North Carolina tobacco grower dodges 2,4-D bullet

(Southeast Farm Press) Eddie Johnson has grown tobacco in Surry County, N.C., for a long time — long enough to be a charter member of the Tobacco Growers Association of North Carolina and well enough to be a former North Carolina and Southeast Swisher/Sunbelt Expo Farmer of the Year.
But, while working on his diversified farm, Johnson smelled the unmistakable scent of 2,4-D.
It wasn’t the unpleasant organophosphate smell that bothered him, it was two greenhouses filled with tender young transplants — the only plants he had for his upcoming tobacco crop.
What Eddie Johnson smelled that February morning was disaster. Continued