 at 2:14 pm

    I see jules is once again on her soap box bashing farmers for feeding the world. Kinda strange with all this damage how we have record yields now isnt it.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

Newsletter

Featured Product

Essential Survival Tools

The Scrubbaâ„¢ Wash Bag




  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Store