“Systemic neonicotinoid pesticides have made recent headlines for their association with bee deaths, while glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup, has also been the topic of much debate following the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s (IARC) 2015 declaration that the chemical is a probable human carcinogen. A relative newcomer to the scene is dicamba, but it’s quickly earning a similarly ominous reputation as the former two.
Dicamba has been used by farmers for decades, but the release of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready Xtend cotton and soybeans — genetically engineered (GE) plants designed to tolerate both glyphosate and dicamba — prompted its use to become more widespread, as well as used in a different way, now sprayed over the top of the GE cotton and soy, where it could easily volatilize and drift onto nearby fields.
Monsanto sold dicamba-tolerant cotton and soybean seeds to farmers before the herbicide designed to go with them (which is supposedly less prone to drifting) had gotten federal approval. In 2016, when farmers sprayed their new GE crops with older, illegal formulas of dicamba, and it drifted over onto their neighbors’ non-dicamba-resistant crops, devastating crop damage was reported in 10 states.”
“…Dicamba drift has stopped vegetation from blooming, which means bees and other pollinators have access to less pollen.”
Click to read the original article by Dr. Mercola
Sources:
“Latest Major Threat to Bees and Trees” by Dr. Mercola
