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HYDE-SMITH, COLLEAGUES SEEK EPA APPEAL OF DICAMBA COURT DECISION
With Planting Imminent in Southern States, Senators Also Seek Expanded Existing Stock Order on Widely-Used Herbicide
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) is among 20 Senators asking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to protect farmers from losing certain dicamba-based crop protection tools used by cotton and soybean producers by appealing a recent adverse court decision.
Hyde-Smith, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee and Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, signed a letter led by U.S. Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) that addresses a U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona decision to vacate certain dicamba registrations at a time when farmers have already made planting decisions for the spring.
In addition to asking the EPA to appeal the decision, the Senators also request that the agency seek a stay pending the appeal, as well as modifying an EPA existing stocks order so farmers, retailers, and manufacturers will not be affected this spring. In requesting prompt attention to their requests, the Senators pointed out that some planting is imminent if not already underway in the South.
“U.S. farmers are already coping with record input costs, crippling interest rates, and lackluster commodity prices. USDA is forecasting a major decline in 2024 farm income as well as a record agricultural trade deficit. The last thing farmers need now is to lose access to critical crop protection tools in which they have already invested thousands of dollars and on which they have based this year’s planting decisions,” the Senators wrote to EPA Administrator Michael Regan.
“Crop protection tools like dicamba are vital to making no-till farming practical and efficient at a commercial level. If these tools are not available, farmers will be forced to revert to full tillage methods, which would ultimately set yields and conservation efforts back decades,” the Senators said.
In 2023, Mississippi farmers produced more than 122.5 million bushels of soybeans with a production value of $1.56 billion. The state produced 850,000 bales of cotton last year, with a production value of $397 million.
U.S. Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Katie Britt (R-Ala.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), John Thune (R-S.D.), and Todd Young (R-Ind.) also signed the letter to Regan.
Read the Senators’ letter here or below:
Dear Administrator Regan,
We write today to urge you to respond to the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona’s decision to vacate certain Dicamba registrations by pursuing an appeal and seeking to stay the decision pending the appeal. Furthermore, while we certainly appreciate the existing stocks order you issued on February 14, however, we ask that you expand that order to include product within the possession of registrants that has been manufactured and ready for sale on the date of the decision to be distributed, sold, and used.
As you may be aware, farmers across the country have already made planting decisions on seed genetics and crop protection tools for their cotton and soybeans. In the South, some planting is imminent if not already underway. The decision out of Arizona comes at the worst possible time for farmers who are preparing to plant an estimated 50 million acres of soy and cotton using dicamba-tolerant seed. 45% of all soybean acres is also estimated to be dicamba-tolerant this year. The United States is one of the world’s leading soybean and cotton producers, a leading soybean exporter, and the leading cotton exporter. Needless to say, the impact of this decision can and will be felt globally.
While the existing stocks order helps, EPA can do more to alleviate the impact of this decision. Farmers should not have to make last minute decisions on genetics and crop protection products, which will in-turn put supply constraints on other technologies and dramatically drive up the input costs that are already drowning them. Quite frankly, there may not be enough alternative seed or chemistry in the marketplace to replace these tools. Given the immediacy of spring planting, there is no way our current supply chains could accommodate a shift of tens of millions of acres to alternative products in such a short timeframe. To lose meaningful use of these over-the-top dicamba products for the 2024 growing season means hundreds of thousands of farmers would likely go without seed or herbicide during spring planting, which would be devastating for the agricultural economy.
U.S. farmers are already coping with record input costs, crippling interest rates, and lackluster commodity prices. USDA is forecasting a major decline in 2024 farm income as well as a record agricultural trade deficit. The last thing farmers need now is to lose access to critical crop protection tools in which they have already invested thousands of dollars and on which they have based this year’s planting decisions. Crop protection tools like dicamba are vital to making no-till farming practical and efficient at a commercial level. If these tools are not available, farmers will be forced to revert to full tillage methods, which would ultimately set yields and conservation efforts back decades.
Access to safe, effective crop protection tools is vital for allowing farmers to continue to efficiently and sustainably feed, clothe, and fuel the world. We respectfully ask for your prompt attention to this court decision so that farmers may continue to do so.
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