Multiple States Ban Dicamba

The states of Arkansas and Missouri both took action Friday to ban the use of dicamba-mix herbicide applications in their respective states after waves of complaints from farmers who were not using the technology. The Arkansas Legislative Council executive subcommittee on Friday chose to take no action on a vote by the state plant board to ban the use of any dicamba-mix herbicide in the state, which basically means Arkansas will ban the use of dicamba for at least 120 days.Just hours later,  Missouri Department of Agriculture Director Chris Chinn issued a temporary stop sale, use or removal order on all herbicides that contain dicamba. The Missouri ban is considered "temporary," said a spokeswoman for the state agriculture department "until a solution is reached." Arkansas has been at the heart of the battle over dicamba misuse or volatilization and drift to off-target crops. Just under 600 complaints have been filed with the Arkansas State Plant Board, which initially recommended a ban on the sale and use of dicamba on June 23. The Arkansas plant board's recommendation was sent to a joint legislative Agriculture Committee, which held a hearing Friday morning then voted by voice vote to approve the plant board's recommendation. That kicked the decision up to the Arkansas Legislative Council executive committee, which met Friday afternoon and chose not to take an action. That essentially allowed a ban to go into effect.