1 Arkansas judge declines request to put hold on state's dicamba restrictions

A circuit judge in Jonesboro, after nearly a three-hour hearing Friday, dismissed a group of farmers' request to put a hold on the state's restrictions on spraying dicamba.

Over the past 10 days, three other circuit judges -- in Clay, Mississippi and Phillips counties -- have ruled in favor of farmers and issued temporary restraining orders against the state Plant Board and its dicamba ban, which went into effect Monday and runs through Oct. 31.

Circuit Judge Melissa Bristow Richardson was the first of the four to hold a hearing on whether to issue the restraining order. The others ruled in favor of farmers' ex parte requests, meaning the state wasn't advised beforehand of their filings.

Richardson sided with the state attorney general's arguments that the 14 farmers hadn't proved irreparable harm if the state's ban on in-crop use of the herbicide remains in effect and likely wouldn't prevail in their lawsuit against the state.

Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said in a statement Friday afternoon that she was pleased with Richardson's ruling. "The Plant Board's dicamba rule is lawful," she said.

The attorney general's office said it will appeal the other circuit judges' decisions to the Arkansas Supreme Court and has asked for expedited stays of those orders. The Supreme Court last week stayed a decision by a circuit judge in Pulaski County to exempt six plaintiff-farmers from the ban.

"The Plant Board's rule against spraying dicamba remains in full effect for everyone except the plaintiffs in the Mississippi, Phillips and Clay cases," Rutledge's office said.

The lawsuit before Richardson was filed Tuesday in Greene County by 14 farmers and farming entities who said they'd be harmed if dicamba couldn't be sprayed this year on their dicamba-tolerant soybeans and cotton.

The Plant Board, which is part of the Arkansas Agriculture Department, received 997 complaints last year of dicamba damage to crops and produce not tolerant of the herbicide, backyard gardens, and ornamental shrubs and trees.

The board's restrictions on the herbicide followed five months of work and discussion, including several meetings of the full board and its pesticide committee, two meetings of a specially appointed task force, a 30-day period for comment, a public hearing, and a series of legislative meetings in January.

In a statement last week, the Agriculture Department said, "At a minimum we will be enforcing the federal label for pesticide applications until there is more certainty from the court system in interpreting recent decisions." The department also noted state law allows fines of up to $25,000 for dicamba applications that result in "significant off-target damage."

Citing all the lawsuits, Adriane Barnes, the department's spokesman, declined on Friday to clarify that statement, including whether the "federal label" reference applied to Engenia, a dicamba manufactured by BASF and the only formulation allowed in Arkansas last year, or to formulations made by Monsanto and DuPont that haven't been labeled in Arkansas by the Plant Board.

Richardson's ruling in Jonesboro affects only the farmers in the particular case before her, the same as the rulings in the other circuit courts:

• In Mississippi County on April 12, without a hearing, Circuit Judge Tonya Alexander ruled in favor of 114 farmers and farming entities and granted a temporary restraining order.

• In Phillips County on April 13, without a hearing, Circuit Judge Christopher Morledge ruled in favor of 80 farmers in a motion identical to the filing in Mississippi County.

• In Clay County on Monday, without a hearing, Circuit Judge Randy Philhours ruled in favor of 37 farmers.

Robert Thompson of Paragould, the attorney for the farmers in the lawsuits filed in Clay and Greene counties, said Richardson declined to sign an ex parte order to grant a hearing without the attorney general's office being present. He said he was still deciding whether to appeal Richardson's ruling.

"I think there's a lot of evidence [in both lawsuits] that my clients were suffering enormous losses," Thompson said.

Business on 04/21/2018

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