Ricketts, Fischer, Marshall Call on EPA to Appeal Dicamba Decision, Protect Access to Crop Production Tools

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Recently, U.S. Senators Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Deb Fischer (R-NE), and Roger Marshall (R-KS) joined 18 Republican colleagues in calling on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to appeal an adverse court decision and protect farmers from losing access to dicamba crop protection tools.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona released a decision to vacate certain Dicamba registrations at a time when farmers have already made planting decisions for the spring. The letter asks the EPA to not only appeal the decision but also to seek a stay pending the appeal. It also asks them to modify its current existing stocks order so farmers, retailers, and manufacturers won’t be impacted this spring. 

“U.S. farmers are already coping with record input costs, crippling interest rates, and lackluster commodity prices, wrote the senators.  “USDA is forecasting a major decline in 2024 farm income as well as a record agricultural trade deficit. The last thing farmers need now is to lose access to critical crop protection tools in which they have already invested thousands of dollars and on which they have based this year’s planting decisions. Crop protection tools like dicamba are vital to making no-till farming practical and efficient at a commercial level. If these tools are not available, farmers will be forced to revert to full tillage methods, which would ultimately set yields and conservation efforts back decades.”

In addition to Ricketts and Marshall, the letter was signed by Senators Jerry Moran (R-KS), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Thom Tillis (R-NC), John Hoeven (R-ND), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), James Lankford (R-OK), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Katie Boyd Britt (R-AL), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Ted Budd (R-NC), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Mike Braun (R-IN), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Joni Ernst (R-IA), John Thune (R-SD), and Todd Young (R-IN).