Several environmental and farmer advocacy groups are asking a federal court to strike down the use of a controversial crop-damaging pesticide known as dicamba.
Conservationists claim the herbicide is especially harmful to New Mexico’s trees, endangered wildlife, and land.
Dicamba is widely used in New Mexico for brush and weed control and to protect soybean and cotton fields.
Though, the pesticide isn’t without controversy.
In June 2020, a court found the Environmental Protection Agency’s approval of dicamba was unlawful. It found the agency had dismissed reports that the harm the chemical could cause had been underestimated.
The EPA then re-approved the pesticide a few months later, putting further restrictions on the chemical’s use.
Now, several advocacy groups are suing the agency, saying the re-approval was against the law. Meredith Stevenson is with the Center for Food Safety –– one of the plaintiffs.
“When it’s warm or when there’s a certain wind speed, dicamba can become this cloud of vapor,” Stevenson said. “And, as it drifts, it kills everything in its wake.. It kills specialty crops, all types of species of trees.”
Stevenson said the impact goes well beyond the environment.
“There was even a murder that took place over dicamba drift in Arkansas,” said Stevenson. “Farmers just fighting with their neighbors, because their neighbors would spray one day and, the next, their crops are destroyed."
Since its approval in 2016, dicamba use has increased substantially, followed by reports of toxic drift in 29 states.
Because of delays, the case is expected to take years to reach a final verdict.