EPA expands dicamba use, despite MAHA opposition and previous court bans

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Feb. 6 that it approved the registration of three dicamba-based herbicides—BASF’s Engenia, Bayer’s Stryax, and Syngenta’s Tavium—for use on genetically modified dicamba-tolerant soybeans and cotton for the next two growing seasons. The new label is available on the EPA website as of Feb. 9. The decision, which mostly mirrors the EPA’s July proposal, comes amid a growing effort from the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement to influence the EPA to ban controversial pesticides. Previous registrations of these dicamba products were overturned by federal courts in 2020 and 2024, over concerns about improperly conducted assessments and the risks of dicamba drifting away from crops where it’s applied and harming other plants.This time around, activists also criticize the fact that Kyle Kunkler, current deputy assistant administrator for pesticides at the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, lobbied for approval of the dicamba products in question in his previous job at the American Soybean Association (ASA). The EPA did not immediately reply to a request for comment.“Approving Dicamba is a disaster. The EPA is making Trump a liar. Trump said on his presidential platform while he was shaking Kennedy’s hand that he could go wild on pesticides,” said Zen Honeycutt, co-founder of the MAHA-aligned advocacy group Moms Across America, in a post on X on Feb. 6. “Over the past year, the EPA has not done one single thing to reduce our children’s exposure to toxic pesticides. Not one ban - they’ve only