American soybean growers are worried about the feasibility of implementation and the impacts of the Environmental Protection Agency’s final Endangered Species Act Herbicide Strategy. Josh Gackle, president of the American Soybean Association, says while there are improvements to the final Herbicide Strategy over what was first proposed, they’re disappointed that EPA chose to leave so many opportunities on the table to make this strategy workable for farmers. “We remain concerned with the complexity of this framework and whether growers and applicators will be able to clearly understand how to implement it,” Gackle says. ”We also have concerns as to the type and affordability of runoff mitigations EPA has provided, the potential distance of spray drift buffers, and concerns with several other requirements.” The Herbicide Strategy will cost U.S. farmers billions of dollars to implement and could result in significant new hurdles to farmers accessing and using herbicides in the future.
Soy growers wary of EPA herbicide strategy
