Local organic gardeners and farmers are urging Arkansawyers to put in comments to the Arkansas Department of Agriculture opposing expanding the months farmers are allowed to apply the herbicide dicamba. Dicamba has come into increasing use as common weeds have developed tolerance to other types of herbicides. Dicamba kills weeds on fields planted with genetically modified crops that have been bred to not be harmed by dicamba.
Brand names for dicamba include Dianat, Banvel, Diablo, Oracle and Vanquish.
Gwen Bennett, a local organic gardener and feather artist, said dicamba is unpredictable. In certain conditions it will volatilize and drift for quite a distance onto non-target areas.
“The non-target areas could include organic crops, home gardens and wildlife and pollinator corridors,” Bennett said. “It can poison those non-target areas. You can’t predict it. There have been more than 1,000 complaints over the past few years in Arkansas about it killing plants in non-target areas.”
Anytime a product like this kills your food, it makes it unsafe to eat. And Bennett said a point being made by organic growers is once it drifts over to their crops, they can’t qualify for organic certification anymore.
A group called Freedom to Farm Foundation has a link on their home page to putting in comments to the Department of Agriculture on the proposed expansion of dicamba use.
“Dicamba has been an herbicide used for many years, but it has a specific chemical makeup that makes it much more dangerous in warmer months,” said Alli Clark Howland of the Freedom to Farm Foundation. “When it is warmer, it volatizes and turns into a gas that can spread miles away from the application site. So, it damages neighboring gardens, crops, fruit trees and anything else that has not been bred to resist it. In the past it had specific application cutoff date. You couldn’t apply after April 15. They are trying to extend that application date into May and June when it is clearly warmer and much more dangerous. What we want to do is say ‘no’ to this extension.”
Howland said dicamba use has had a devastating impact on bees and other pollinators. It kills redvine, a crucial plant food for bees. Richard Coy, who owns Coy’s Honey Farm in Jonesboro, which was the largest commercial beekeeping operation in Arkansas, says he can no longer operate in the area because dicamba has killed so much of the food needed by bees. He’s moving his operation to south Mississippi.
The proposed rule states that while pesticides are valuable to agricultural production and to the protection of man and the environment from insects, rodents, weeds and other forms of life which may be pests, it is essential to the public health and welfare that they be regulated. However, at times certain pesticides present problems that were unanticipated by the manufacturer, the grower or the applicator.
“The purpose of these regulations is to provide additional mechanisms, other than denying registration of a product in Arkansas, to minimize the adverse effects of certain pesticides to:
- Plants, including forage plants, or adjacent or nearby lands;
- Wildlife in the adjoining or nearby areas;
- Fish and other aquatic life in waters in reasonable proximity to the area to be treated; and
- Humans, animals, or beneficial insects.”
Gale Stewart, who owns a rice and soybean farm in Prairie County, went to an Arkansas Plant Board meeting on Dec. 6, 2018.
“I went not thinking dicamba was a real problem,” Stewart said. “I was really shocked the plant board’s own experts were speaking very firmly against dicamba. It becomes lighter than air and spreads. That can kill ornamentals, white oak tree, cypress and sycamore trees.”
Shawn Peeples, Peeples Organic Farm, Augusta, which employs 60 people on 2,000 acres of land in three counties, said if people want to be able to buy local produce, they need to make comments against the proposed rule.
“Dicamba is threatening our livelihood because it is not controllable,” Peeples said. “It lifts into the atmosphere and floats with directions of the wind.”
Local organic farmer Andrew Schwerin said most of us know that we don’t need another poison being spread. But those who are married to their old ways of farm management are always going to want to use a new product that promises to yield them a better crop.
“And the manufacturer is very interested in selling it to them,” Schwerin said. “Dicamba will be no more of a silver bullet for large scale farmers than any of the other herbicides that have been invented.”
The public comment period on the dicamba rules ends Feb. 5. The plant board meets on Feb. 20 and will also take comments at that meeting. Comment at freedomtofarmfoundation.org.