Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 6/30/20

Bayer’s $400 million dicamba settlement announced last week could extend a lifeline to row crop farmers in the Midwest facing several years of losses allegedly due to dicamba drift, our Liz Crampton writes this a.m.

The multimillion-dollar agreement was part of a larger deal involving Bayer’s popular Roundup weedkiller, which got far more attention. But for some farms, the dicamba compensation could be the difference between staying in business or going bankrupt — and it’s one more twist in another frantic growing season for row crop farmers who rely on the herbicide.

Claims from the 2015 to 2020 growing seasons will be covered by the settlement, and farmers not involved in the litigation are still able to submit claims if they provide proof of damage to crop yields and evidence that it was due to dicamba, according to a Bayer spokesperson.

Just some of the legal drama: The Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ordered that the product be pulled from the market, saying that the EPA didn’t fully consider the risks posed by the chemical. The agency later clarified that producers can spray dicamba purchased before the court’s ruling through July 31.

Despite the one-two punch of the 9th Circuit ruling and the settlement, Bayer isn’t backing off from its lucrative dicamba product portfolio. The company has “several dicamba formulations in our pipeline,” some of which have been submitted to the EPA and others that remain in development, according to the spokesperson.