Lawsuit Filed Regarding Dicamba Damage

Seven Arkansas farms are suing makers of dicamba herbicides used in Monsanto's Roundup Ready Xtend Crop System for cotton and soybeans. Among other factors, the lawsuit alleges crop damage incurred by off-target movement of the system's dicamba formulations.

The lawsuit was filed July 19 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri Eastern Division. Plaintiffs include:

• Smokey Alley Farm Partnership
• Amore Farms
• JTM Farms
• Kenneth Lorretta Qualls Farm Partnership
• Qualls Land Co.
• Michael Baioni
• McLemore Farms LLC

Firms the plaintiffs are suing include:

• Monsanto Company
• BASF Corporation, BASF SE, and BASF Crop Protection
• E.I. DuPont De Nemours and Company, Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., and DuPont Pioneer

The lawsuit was filed by Paul Lesko, a St. Louis-based attorney with Peiffer Rosca Wolf Abdullah Carr & Kane.

The lawsuit, which requests a jury trial, acknowledges that tolerance to dicamba can aid farmers in managing weeds. That benefit, the lawsuit states, comes with a cost. Volatilization and drift can damage and kill neighboring corps and plants not resistant to dicabma, the lawsuit states. Some areas, such as Missouri's Bootheel, have had large amounts of soybeans damaged by off-target dicamba movement. University of Missouri estimates list around 22% of that area's soybeans have been damaged by dicamba.

"This is not an anti-GMO lawsuit; it's a lawsuit about corporate greed, a rush to market, and the resulting fallout," the lawsuit states.