Agricultural News
Future of Enlist Duo in Doubt As EPA Withdraws Registration of 2,4-D and Glyphosate Product
Fri, 27 Nov 2015 06:54:52 CST
The EPA has responded to pressure from several consumer activist groups and rolled back the registration of the Ag chemical mix that has been marketed for much of 2015 as Enlist Duo. The product, marketed by Dow AgroSciences, was granted a label for six states in October 2014, with EPA adding nine more states this past March- including Oklahoma. A part of the label that was approved for the combination of 2,4 D and Glyphosate was a buffer of thirty feet around areas sprayed with the product.
EPA now claims that they have received new information suggesting that the thirty foot buffer was not adequate for the combo mix.- that the synergistic action of the active ingredients was more powerful that what EPA was expecting.
The Center for Food Safety, the Natural Resource Defense Council and several other groups took the EPA to court- and succeeded in getting EPA to agree to withdraw the license at this time and consider the impact of the products on non target plants.
After the decision was announced on Wednesday, Dow quickly responded and in a statement provided to the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network, stated "Dow AgroSciences is confident in the extensive data supporting Enlist Duo herbicide. We are working with EPA to quickly provide further assurances that our product's conditions of registered use will continue to protect the environment, including threatened and endangered plant species. Recognizing the pressing needs of U.S. farmers for access to Enlist Duo to counter the rapidly increasing spread of resistant weeds and in light of the comprehensive nature of the regulatory assessments already conducted to support the Enlist Duo registration we expect that these new evaluations will result in a prompt resolution of all outstanding issues."
Dow AgroAciences also issued a news release quoting their President and CEO, Tim Hassinger- "We believe the questions that have been raised about any potential synergy between 2,4-D choline and glyphosate can be promptly resolved in the next few months, in time for the 2016 crop use season."
"It's possible that we could see some changes to use conditions on the existing Enlist Duo label," Hassinger added. "However, based on the ongoing dialogue with EPA, we do not expect these issues to result in the long-term cancellation of the Enlist Duo product registration. We continue to prepare for commercial sales of Enlist Duo for the 2016 growing season with enthusiastic grower adoption."
Evaluations of potential synergy from herbicidal mixtures are common within the crop protection industry and are not unique to Dow AgroSciences or Enlist Duo. EPA has not used observations of potential synergy in mixtures as a basis for regulatory action. Technology providers, like Dow AgroSciences, have commonly filed patent applications on mixtures, without there being any connection to EPA's regulatory processes.
"EPA now has all of the data developed by Dow AgroSciences on observed potential synergies between 2,4-D choline and glyphosate in Enlist Duo," Hassinger added. "From these data, EPA will readily see after evaluating all of the efficacy data on the final formulation why these data support the registration of Enlist Duo."
For the time being- opponents of the use of ag chemicals are cheering the decision by the EPA. On the Center for Food Safety website, a headline about the EPA response called it a "Victory." "The decision by EPA to withdraw the illegally approved Enlist Duo crops is a huge victory for the environment and the future of our food," said George Kimbrell, Center for Food Safety's senior attorney. "We will remain vigilant to ensure industry does not pressure the agency into making the same mistake in the future."
According to the Center for Food Safety news release on the EPA decision, "Dow created Enlist crops as a quick fix for the problem created by "Roundup Ready" crops, the previous generation of genetically engineered crops designed to resist the effects of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup herbicide. Just as overuse of antibiotics has left resistant strains of bacteria to thrive, repeated use of Roundup on those crops allowed glyphosate-resistant "superweeds" to proliferate, and those weeds now infest tens of millions of acres of U.S. farmland. Enlist crops allow farmers to spray both glyphosate and 2,4-D without killing their crops, which they hope will kill weeds resistant to glyphosate alone. But some weeds have already developed 2,4-D resistance, and the escalating cycle of more toxic pesticides in the environment will continue unless EPA stops approving these chemicals, and USDA stops rubber-stamping new genetically engineered crops.
"This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for EPA taking this important action to protect people, rare plants, and animals from Enlist Duo," said Lori Ann Burd, Environmental Health director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "As we gather with our families for the holiday feast, we can all breathe a little bit easier knowing that EPA has protected our food from being drenched with this poisonous pesticide cocktail."
One agribusiness professional responded to a tweet about the EPA decision- saying that 2,4D and Glyphosate have been labeled to be tank mixed for decades without issues- adding that the environmental impact is well established- he concluded that this action is "pure pandering by EPA."
Click on the PDF link below to see the court documents pertaining to this announcement by the EPA.
00231_epa_enlist_motion.pdf
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