Dear Julie Gammack,
I had to write in response to your latest Iowa Potluck article – the one about the gardener who lost most of his veggie crop because the neighbor’s pesticides drifted on over. Killed every one of his tomatoes, his cucumbers, his peppers.
Tomato damage from Dicamba in Missouri. Karen Pulfer Focht for the Food & Environment Reporting Network
Unfortunately, pesticide drift is a thing. It can happen to vegetable farmers here in Iowa, and there is little to nothing they can do about it. An Iowa farmer told me a similar story ten years ago about an herbicide being sprayed on a neighbor’s land. In her case, the fog of chemicals didn’t kill her tomato crop, it rendered it inedible. Although the fruits looked fine to the naked eye, federal law did not allow the said chemicals to be sprayed on tomatoes. Because we eat the skin of a tomato and often eat it raw, the bar for what can be sprayed onto the vegetables is high. (As opposed to what is sprayed on the ground before a plant is grown, as in the case of strawberries and “pre-emergent” soybeans, or on a husk, as with corn.)
In your farmer’s case, it was likely a chemical known as Dicamba that was sprayed on the neighbor’s soybeans. As with corn in Iowa, the vast majority of the soybean seeds Iowa farmers plant are now genetically modified to resist specific herbicides, making it easier to kill the weeds in the field. Just spray liberally, and the beans will continue to live while everything else dies.
Damage to a non-Dicamba-tolerant soybean plant from Dicamba
In 2018, more than 40% of soybeans planted in Iowa were Dicamba-tolerant (meaning they were genetically engineered to resist the herbicide). But Dicamba has been problematic from the very beginning, far more so than the glyphosate found in Roundup that is used on “Roundup Ready” corn and beans. The problem with Dicamba is that it has a high volatility rate—it gets trapped in the air and travels onto other farmers’ fields very easily. Even though the federal government restricted the use of the chemical (not to be used after June 30th nationally and June 20th in Iowa), there has been widespread contamination across the state in 2022.
Why not just keep using Roundup on fields if it is less volatile, you ask? Well, pesticide drift happens with glyphosate (the main ingredient in Roundup) too, and the chemical has its own issues. The maker of Roundup, Monsanto, now owned by Bayer (yes, the same company that makes your aspirin), has settled nearly 100,000 lawsuits at a cost of $11 billion, according to this website. But the more farmers use only one kind of herbicide (as with Roundup), the more resistant the competing plants (aka – weeds) become to the chemical, so farmers are always looking for alternatives.
If he was lucky, your farmer friend was ready for pesticide drift to occur and was taking meticulous notes about the health and yield of his crops before the incident to have a credible lawsuit. Perhaps too, he knew exactly where to send the contaminated samples and got them out lickety-split when he realized what was happening. That is the kind of preparation farmers in the state need to take in order to currently sue for compensation. But that is not likely.
At least was just a new ruling against some of the companies responsible for pesticide drift. According to Bloomberg Law, maybe there is hope for your friend next time this kind of thing happens.
- Monsanto Co. and BASF Corp. are liable for the herbicide Dicamba’s damage to a farmer’s peach orchards, the Eighth Circuit said Thursday, but it tossed a $60 million award and called for a new trial to separately assess what punitive damages each company owes.
How much a destroyed peach orchard is worth as an income for a family for generations and likely as the source of family memories, a needed service for carbon sinking, and a cultural icon for the community…well, we will have to tune back later.
So Julie, what can you and your readers do to help farmers in this dire situation?
As a member of the Iowa Farmers Union (IFU), I am proud that our organization stands up for farmers in your friend’s situation, not just in solidarity but by working to create tangible policy changes. The IFU actively lobbies for change.
- Iowa’s farmers have a right to adequate legal & financial protections when pesticide drift destroys a crop, damages a farm business, or harms the health of farm families & farm workers.
Farmers and consumers deserve the changes IFU fights for because:
- Pesticide drift threatens sensitive crops, livestock, and human health, and reports of drift are on the rise.
- Drift is especially damaging for organic growers & food crops intended for human consumption.
- Iowa ranks 6th in certified organic farms, and 30 percent of organic farmers are beginning farmers.
- Conventional horticulture crops average $25,000 per acre or more in value, making it difficult for farmers to absorb even a few acres of crop loss.
It is important that consumers join farmers in this kind of fight, not just by “voting with your dollars” but by actively becoming involved. For more info on joining the Farmers Union in Iowa, click here.
Thanks for asking Julie. And very best wishes to your farmer friend—we feel his pain.
Beth