Environmental Groups Want Enlist Registrations Vacated
How did your country report this? Share your view in the comments.
Diverging Reports Breakdown
Environmental Groups Ask Federal Court to Revoke Enlist Herbicide Registrations
The Center for Food Safety motioned a federal court to vacate registrations for Enlist One and Enlist Duo. The herbicides are applied to genetically engineered corn, soybeans and cotton to combat weeds. The center said EPA relied on 2018-2019 Enlist usage data, although Enlist soybean adoption went from negligible to 35% of U.S. acreage in 2021. “EPA tilted the scales decisively in favor of continued registration of these controversial herbicides,” it said.
LINCOLN, Neb. (DTN) — Environmental groups asked a federal court on Thursday to vacate herbicide registrations for Enlist One and Enlist Duo, alleging in a motion for summary judgement that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency understated associated health risks, overstated the products’ effectiveness in combating weeds, and set ineffective mitigation measures in an ongoing lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of the District of Columbia.
Corteva Agriscience’s Enlist One contains 2,4-D while Enlist Duo contains both 2,4-D and glyphosate, which are applied to genetically engineered corn, soybeans and cotton to combat weeds.
“EPA tilted the scales decisively in favor of continued registration of these controversial herbicides by systematically ignoring and/or minimizing their costs, while also inflating the claimed benefits,” the Center for Food Safety and other plaintiffs in the lawsuit said in their motion.
“EPA fell far short of that mandate (to demonstrate pesticides won’t cause unreasonable adverse effects). Repeating the same ‘acknowledge-but-do-not-actually-assess’ theme, EPA acknowledged that the ‘increased use of Enlist 2,4-D, especially after crop emergence,’ would ‘promote cross resistance to dicamba and other synthetic auxin (WSSA Group 4) herbicides,’ but then completely failed to quantify how the increased use of Enlist products will increase cross-resistance.”
A motion for summary judgement is a request asking a court to rule in favor of one party without a full trial, when there is genuinely no dispute about the facts in a case.
In the motion, the center said EPA relied on 2018-2019 Enlist usage data, although Enlist soybean adoption went from negligible to 35% of U.S. acreage in 2021.
Bayer Submits XtendiMax Registration Application to EPA for 2025 and Beyond
Bayer declined to elaborate further on how its latest XtendiMax registration application varied from previous iterations. In a February interview with DTN following EPA’s issuance of the existing stocks order, Wes Hays, Bayer vice president of North American soybean product management, said the company had been suggesting farmers move application of its dicamba product earlier in the season to either pre-plant or at-plant. EPA has 21 days after it receives a registration application and fee to conduct an initial screen of the application’s contents for completeness and for the applicant to make any necessary corrections. If the contents are not completed within 21 days, EPA may reject the application.
“There’s still farmers that used dicamba over the top in the past few seasons, and they can be very successful with those applications,” Hays said. “But we know that you can get really good weed control moving it earlier and then using things like Warrant herbicide, an encapsulated acetochlor, as a residual along with either Roundup or a glufosinate product as a post if they need it.”
DTN reached out to EPA, and the federal agency confirmed receipt of Bayer’s registration package for XtendiMax for 2025 and beyond. Under the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act, EPA has 21 days after it receives a registration application and fee to conduct an initial screen of the application’s contents for completeness and for the applicant to make any necessary corrections. If the contents are not completed within 21 days, EPA may reject the application.
An EPA spokesperson wrote that the registration would not begin work on this action, which will include an initial 30-day public comment period for the notice of receipt of the package, until the end of the 21-day content screen.
Following the initial 21-day content screen, EPA checks to make sure the application is ready for a comprehensive review called the 45/90-day Preliminary Technical Screen. In this screening, EPA determines whether the data and information submitted with the application are adequate and sufficient; consistent with the proposed labeling and any proposed tolerance or tolerance exemption; and sufficient such that a full review could result in the granting of the application.
Once a pesticide product application passes both screening periods, EPA will complete a comprehensive science review. Any data deficiencies or additional information needed to complete the reviews will result in EPA notifying the applicant. The applicant will have 75 days to make corrections or additions to complete the application.
In response to a DTN inquiry about efforts to obtain EPA registration for Tavium, Syngenta provided the following statement:
“Syngenta continues to stand fully behind Tavium for the 2024 growing season. We appreciate EPA’s clear and timely guidance in its existing stocks order that allows for Tavium to be available to growers for use this season. We are considering our options to meet the needs of our customers in 2025 and beyond.”
BASF, the registrant of Engenia, did not immediately respond to DTN’s inquiry.
Read more DTN coverage of this developing story here:
https://www.dtnpf.com/…
https://www.dtnpf.com/…
Jason Jenkins can be reached at jason.jenkins@dtn.com
Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @JasonJenkinsDTN
(c) Copyright 2024 DTN, LLC. All rights reserved.
Source: https://www.agweb.com/news/policy/politics/environmental-groups-want-enlist-registrations-vacated