08/31/2025
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EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin (pictured left) wants to move forward with the re-approval of toxic, drift-prone dicamba herbicide even though it's been banned twice by 2 courts and caused immeasurable collateral damage and harm over the last 9 years. Dicamba drift damaged an estimated 5 million acres of crops, trees and backyard gardens between 2016 and 2017. Despite the massive reports of drift damage, in 2018 the Trump EPA not only re-approved its use, but expanded the geographical areas where it could be used. USDA data shows that dicamba drift damaged 15 million acres of soybeans in 2018 alone.
In South Dakota, Little Shire Farm, an organic farm run by John and Lisa Zuhlke, was devastated multiple times over multiple years by dicamba drift. “We got completely wiped out. We had to stop production. All of our CSA shares, community-supported agriculture shares-gone; farmers markets–gone.”
Bader Farms, the largest peach orchard in Missouri, reported 1,000 acres of peaches damaged by dicamba drift over multiple years. Bill Bader’s peach farm was put out of business.
After growing non-GMO soybeans for 15 years, farmer Adam Chappell was forced to switch to GMO dicamba-tolerant soybeans because GMO farmers surrounding him were using dicamba-tolerant soybeans and spraying dicamba. This was, in fact, part of Monsanto's (now Bayer-Monsanto) strategy and marketing plan when they introduced genetically engineered dicamba-tolerant soybeans and cotton in 2015. In 2020, the Midwest Center conducted an extensive investigation and found that Monsanto released its dicamba-tolerant crops knowing the herbicide would cause widespread damage to soybean and cotton crops that weren’t resistant to dicamba. Monsanto used “protection from your neighbors” as a way to sell their seeds. This is nothing short of extortion.
Drift issues even led to a death in Arkansas in 2018. Farmer Mike Wallace was shot after he blamed his crop loss on a neighboring farm. When Wallace confronted the neighboring farm’s farmhand, Curtis Jones, for illegally spraying dicamba, Jones shot him.
These are only a few of the many thousands of cases of farms and lives devastated by dicamba drift.
Now in 2025, the Trump EPA wants to re-approve this dangerous pesticide again. This is truly madness. There is no other word for it. The EPA and White House must stop colluding with the pesticide industry and start defending public health and the environment.
