EPA Approved Weedkiller Though Scientists Warned It Would Destroy Crops

"Every August, Andrew Joyce used to hunker down in the field beside his house, picking juicy, ripe tomatoes in the blazing sun. He’d load them onto his golf cart, along with buckets of okra, squash and other summer crops, and zip over to the farm stand he runs with his wife, Sara, off a two-lane highway near the Arkansas border. Sara’s Produce fans would drive hours to stock up on the artisanal fare, grown amid the fields of soybeans and cotton that reach toward the horizon of Missouri’s Bootheel.

“Everybody brags on my stuff,” said Joyce, 58, a wistful pride crossing his bronzed, weathered face.

But now, he has nothing to sell."

Liza Gross reports for Reveal November 13, 2018, in collaboration with the Food & Environment Reporting Network.