Threat of Dicamba Ban Looms in Arkansas
June 22, 2017 The Arkansas State Plant Board has rejected a proposed ban on the use of dicamba herbicide, but a procedural error in voting has prompted a re-vote, scheduled for Fri., June 23.
A deluge of complaints about drift triggered the move to vote on an emergency ban on dicamba — under heavy use this year with the launch of the Monsanto Roundup Ready Xtend crop system being used in tandem with BASF’s Engenia herbicide. As of June 21, the Arkansas State Plant Board had received 207 complaints about dicamba across 19 counties.
Arkansas’ Department of Agriculture said the board will have to vote again because of an error in determining how many votes were needed to pass the ban.
A spokesman for the State Plant Board tells CropLife that at the meeting on June 20, the proposal to ban the in-crop use of dicamba failed by a vote of 8-6 under a belief that all 16 voting members were present (physically or on the phone) and that 9 votes were needed in order to have a majority.
Because the first proposal failed, the board then considered a second proposal that would require hooded sprayers and a one-mile buffer in order to apply the in-crop use of dicamba. The second proposal passed by a vote of 11-3.
After the meeting adjourned, it was discovered that there were only 15 voting members physically present or on the conference call. Since there were only 15 voting members a majority would consist of 8 votes. With 8 votes the first proposal would have passed, the spokesman said.
“Due to the procedural error and the advice given at the time that the first proposal had failed, when it technically had not, a decision was made to call a special called meeting for Friday morning at 10:00 am to clarify the intentions and desires of the board and let the board decide if they want to stay with the second proposal which passed or if they want to expunge that vote and re-vote on the first proposal or any other proposal. If the board votes on any issue (to include the first proposal from yesterday’s meeting) they are not bound by their previous votes and may vote however they want,” the spokesman said.
In regard to the meeting on June 23, the spokesman explained that all meetings are open to the public, but the board will not be soliciting any additional outside information or discussion for this meeting. “The primary purpose of the meeting is to clarify the board’s intentions due to the procedural error that occurred at the meeting yesterday. However, the board will still have discussion amongst themselves and board members are still allowed to ask for additional information or clarification if they so choose,” the spokesman said.
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