Ark. judge shoots down Monsanto's dicamba lawsuit

摘要

An Arkansas judge last week threw out Monsanto Co.'s bid to reverse the state's ban on dicamba, a controversial weed killer. Arkansas banned farmers from spraying the chemical between April 16 and Oct. 31, prompting Monsanto to sue last year. The ban was finalized last month and became the toughest restriction on dicamba in the country. Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Chris Piazza dismissed the company's lawsuit Friday, citing an Arkansas Supreme Court decision that says the state cannot be a defendant in court. Dicamba became controversial in the farm belt last summer, when it drifted across fields, damaging plants not genetically modified to tolerate it.