WASHINGTON (CN) - The Environmental Protection Agency is allowing Arkansas cotton growers to use fluridone on cotton through 2014, to avoid an expected 25 percent crop loss from aggressive weeds resistant to glyphosate, the commonly used pesticide, according to a new regulation. Click here to check out Courthouse News' Environmental Law Review. "Since the introduction of glyphosate resistant cotton in 1997, twenty-one weed species have developed resistance to [it]," the regulation notes. Glyphosate-resistant palmer amaranth has become the most severe weed problem that Arkansas cotton growers face, according to the regulation. Fluridone is generally used on pond weeds such as duckweed, milfoil and watermeal, according to commercial pesticide websites. The agency will revoke the time-limited tolerances allowing 0.1 parts per million of fluridone residues on cotton, before 2015 "if any experience with, scientific data on, or other relevant information on this pesticide indicate that the residues are not safe," according to the regulation. Learn more by clicking on the document icon for this action and others. http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/11/09/Federal Regulation Brief Nov 7 2012.doc
By Ramona Young-Grindle