Cornucopia’s Take: In releasing dicamba resistant seeds prior to EPA approval of use of dicamba itself, Monsanto has created the perfect market for its GMO seeds: farmers whose soybeans have been stunted by neighbors spraying dicamba illegally. The USDA continues to leave the onus for crop damage on the victims.
Crime In The Fields: How Monsanto And Scofflaw Farmers Hurt Soybeans In Arkansas
NPR – The Salt
by Dan Charles
When Tom Barber, a scientist at the University of Arkansas who studies weeds, drives the country roads of eastern Arkansas this summer, his trained eye can spot the damage: soybean leaves contorted into cup-like shapes.
He’s seeing it in field after field. Similar damage is turning up in Tennessee and in the “boot-heel” region of Missouri. Tens of thousands of acres are affected.
This is no natural phenomenon of weather or disease. It’s almost certainly the result of a crime. The disfigured leaves are evidence that a neighboring farmer sprayed a herbicide called dicamba, probably in violation of the law.