======================================================================
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
======================================================================
(See
http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/food/genetically-engineered-foods/24-d-corn/
for opposition to 2,4-D.)
NY Times, Sept. 18 2014
Altered to Withstand Herbicide, Corn and Soybeans Gain Approval
By ANDREW POLLACK
The Agriculture Department has approved the commercial planting of corn
and soybeans genetically engineered to survive being sprayed by the
herbicide known as 2,4-D, according to documents it posted on a federal
regulatory website on Wednesday.
Some corn and soybean growers have been pushing for approval, saying the
new crops would give them a sorely needed new tool to fight rapidly
spreading weeds that can no longer be killed by Roundup, known
generically as glyphosate, the usual herbicide of choice.
But critics say that cultivation of the crops, which were developed by
Dow AgroSciences, will mean a sharp increase in the spraying of 2,4-D, a
chemical they say would be more damaging to the environment, nearby
non-engineered crops and possibly human health, than Roundup.
“With this approval comes millions of more pounds of toxic herbicides
dumped onto our land; it’s an unacceptable outcome,” Andrew Kimbrell,
executive director of the Center for Food Safety, a Washington advocacy
group, said in a statement.
He hinted that the organization might file a lawsuit to try to reverse
the decision, as it has done with other rulings related to genetically
engineered crops.
The Environmental Protection Agency must still approve a new formulation
of 2,4-D that is supposed to be used with the crops.
Dow AgroSciences, a division of Dow Chemical, has said it expects to
have all approvals in time to begin selling what it calls the Enlist
weed control system for planting next year.
The Agriculture Department, in its environmental analysis, predicted
that approval of the crops would lead to a 200 percent to 600 percent
increase in the use of 2,4-D nationally by 2020. But it said analysis of
the effects of that increased use was the responsibility of the E.P.A.
The Agriculture Department said its approval depended mainly on whether
the crops would harm other plants.
The chemical 2,4-D was one component of Agent Orange, a defoliant used
in the Vietnam War that has been linked to various health problems. But
experts say the health effects were caused mainly by another ingredient
in Agent Orange.
The E.P.A. has declined to remove 2,4-D from the market on health and
safety grounds. The chemical is the nation’s third most widely used
herbicide behind glyphosate and atrazine, and it also is used in many
home lawn care products, according to the Agriculture Department.
Crops resistant to glyphosate, known as Roundup Ready crops, now account
for the vast majority of corn and soybeans grown in the United States.
That is because they make it easy for farmers to control weeds. Farmers
simply spray glyphosate on their fields, killing the weeds while leaving
the genetically engineered crops intact.
But it was so easy that farmers ended up relying too heavily on
glyphosate, allowing many types of weeds to develop resistance. Weeds
that can no longer easily be killed by glyphosate now infest about 70
million acres of American farmland, double the area in 2009, according
to Dow.
Farmers have had to resort to using different chemicals, or higher doses
of glyphosate, or to tilling their fields, which can increase soil
erosion. Some farmers have had to go back to pulling weeds by hand.
The new crops, which would also be resistant to glyphosate, would be a
solution. Farmers could spray a mixture of 2,4-D and glyphosate, which
would kill even the weeds that no longer succumb to glyphosate alone.
“We’ve used the latest science and technology to address problem weeds,”
Tim Hassinger, president of Dow AgroSciences, said in a statement
Wednesday. “Enlist will be a very effective solution and we’re pleased
to have this technology one step closer to the farm gate.”
Monsanto, which developed the Roundup Ready crops, is now awaiting
approval of crops resistant to a different herbicide called dicamba. But
critics say it will not be too long before weeds develop resistance to
2,4-D as well as dicamba.
Both 2,4-D and dicamba have a tendency to drift or evaporate, allowing
them to spread to nearby farms where they could harm crops not
engineered to be resistant to the chemicals.
A group of fruit and vegetable growers and canners in the Midwest,
calling itself the Save Our Crops Coalition, had initially opposed
approval of Dow’s corn and soybeans.
But the group changed its stance after Dow promised to take certain
steps to reduce the risk of drift. Farmers growing the corn and soybeans
will have to promise to use the new herbicide that the E.P.A. is now
evaluating. The product, called Enlist Duo, is a mix of glyphosate and a
new formulation of 2,4-D meant to minimize drift and volatilization.
Farmers will also have to agree to certain other restrictions on how and
when the chemical can be sprayed.
Dow had initially hoped to get its corn on the market by 2013. But the
Agriculture Department decided to write full environmental impact
statements, rather than less comprehensive environmental assessments,
delaying the approval.
The agency received more than 10,000 submissions on its draft
environmental impact statements during the 60-day public comment period,
which ended in March. More recently, it said, it received petitions with
more than 240,000 signatures opposing approval.
________________________________________________
Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu
Set your options at:
http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com