A state agriculture panel on Monday approved restrictions on a dicamba-based herbicide after a nearly three-hour public hearing that included testimony from relatives of a man killed last month in a dispute over illegal spraying.
The proposed restrictions now go to the governor.
Some 120 people attended the hearing of the state Plant Board, a division of the Arkansas Department of Agriculture, with 90 of them cramming into the board's primary meeting room. The remainder went to two overflow rooms where they could watch and listen on a live feed.
With the exception of a representative of Monsanto Co., which less than two weeks ago had a new formulation of a dicamba-based herbicide approved by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, all of about 20 people who asked to speak to the board said they favored the proposed restrictions.
Three who spoke were relatives of Mike Wallace, 55, of Monette (Craighead County), who was shot and killed Oct. 27, allegedly during an argument with a neighboring farmer over illegal spraying of dicamba. Allan Curtis Jones, 26, of Arbyrd, Mo., was arrested on a charge of first-degree murder.
Wallace's sister, Karin Hawkins, said her brother followed three rules: work hard, be honest and fair, and be kind to others. "But he found that not all follow those rules," she said. Farmers who sprayed illegally knew it would be less expensive to pay any fines incurred than to lose an entire crop, she said.
While her family is devastated by its loss, an entire farming community also has been hurt, Hawkins said.
Bradley Wallace said his father twice filed complaints -- this growing season, and last -- about damage to his crops caused by illegal spraying. "His complaints fell on deaf ears," he said.
Dicamba has been on the market for decades as a relatively inexpensive weedkiller around the home and on the farm. It is illegal, however, to spray across soybeans and cotton once the plants have emerged because of its tendency to drift off target and damage neighboring row crops, fruit and vegetable farms, and ornamental trees.
Monsanto this spring began selling a new soybean seed that is tolerant of dicamba, saying farmers likely would see bigger yields. However, its dicamba-based herbicide, called Xtendimax Vapor Grip, wasn't approved by the EPA until Nov. 9. Monsanto says the new herbicide is more stable than its dicamba predecessors and less susceptible to drift.
Wallace planted conventional soybeans; Jones and his employer, Lonnie Gibson Jr., also of Arbyrd, planted Monsanto's dicamba-tolerant beans.
Ty Witten, a Monsanto representative, said the company didn't believe it was right to limit technology when it was most needed, as weeds have grown resistant to most herbicides on the market.
Reed Storey, a Marvell (Phillips County) farmer, said his crops were damaged by dicamba sprayed by two different farmers. One farmer, he said, "told me he was going to control his weeds no matter the cost."
Storey said the spraying cost him five to 15 bushels of soybeans per acre, or about $70,000. He said that is a major loss at a time when crop prices are so low.
Tim Roberts of Ozark Mountain Poultry, based in Rogers, said his company's feed mill pays premium prices for soy that has not been genetically modified because his customers want non-GMO poultry. He said OMP wanted to make sure the Monsanto Xtend technology, including its herbicide, is adequately studied and believed such study should be conducted by weed scientists with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
In addition to the public hearing, the Plant Board recently concluded a 30-day comment period. It received 245 written comments, mainly by email, with 192 writers expressing support for the restrictions first proposed by the board on Sept. 30. Thirty-three proposed a ban on all dicamba products. Just five wrote in opposition to the restrictions.
The board voted 16-0, with two members abstaining because of conflicts of interest, to:
• Ban dicamba herbicides of dimethylamine (DMA) salt and acid formulations, except on pastures but only if all susceptible crops are at least 1 mile away in all directions.
• Prohibit spraying of all dicamba composed of diglycolamine (DGA) salt and sodium salt from April 15 through September 15, except on pastures or rangeland, again with a 1-mile buffer.
• Require farmers who use a salt dicamba called Engenia, by BASF, on the new Monsanto cotton and soybeans to have a quarter-mile downwind buffer zone and 100-foot buffer in all other directions.
• Require anyone who uses any of the DGA-based herbicides on genetically modified seed by Dow Chemical Co. or Monsanto to be trained and certified by the state.
A Plant Board committee that deals with fines and penalties also has recommended increasing the fine for illegal spraying from the current $1,000 per violation to $25,000. That is ultimately up to the Arkansas Legislature.
Business on 11/22/2016