opinion

Iowa should ban weedkiller dicamba

I was pleased to read your article, "Farmers file 258 claims of pesticide damage," on Sept. 12 highlighting the major issues with the weedkiller dicamba as it threatens many Iowa farmers and their crops. I’m concerned about how dicamba will affect my family and my family’s farm.



Dicamba, sold by Monsanto and other companies, is used with dicamba-ready crops. A farmer can spray dicamba directly on dicamba-ready crops, and those crops will survive. The thing is, many farmers in the Midwest do not use dicamba-ready crops. So the herbicide, when sprayed, is drifting onto neighboring fields, damaging and killing non-dicamba-ready crops.



This pesticide has damaged more than 150,000 acres of soybeans in Iowa and 3.1 million acres nationally and the state is unsure how much more damage there could be. What is more, Iowa agricultural leaders are investigating a record 258 crop damage reports from pesticide misuse this year. About 100 complaints on 150,000 acres are tied to dicamba. Dicamba is particularly bad because it travels far compared with other pesticides. With little to no control of where the pesticide goes, it can have lasting effects on our crops.

Public health is also at risk. With the chemicals spreading onto neighboring farms, we have no assurance that the pesticide is not also spreading to homes, schools and playgrounds as well. The state should ban the use of dicamba altogether. Arkansas has already decided to ban it and to protect ourselves and our farmers, we should ban it, too.



— Annalise Dobbelstein, Diagonal