New lawsuit targets Corteva's Enlist Duo herbicide

Date:06-15-2020

With a decision that's still reverberating through farm country, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit vacated three over-the-top dicamba registrations: Engenia, FeXapan and XtendiMax. Now, plaintiffs have set their sights on Enlist Duo herbicide, featuring 2,4-D choline and glyphosate.

The lawsuit was brought forward by the National Family Farm Coalition and the Natural Resources Defense Council-the same plaintiffs in the recent dicamba case. Plaintiffs are suing Scott Pruitt, former EPA administrator, and list Dow AgroSciences (now Corteva Agriscience) as respondents-intervenor.

"The Enlist Duo case appears to focus more on the Endangered Species Act," says Richard Gupton, senior vice president, public policy and counsel for the Ag Retailers Association (ARA). "The judges involved in this case differ from the dicamba case so ARA is hopeful there will not be a repeat of the immediate vacatur decision."

EPA did not provide a comment on the case as the agency does not remark on pending litigation.

Corteva Agriscience provided the following statement to AgWeb: "The Enlist Weed Control System is an important tool for farmers, and Enlist Duo provides critical weed control with reduced potential for drift and near-zero volatility. We strongly disagree with the petitioners in the case brought against the U.S. EPA in the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit regarding the registration of Enlist Duo."