Huge news about Bayer/Monsanto!
A federal appeals court in San Francisco on Wednesday overturned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's approval of the use of dicamba, a weed killer used on millions of acres of soybean and cotton crops.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the EPA failed to comply with a federal pesticide law requiring it to consider the risks of the chemical when it granted a two-year conditional approval in late 2018.
Dicamba has been in use for more than 50 years, but its use expanded greatly in the past several years after Monsanto reformulated it and developed dicamba-resistant soybean and cotton seeds so that dicamba could replace Monsanto's Roundup herbicides on those two crops. The reason was that some weeds had developed resistance to glyphosate, the main ingredient in the Roundup products.The risk posed by dicamba is that it can drift for as far as a mile in wind conditions or when it vaporizes in hot weather, and thereby damage other crops, trees and gardens, according to the court.
Unless Monsanto, which is now owned by Bayer AG of Germany, or the EPA obtain a stay or successfully appeal the decision, the ruling means that dicamba can't be used for the rest of the year, according to Lori Ann Burd, environmental health program director for the Center for Biological Diversity.
Burd said, "This is a massive victory that will protect people and wildlife from uses of a highly toxic pesticide that never should have been approved by the EPA.
The fact that the Trump EPA approved these uses of dicamba despite its well-documented record of damaging millions of acres of farmland, tree groves and gardens highlights how tightly the pesticide industry controls EPA's pesticide-approval process," she alleged.
In other Bayer/Monsanto news this time about Round Up, thousands of cancer patients and their families around the United States were notified recently that a comprehensive settlement of their claims against the former Monsanto Co. should be announced before the end of the month.
Huge and wonderful news indeed. Now if its upheld and passed by many others and truly ends the reckless and irresponsible use of allowing cancer causing chemicals and recombination versions of them to be allowed in any form we can put on our organic party hats and celebrate!
But really hood news and a great beginning to better farming practices!!!
@lovendures, I love this Seoul metro farm -- 40 times more efficient that regular farming and saves the fossil fuel costs of distribution because it's right in the middle of the city.
It provides hope for food production during the uncertain climate future. However, it is a matter of scale whether metro farms can meet rising food demands.
Not quite sure where to share this, but saw it online and was amazed.
This family of 4 is moving from London, England to the Seychelles off the east coast of Africa to create a nature reserve for the purpose of revitalizing the coral reefs in the area. They will farm coral and plant it across reefs to replenish and revitalize them:
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/family-sells-london-home-to-save-coral-reefs-in-the-seychelles/
Wasn't there a prediction about a new technology that would make pesticides obsolete? This might be it in the future. Tiny weed-killing robots could make pesticides obsolete
@jsr78. Baba predicted in 2019. Thanks for finding the article and welcome to the Forum!
- Some kind of technology is developed that makes pesticides not necessary in most cases. (Baba). Predicted 11.11.19 for 2020. Tiny weed-killing robots could make pesticides obsolete
Not sure it this belongs in this thread or not.. but..It relates to improved environment . It seems a viable solution for America because of the large amount of farm land here : https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/08/spreading-rock-dust-on-fields-could-remove-vast-amounts-of-co2-from-air
New Virus found in pigs: G4 EA H1N1
https://www.livescience.com/flu-virus-pigs-pandemic-potential.html