News
EPA’s Wheeler announces interim approval of corn herbicide atrazine
The administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection announced Friday a step on the road to re-registration of the herbicide atrazine. The announcement by Andrew Wheeler, that the agency has given interim approval to the re-registration of the triazine class of herbicides, is seen as good news for corn farmers.
“The next option up if we couldn’t use atrazine is probably between $30 and $60 an acre more,” said Mike Moreland, president of the Missouri Corn Growers Association and a farmer in western Missouri, “And with today’s tight margins that would break a lot of farmers.”
Wheeler, who made the announcement at a farm in southwest Missouri, tells Brownfield there’s another step before full approval is given for re-registration.
“We still have the biological decision we have to make as far as the Endangered Species Act is concerned,” Wheeler told Brownfield following the announcement, “but at this point, we don’t see any problems with moving forward on atrazine.”
House Agriculture Committee member Vicky Hartzler, Republican Representative of Missouri’s 4th District, was among those present for the announcement and calls atrazine the most scientifically studied herbicide.
“It’s great to see that common sense and science has prevailed today,” Hartzler told Brownfield Ag News.
