EPA reapproves herbicide dicamba with some restrictions

The Trump administration will reapprove the controversial herbicide dicamba for use on cotton and soybeans with some restrictions.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the decision to reapprove the chemical for two years in a statement late Friday afternoon.

Dicamba has been sprayed on crops for decades. 

The move comes as the Trump administration faces competing pressure from different sides of its base: Farming and chemical interests tend to support pesticide and herbicide approvals, but they face growing scrutiny from the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement.

While generally supportive of the Trump administration, MAHA activists have been raising concerns about pro-chemical policies at the EPA.

The agency, in its statement, acknowledged concerns about dicamba drift: when the pesticide moves through the air to other locations where it wasn’t meant to be sprayed. It said that it was putting new restrictions in place.

“The ecological risks associated with dicamba drift and volatility are real. If not carefully mitigated, off-target movement of dicamba can damage sensitive plants and impact neighboring farms and natural ecosystems. These concerns are exactly why the strongest safeguards ever are essential,” the agency said in the statement, which was not attributed to a particular person.

It said it would cut the amount of dicamba that can be used each year in half and limit usage during high temperatures. 

“When applied according to the new label instructions, EPA’s analysis found no unreasonable risk to human health and the environment,” the statement said.

Environmental advocates criticized the EPA’s decision.

“The industry cronies at the EPA just approved a pesticide that they know drifts for miles and poisons organic crops, backyard gardens and 100-year-old trees,” Nathan Donley, environmental health science director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in an emailed statement.

“With reckless actions like this, [EPA Administrator] Lee Zeldin is ‘MAHA-washing’ decisions that protect the profits of pesticide companies and industrial agriculture instead of shielding the rest of us from dangerous poisons,” Donley said. 

Some supporters praised the move.

“I’m grateful for the @EPA’s recent steps to maintain access to safe, critical crop protection tools. This provides the certainty our producers need for vital planting decisions as the 2026 season nears,” Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) wrote in a post on social platform X.