Center for Food Safety "will pursue all available legal options" to stop commercialization
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved Dow Chemical’s Enlist Duo herbicide, a new blend of 2,4-D and glyphosate intended for use on Dow’s patented 2,4-D resistant (Enlist) GM corn and soybeans.
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EXCERPT: “EPA has turned its back on those it purports to protect – the American people and our environment,” said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director for Center for Food Safety.
1. EPA approves new 2,4-D herbicide blend, paving way for controversial GE crops
2. The Feds just approved a new GMO corn. Here's why I'm not rejoicing
1. EPA approves new 2,4-D herbicide blend, paving way for controversial GE crops
Center for Food Safety, October 15, 2014
* Center for Food Safety says it will pursue all available legal options to stop commercialization
Center for Food Safety (CFS) today condemned the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) decision to approve Dow Chemical’s Enlist Duo herbicide, a new blend of 2,4-D and glyphosate intended for use on Dow’s patented 2,4-D resistant (Enlist) genetically engineered corn and soybeans. EPA’s approval was the final hurdle for the heavily criticized new crop system and paves the way for commercialization and planting.
“EPA has turned its back on those it purports to protect – the American people and our environment,” said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director for Center for Food Safety. “In the wake of our government’s abdication of its responsibilities, Center for Food Safety will pursue all available legal options to stop the commercialization of these dangerous crops.”
2,4-D, produced by Dow Chemical, was a component of “Agent Orange”, the toxic defoliant used in Vietnam. It is the 7th largest source of dioxins in the U.S. 2,4-D and other herbicides of its class have been independently associated with deadly immune system cancers, Parkinson’s disease, endocrine disruption, and reproductive problems, with children at particular risk. EPA’s assessment of Enlist Duo failed to correctly account for exposure in children, one of numerous flaws in their analysis.
60 members of Congress signed a letter opposing the herbicide and crops systems, as did 35 prominent doctors, scientists and researchers. Over a million citizens have also voiced their opposition this year, with an additional quarter million contacting the White House in just the past 2 weeks.*
Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) stated, “Today, EPA shunned its duties to protect the environment and safeguard public health by bowing to corporate interests instead of relying on science. For years, the scientific community has been sounding the alarm about the increased use of herbicides and the link to a multitude of health problems. It’s shocking that EPA thinks it’s a good idea to allow the widespread use of a toxic chemical once found in Agent Orange on this nation’s farm fields. EPA should be working to reverse the trend of chemicals that poison our food supply, water and soil. It will be just a matter of time before weeds develop a resistance to 2,4-D, and the chemical industry comes up with an even more dangerous and potent product.”
Dow Chemical has presented 2,4-D resistant crops as a quick fix to the epidemic of glyphosate-resistant weeds generated by massive use of glyphosate herbicide with first-generation GE crops from Monsanto, known as Roundup Ready. However, even USDA has acknowledged that the Enlist crop system will foster more weed resistance, a view held by many in the weed science community. In fact, a peer-reviewed study published in the prestigious journal Bioscience in 2012 concludes that these new GE crops will trigger still more intractable weeds resistant to both glyphosate and 2,4-D.
“Monsanto’s Roundup Ready crops lead us down this futile path of chemical dependency. Now imagine Roundup on overdrive,” said Kimbrell. “Why are our agencies listening to the chemical companies and not the scientists, doctors and lawmakers who know that more chemicals are not the answer to the superweed problem?”
USDA’s own analysis concedes that approval of 2,4-D-resistant corn and soybeans will lead to an unprecedented 2 to 7 fold increase in agricultural use of 2,4-D by 2020, from 26 million to as much as 176 million lbs. per year.
*The quarter million comments to the White House is tallied via petitions from Center for Food Safety, Food Democracy Now!, Organic Consumers Association, Food and Water Watch, Friends of the Earth, Pesticide Action Network North America, and a petition on WhiteHouse.gov started by the Dr. Oz Show.
2. The Feds just approved a new GMO corn. Here's why I'm not rejoicing
By Tom Philpott
Mother Jones, Oct 15, 2014
http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2014/10/trouble-new-gmo-corn-feds-just-approved
[links to sources are in original article]
In September, the US Department of Agriculture greenlighted new GMO corn and soybean products engineered to resist two kinds of herbicides, Roundup (glyphosate) and an older, more toxic one called 2,4-D (which was one of two ingredients in the powerful defoliant used in the Vietnam War called Agent Orange). And on Wednesday, the Environmental Protection Agency approved of a new 2,4-D formulation called Enlist, which has been designed for use on the novel seeds, in six corn/soy-heavy states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. That means starting in spring 2015, farmers in the Midwestern Corn Belt will likely be dousing their crops with 2,4-D as well as Roundup, in an effort to control the plague of weeds that have evolved to resist Roundup.
So what's the big deal? In this 2012 post, I laid out research by a team led by Pennsylvania State University crop scientist David A. Mortensen (paper abstract here) on how the new products are at best a temporary solution to the problem of "superweeds" — they lead farmers down a path of ever-increasing reliance on agrichemicals. They argue that chances are "actually quite high" that Dow's new product will unleash a new generation of weeds resistant to both herbicides, because when farmers apply 2,4-D to weeds that are already resistant to Roundup, they'll essentially be selecting for weeds that can resist both. Their projection of how such double resistance will affect herbicide use is at the left — a boon for agrichemical sales, but not so great for the environment.