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* From the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting…
The 2017 growing season was supposed to be the year of “spotless” soybean fields after Monsanto introduced a new generation of soybeans – the largest single biotechnology launch in the company’s history.
The new soybeans can tolerate the use of dicamba, a traditional herbicide used on corn that spreads easily and has historically harmed soybeans.
But the idea was that dicamba would make quick work of the “superweeds” wreaking havoc in fields across the Midwest. Over the past years, the weeds had developed a resistance to glyphosate – the active ingredient in Roundup, the most widely used herbicide in corn and soybean production.
Monsanto and German chemical company BASF also touted a new, less volatile version of dicamba that wouldn’t drift like traditional versions.
But where the companies saw a solution, Illinois crop scientist Aaron Hager saw major problems coming.
Instead of weed-free fields, the dicamba herbicide drifted off target throughout non-dicamba-resistant soybean fields in the Midwest and South. Leaves cupped in nearby fields. Growth was stunted. Some plants withered and died.
As a result, the Illinois Department of Agriculture has received 368 complaints so far in 2017, which are more alleged pesticide misuse complaints than in the previous three years combined, according to a review of a statewide database of complaints by the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting.
239 of those complaints were about dicamba drift.
Warren Goetsch, acting director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture’s bureau of environmental programs, told the news outlet that the department is investigating the complaints, but it could be months before that was completed.
* One estimate by the crop scientist mentioned above estimates that at least half a million acres show some damage…
“This was very predictable that this was going to happen,” said Hager, a crop science professor at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. “We’ve only known for 50 years that soybeans are one of the most sensitive plants to dicamba. I continue to be amazed when people ask, ‘Why is this so common?’ I mean, what did people really expect?”
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 11:07 am
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On one hand, this is why science matters.
On the other hand, killing off non-dicamba-resistant soybeans is good for Monsanto’s business. It makes its new seeds more attractive while also driving up the price of soybeans because of the likely smaller harvest this year.
Comment by 47th Ward Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 11:14 am
Does federal crop insurance cover these kinds of losses?
Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 11:15 am
Word- No. Definitely should be discussed in the negotiations of the 2018 Farm Bill.
https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/ag/perspectives/blogs/ag-policy-blog/blog-post/2017/07/06/crop-insurance-rescue-farmers-drift
Comment by Anon221 Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 11:21 am
From the USDA Risk Management Agency-
https://www.rma.usda.gov/help/faq/dicamba.html
Comment by Anon221 Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 11:23 am
wow. important crop for Illinois. heed the warnings of scientists, ignore the wishes of the corporation.
Comment by Amalia Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 11:24 am
I remember walking beans when I was a kid. $3 an hour to walk up down row after row after row of beans pulling the weeds out in the middle of nowhere, under an unrelenting sun and no shade in sight. You’d get on the bus before dawn and get home after dark with $40 in your pocket and thinking you were the richest kid in the neighborhood.
A month or six weeks of that work every summer was also one of the best motivators to study hard in school. Some of us aren’t cut out for manual labor and farm work is all about hard labor.
Hey Monsato, stop with the genetic engineering and put America’s rural children back to work.
Comment by 47th Ward Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 11:25 am
Just buy Monsanto’s dicamba resistant soybeans and you wont’ have any problems… Said Monsanto.
Comment by yo Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 11:25 am
Is Rich auditioning to be Orion Samuelson’s replacement?
Comment by Dance Band on the Titanic Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 11:25 am
Prior to watching the next installment of Vietnam last night I came across an interesting fact.
A PhD student at Illinois came up with discovery that when used properly and in the right proportion would increase the yields of soybeans by up to 30%.
This compound was appropriated by the military, and suddenly became the basis for Agent Orange.
And those of my generation that served have either died or are living with their exposure.
Enough said. Good science gone bad.
Comment by illini Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 11:27 am
===under an unrelenting sun and no shade in sight===
The only time I liked walking beans was with my granddad. When I was by myself or with neighbors, I hated, hated, hated it.
Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 11:31 am
And, just in case you haven’t been following the ChemChina-Sygenta or DuPont-Dow mergers…
http://www.agriculture.com/news/crops/eight-points-to-know-about-the-bayer-monsanto-merger
See, specifically, point 2.
Comment by Anon221 Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 11:31 am
I wonder what Pat Quinn thinks about the new soybeans.
Comment by Leatherneck Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 11:38 am
===I hated, hated, hated it===
Lol. Me too, but I liked walking beans a heck of a lot more than detasseling corn. It was broiling hot but you had to wear long sleeves or your arms would get sliced up bad, and a bandana around your neck.
Bailing straw was the hardest physically, but detassling corn was my least favorite. Relatively speaking, walking beans was easy money. I wish they had iPods back then though.
Comment by 47th Ward Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 11:38 am
The question is why USEPA approved it.
Comment by very old soil Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 11:39 am
Pardon my city boy ignorance, but as I drove I-55 and I-57 this summer, I noticed weeds poking out above soy bean crops all over the state. I’ve never noticed that before. Is that caused by the failure of dicamba?
Comment by TNR Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 11:49 am
Its going to be bayers problem pretty soon
Comment by Foster brooks Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 11:56 am
I grew up on family farm in west central Illinois in the 60’s and 70’s. My father allowed (snark) me to get up at 5 am to walk beans and then shell corn at 8 am and then finish off the day bailing hay starting after lunch. At the time, all I wanted to do was play baseball and swim in a nearby pond. Now I cherish that time spent on the farm working with my dad!
Comment by Facts are stubborn things Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 12:00 pm
===Its going to be bayers problem pretty soon===
Bayer’s headache?
Comment by 47th Ward Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 12:03 pm
The problem with dicamba is that it will drift for a long time after application. It used to be that you could apply herbicides when the wind was calm and not cause a problem for you neighbor or other fields of your own. That doesn’t apply now, it will drift days/weeks later and cause harm long after it is applied to a field.
Comment by anonime Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 12:04 pm
Federal Docket on USEPA and Xtend-
https://www.regulations.gov/docket?D=EPA-HQ-OPP-2016-0187
Weeds poking out above soybeans can be for a variety of reasons, but one of the biggies is chemical resistant weeds, especially Palmer amaranth and water hemp. Both are marching their way across the Midwest.
More on the background from Dr. Hager-
https://news.illinois.edu/blog/view/6367/406738
http://bulletin.ipm.illinois.edu/?cat=5
Comment by Anon221 Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 12:06 pm
The real quote
Hager “duh!”
This reminds me of the little car SUV debate. Little car owners demand suv’s be banned because while safer for their is are, they are more dangerous to little cars.
The folks with the super beans v the people who don’t have em.
Seems like the maker should have coordinated with ag to encourage everyone to go super bean; maybe even a state incentive
Comment by Ghost Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 12:19 pm
It’s almost as if, instead of individual fields and farms, agriculture actually takes place in a vast, interconnected ecological system.
Weird.
– MrJM
Comment by @MisterJayEm Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 12:30 pm
Years ago when my family had a farm, my dad was out walking the bean field, his T-shirt was off, a weed hook over his shoulder and I wish I had a camera because the caption would have read “world famous physician outstanding in his field”
Comment by Huh? Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 12:39 pm
Ghost- If you were being sarcastic, forgive my response…
Not everyone wants to plant “super beans”. http://web.extension.illinois.edu/state/newsdetail.cfm?NewsID=34406
Also, this drift issue does not only affect non-resistance soybeans. https://mosesorganic.org/farming/farming-topics/miscellaneous/organic-specialty-crops-and-gardens-caught-in-the-crossfire/
It can even affect your own backyard garden and orchard, too.
Comment by Anon221 Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 12:39 pm
IL Dept of Ag says, “…more alleged pesticide misuse complaints…”
That’s weird. I thought we were talking about an herbicide. This is either a typo, or a bad analysis of data.
It’s pigweed that is popping up above the beans.
(I was a corn detasseler and did it for many summers. Wow, that was hard work.)
Comment by cdog Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 12:42 pm
Detasselling is worse than walking beans. Corn is so high there’s no air and the leaves will cut you to smithereens. Be 90 degrees out but you had to cover from head to toe.
One of the first things they taught us in kindergarten was that if you got lost in a cornfield was to pick a row, stick with it and eventually you’d come out. Kids have died from exposure in cornfields wandering around in circles trying to get out.
Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 12:56 pm
cdog- A herbicide IS a pesticide. Pesticide complaints cover a variety of pesticides-
Herbicides, Insecticides, Fungicides… It was not a misprint.
Comment by Anon221 Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 1:07 pm
And, cdog, it isn’t just pigweed “popping up”. Don’t generalize or jump to conclusions without doing some research first. Your debates here will be much stronger.
Comment by Anon221 Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 1:09 pm
Wow, didn’t expect to see so many detasseling veterans in one place. Up before dawn, soaked by dew by 6:30 and boiling hot by noon. Hard work for minimum wage, indeed.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane, commenters.
Comment by illini97 Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 1:27 pm
Anon221, you are correct on pesticide. I’ve never personally used the term like that. Thanks for the updated def.
On pigweed, it’s the main problem for the farmers my family interacts with and is nothing more than a personal anecdote, no argument intended. I also see it, almost entirely the only “pest” present, in the bean fields near my home.
(On detasseling, it was during the summers that I was probably 12, 13, 14, and 15 yrs old. My mom and dad would match my proceeds and I’d go shopping for school clothes. Definitely gives a person a little grit.)
Comment by cdog Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 2:04 pm
Update - An Orlando, FL law firm is advertising for clients to participate in a Class Action lawsuit involving Dicamba.
I had heard the ad on KMOX previously, but didn’t pay particular attention at the time. This was the first ad I heard after I turned the radio back on following Rush.
Comment by illini Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 2:11 pm
cdog- Sorry if I came off a little touchy. I grew up on a small diversified farm in Central Illinois, and have been involved in ag careers all my life, so if I do see a misinterpretation or inaccurate statement, I will speak up. I did restrain myself on commenting about “bailing” hay being used earlier in the thread. Hope that was just an auto-correction;)
Comment by Anon221 Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 2:18 pm
Cdog,
Pigweed and waterhemp look almost identical. The only real difference is that pigweed has sharp, almost thorn like needles. I used to get them confused when waterhemp first arrived on our farm. Waterhemp is now one of the major Round-Up resistant weeds in Illinois. Marestail is another. Dicamba was sold as the answer, but it has created other problems, when not applied at the right, temperature, humidity, and wind speed. All of which can change form one hour to the next here in Illinois in the summer.
Comment by Blago's Hare Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 3:04 pm
Also, waking beans was miserable. It did get a bit better in the 80’s when I bought my first Sony Walkman. I did go through headphones at a quick rate until I learned how to swing the knife and not cut the wire.
Comment by Blago's Hare Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 3:07 pm
I ran a five man detasseling crew one summer. Enjoyed it. Walked across the rows to make sure quality was good. Had an excellent crew.
Was in great shape when football started. Doubles were easy.
Comment by Last Bull Moose Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 4:27 pm
Drill beans make this a huge issue ….need to go back to rows and bigger plants… Rich you still got a couple 3/4 mile fieleds in ya.
Comment by theCardinal Thursday, Sep 21, 17 @ 5:03 pm