| A study at the University of Illinois aims at | | | | can have challenging weed problems." |
| showing how important atrazine is to crops in the | | | | |
| Midwest. The study looked at 175 sweet corn | | | | "Atrazine is the single most widely used herbicide |
| fields in the Midwest. | | | | in sweet corn, applied to fields before crop |
| | | | | emergence, after crop emergence, or at both |
| "While the vast majority of our Kansas corn | | | | times," Williams said. "Manufacturers of many of |
| growers raise field corn, which is a feedgrain, this | | | | the other herbicides recommend tank-mixing with |
| research is valuable because it helps us | | | | atrazine to increase their products' effectiveness." |
| understand how vegetable farmers also rely on | | | | |
| atrazine," according to Jere White, Executive | | | | Atrazine is currently the subject of yet another |
| Director of the Kansas Corn Growers Association. | | | | review by the Environmental Protection Agency |
| | | | | (EPA) concerning the safety of the herbicide, |
| Researchers noticed atrazine was being applied to | | | | despite numerous studies contradicting the need |
| two-thirds of the sweet corn acres; row | | | | to question its safety. If you would like to read |
| cultivation was used on about half of the sweet | | | | the rest of this study, "Significance of Atrazine in |
| corn acreage. Here is what one of the | | | | Sweet Corn Weed Management Systems" is |
| researchers, Marty Williams had to say about the | | | | published in the April-June issue of Weed |
| study: | | | | Technology. |
| | | | | |
| "If the use of atrazine was phased out | | | | White also serves as chairman of the Triazine |
| completely, our data indicate the greatest burden | | | | Network a nationwide coalition of grower groups |
| would be on those growers who rely on less | | | | who are represent growers in regulatory issues |
| tillage for weed control, have particularly weedy | | | | affecting atrazine and other triazine herbicides. |
| fields, have early season crop production, and | | | | |
| grow sweet corn in rotation with other | | | | "EPA opened a special review of the triazine |
| vegetables such as snap or lima beans," said U of | | | | herbicides back in 1994 and gave it a clean bill of |
| I and USDA Agricultural Research Service | | | | health in 2006. A media blitz by activist groups in |
| ecologist Marty Williams. "Vegetable crops have | | | | 2009 spurred EPA to announce another round of |
| fewer herbicide options and there tends to be | | | | science advisory panels on the herbicide," White |
| poorer levels of weed control in those crops. | | | | said. "Our goal is to make sure EPA continues to |
| When more weeds escape, more weed seed are | | | | base its decisions on good scientific research, and |
| produced, and crops succeeding those vegetables | | | | not politics. |