Dicamba Volatility and Damage to Neighboring Crops Class Action

Dicamba is an herbicide produced by Monsanto Company, BASF SE, and BASF Corporation that is made to be used with dicamba-resistant crops. These companies, the complaint for this class action alleges, “knew that dicamba, highly volatile and prone to drift, is ruinous to susceptible non-dicamba resistant plants and crops.” This is one of a number of class actions alleging that dicamba has ruined crops in fields near those where it has been used.

The Nationwide Class for this action is all persons and entities in the US who in 2017, 2018, or 2019 were producers of soybeans not resistant to dicamba which exhibited physical symptoms of dicamba injury (leaf cupping with or without further symptoms of strapping, leaf elongation, stunting, or stem twisting).

There is also an Iowa Producers Class, similar to the above but for producers in Iowa.

Monsanto sells dicamba, and it also sells “a genetically engineered train in soybean and cotton seed, and seed containing that trait, for intended use with dicamba herbicide,” the complaint says. Dicamba and dicamba-resistant crops are intended to be used together as a crop system.

Previously, Monsanto offered glyphosate (Roundup) as an herbicide, to be used with genetically-modified glyphosate-resistant crops. The complaint claims that this allowed glyphosate to be used in a different manner than before: “Rather than being applied before the crop is planted … Roundup can be sprayed over the top of growing crops genetically modified to withstand it. As a result, farmers planting glyphosate-tolerant crops can apply it over an entire field after the crop has emerged…”

However, weeds eventually evolved to become resistant to glyphosate, the complaint notes, which may have prompted Monsanto to develop a different crop system.

According to the complaint, “Certain plants are extremely sensitive to dicamba even in trace amounts, especially soybeans.” Other plants can be damaged by it.

Dicamba is also “extremely volatile,” the complaint says, “meaning that it has a high propensity to evaporate, or vaporize, from soil and/or plant surfaces and move as small particles travel through the air to deposit onto non-target plants and crops. Vaporized dicamba can travel great distances before falling onto and damaging susceptible off-target plants and crops not resistant to dicamba.” It is also “prone to spray drift.”

The complaint alleges that Monsanto knows all this.

Monsanto advertised in 2012 that it was going to make “low volatility formulations” and that different application techniques could prevent some of the spread of the dicamba. However, the complaint calls these claims false and misleading.

The complaint covers a great deal of ground in its more than 130 pages, but the central contention is that crops that are not resistant to dicamba in fields near where dicamba is sprayed are being destroyed or damaged.

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Agriculture
Tags: Agriculture, Damage to crops