Monsanto Weed Killer Is Huge, Contentious—and Incentivized

The crop in question is soybeans, but there's now a big carrot involved. Reuters reports Monsanto is offering what can amount to a more than 50% rebate to farmers who agree to use the herbicide XtendiMax with VaporGrip on their 2018 soybean crop. 

A rep for Monsanto calls use of the product and the complementary soybeans engineered to withstand it part of the "next level of weed control"; US regulators are less bullish. 

After concerns that dicamba-based herbicides—XtendiMax is one—are drifting to other crops that haven't been modified—the New York Times in September called Monsanto's modified seeds "one of the biggest product releases in the company's history"—more states are restricting the application period and requiring farmers who use the product to undergo training, making the product a bit more cumbersome to use.

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