The federal Environmental Protection Agency’s order to allow farmers to use remaining stocks of the soon-to-be-banned herbicide Dicamba has received environmental push-back from the plaintiffs whose lawsuit led to the courts ordering a halt in the herbicide use. But U.S. agriculture secretary Sonny Perdue said the EPA’s order has precedent, and he said it’s an important time for farmers to have the chemical for use.
“At a time when the security of the food supply chain is paramount, the Center for Biological Diversity and its allies seek to cripple American farmers and further limit their ability to feed, fuel, and clothe this nation and the world,” Perdue said. “The Ninth Circuit should not allow plaintiffs’ hostility against the American farmer to cloud the fact that the EPA’s actions follow both legal precedent and common sense.”
The plaintiffs asked the appeals court to issue an emergency order to halt Dicamba’s use, and to hold the EPA in contempt of courts’ decisions to ban the product.
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