Monsanto offers cash to U.S. farmers who use controversial chemical (XtendiMax)

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

#BUSINESS NEWS DECEMBER 11, 2017 / 1:24 AM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO

Monsanto offers cash to U.S. farmers who use controversial chemical

Tom Polansek
4 MIN READ

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Monsanto Co (MON.N) will give cash back to U.S. farmers who buy a weed killer that has been linked to widespread crop damage, offering an incentive to apply its product even as regulators in several U.S. states weigh restrictions on its use.

The incentive to use XtendiMax with VaporGrip, a herbicide based on a chemical known as dicamba, could refund farmers over half the sticker price of the product in 2018 if they spray it on soybeans Monsanto engineered to resist the weed killer, according to company data.

The United States faced an agricultural crisis this year caused by new formulations of dicamba-based herbicides, which farmers and weed experts say harmed crops because they evaporated and drifted away from where they were sprayed.

Monsanto says XtendiMax is safe when properly applied. The company is banking on the chemical and soybean seeds engineered to resist it, called Xtend, to dominate soybean production in the United States, the world’s second-largest exporter.

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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pesticides-monsanto/monsanto-offers-cash-to-u-s-farmers-who-use-controversial-chemical-idUSKBN1E50EN

[louis-t]

1. Legalized bribery.

But rest assured, Monsanto only has our best interest in mind.

[pbmus]

2. Monsantoland....