Us & Them Revisits Dicamba Farm Wars

On this West Virginia Morning, many farmers wage a never-ending battle with weeds. “Pigweed” or as folks in Arkansas call it “Satan’s Weed” — is one of the hardest to get rid of. 

Farmers across the nation are divided over the use of the controversial herbicide called Dicamba. The chemical has the tendency to drift and damage nearby crops and plants.

West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Us & Them host Trey Kay and his colleague Loretta Williams have been following the issue with their developing story called “Farm Wars.”

With summer almost over and harvesting underway, Trey checked in with Loretta Williams and Arkansas Public Media reporter Daniel Breen, to see if farmers are playing by new rules that set cut-off dates dictating when you’re not allowed to spray anymore.

Also on today’s show, Steve Earle is widely considered to be one of the world’s greatest living songwriters. In his seventh appearance on Mountain Stage since 1996, Earle and his band performed a set of songs from “Guy,” — a tribute to the late Guy Clark. We hear Steve Earle and the Dukes with our Song of the Week, “Dublin Blues.”

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from West Virginia University, Concord University, and Shepherd University. Our Appalachia Health News project is made possible with support from CAMC and Marshall Health.

West Virginia Morning is produced with help from Caitlin Tan, Jessica Lilly, Kara Lofton, Liz McCormick, Dave Mistich, Brittany Patterson, Eric Douglas, Cory Knollinger, Emily Allen and Roxy Todd.

Our news director is Jesse Wright, our producer is Glynis Board and our host is Teresa Wills.