For more than 50 years, U.S. corn, sorghum and sugar cane growers have depended on atrazine herbicide to produce food sustainably. In Iowa, specifically, atrazine is used on 56 percent of corn acres.

There’s little question as to why atrazine is among the most used herbicides.

It increases crop yields and enables no-till farming and conservation tillage — helping keep aquatic systems healthy by dramatically reducing soil runoff into rivers and streams. Atrazine is vital economically, too, during a time when access to affordable herbicide technologies has...