ST. LOUIS (AP) — A southeast Missouri farmer has been indicted on federal charges of illegally applying a weed killer blamed for drifting and damaging crops in neighboring fields.
KFVS-TV reports that 51-year-old Bobby David Lowrey, of Parma, was charged this month in a 53-count indictment. No attorney is listed for him in online court records and he doesn't have a listed phone number.
The indictment says the soybean and cotton crops he planted in 2016 were modified to be resistant to dicamba. Weed killers that include dicamba have grown popular because they give farmers a new weapon against weeds that have become resistant to other herbicides.
But it has a tendency to drift, so there are restrictions on its use. Federal prosecutors say Lowrey didn't follow the rules and then lied about it.
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Information from: KFVS-TV, http://www.kfvs12.com