Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit over the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision last year to allow the sale of Monsanto’s XtendiMax, a combination of dicamba and glyphosate. Groups filing the suit include the National Family Farm Coalition, Center for Food Safety, Center for Biological Diversity, and the Pesticide Action Network of North America. The suit was filed on January 20 in the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A Bloomberg report says the groups cite health concerns due to increasing pesticide exposure and the eventual evolution of herbicide-resistant weeds as grounds to rescind the approval, which EPA gave on November 9, 2016. The Petition for review accuses the EPA of violating the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act in issuing the approval for the product. The groups also say the EPA failed to consult the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service on whether or not the herbicide is a danger to plants and animals listed under the Endangered Species Act. XtendiMax is designed to be used on soybean and cotton plants that have been genetically engineered to resist the herbicide.
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting news service.