EPA roils crop protection

WASHINGTON - A surprise decision by the EPA to ban the use of the herbicide bromoxynil has opened a new front in disputes over agricultural biotechnology, with environmental activists predicting that the agency's action presages restrictions on the future development of herbicide and pesticide-tolerant plant varieties.

Rhone-Poulenc Ag (Research Triangle Park, N.C.), which manufactures bromoxynil, last week said it would use new safety data to press the agency to reverse its decision in time for the 1998 growing season. In the meantime, the EPA's action has derailed plans by Monsanto Co.'s Calgene Corp. to ramp up sales of its bromoxynil tolerant BXN cotton seed...