EPA Allows Farmers to Resume Using Contested Dicamba Weedkiller

The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday reapproved farmers’ ability to use a frequently-litigated weedkiller whose application federal courts have twice blocked.

Dicamba-based herbicides are sprayed over the top of crops, mainly cotton and soybeans, which must be genetically engineered to withstand the chemical. In approving the herbicide’s use for the next two growing seasons, EPA officials rekindled a debate they’ve lost in federal court before over dicamba’s tendency to drift and damage non-modified crops on nearby farms.

“This decision responds directly to the strong advocacy of America’s cotton and soybean farmers, particularly growers across the Cotton Belt, who have been ...