Agricultural Life After 2020
July 15, 2020 Guilty pleasure time — one of my favorite television shows from a few years back was called “Life After People.” For those unfamiliar, this program looked at what would happen if humanity suddenly disappeared, chronicling how things would be for the planet once we as a species were not around.
Not that it’s quite the same but given how much of an aberration 2020 is turning out to be, I thought it might be interesting to speculate on the fates for some items for those in agriculture once this year has faded into the history books.
Dicamba D-Day
Since their widespread introduction back in 2017, dicamba-tolerant crops have become very popular with grower-customers. In fact, during the 2020 growing season, USDA figures show that more than 60 million acres was planted with dicamba-tolerant soybeans and cotton.
However, there were a few problems. During the past three years, there have been thousands of growers across the country that complained of damage to their fields due to off-target drift from dicamba application. This led to a series of lawsuits, and questions about the future of dicamba-tolerant crops in general. In fact, just last month, I speculated that “D-Day for dicamba” might be coming at the end of 2020, when EPA was due to re-register it for use in 2021.
But D-day for dicamba came earlier than expected. On June 3, the Ninth Circuit Court ruled on a lawsuit brought against EPA’s re-registration of dicamba products from October 31, 2018, siding with the plaintiffs that this action was invalid given the facts. The court immediately vacated the registration for the three most widely used dicamba formulations — Xtendimax from Bayer, Engenia from BASF, and Fexapan from Corteva — meaning that these brands could not be used in the field.
A few days later, EPA issued some clarification, announcing that although the registration for these dicamba products was being cancelled, any dicamba already sold could be used through the end of July. Still, because of all this uncertainty, many industry observers have speculated that 2020 could mark the end of the dicamba-tolerant crop experiment.
Trade Shows Adapt
In terms of trade shows and conferences, 2020 will be remembered as “The Year of the Asterisk,” as in, no in-person event was held. As a direct result of fears regarding the coronavirus pandemic, most summers events were cancelled or postponed until later in 2020.
But this did give rise to a new phenomenon — virtual trade shows. Several organizers tried this approach, trading in-person booths for Internet-chat rooms (including our parent company, Meister Media Worldwide). This kept educational material available to those who wanted/needed it.
Still, don’t expect virtual industry events to become the norm. As many ag retailers over the summer told me: “I like having side chats with people at these events, not to mention kicking the tires on the latest spray rig!” So, expect a strong return to in-person trade shows once 2021 rolls around.
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