'Outrage' Follows USDA's Advancement of New Genetically Engineered Crops

Published on Thursday, August 07, 2014 by Common Dreams

'Outrage' Follows USDA's Advancement of New Genetically Engineered Crops

'We need to get off the pesticide treadmill,' said George Naylor, farmer and Center for Food Safety Board Member

Environmental groups warn that advancing Dow's new genetically engineered crops means a continuation of a toxic chemical treadmill that threatens human health. (Photo:  Holley St. Germain)

Watchdog groups are denouncing the U.S. Department of Agriculture's recommendation on Wednesday to approve new varieties of genetically engineered corn and soybeans as a path towards more toxic pesticides that threaten the environment and public health.

"We are outraged," stated Marcia Ishii-Eiteman, PhD, senior scientist with Pesticide Action Network, adding that the "USDA has turned its back on America’s farmers and rural communities."

The new crops are Dow AgroScience’s 2,4-D- and glyphosate-tolerant corn and soybeans. They are made to be used with Dow's Enlist Duo herbicide, which contains 2,4-D and glyphosate and is also under review by the USDA.

The decision to advance the crops towards full deregulation flies in face of warnings by food and environmental groups, doctors, scientists, 50 members of Congress, as well as thousands of public comments to the USDA.

The calls not to green-light the crops focus on the dangers of 2,4-D, whose use the USDA admits will increase at least three-fold with the Enlist package.

Writing at Environmental Working Group's (EWG) AgMag blog, Mary Ellen Kustin and Soren Rundquist detail the group's analysis showing that over 5,600 American schools are within 200 feet from a field where 2,4-D could be sprayed if the Enlist Duo package is fully approved, a particularly noteworthy finding as 2,4-D has been linked to Parkinson's, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, cancer and other health problems.

Further, Dow's strategy of using additional pesticides to tackle the problem of so-called superweeds—like Roundup-resistant weeds—continues a profitable "pesticide treadmill."

“Weed resistance is a major problem for farmers and we need a solution. This decision shows that the only options USDA is willing to consider are ones that lead to increased profits for chemical companies. We need to get off the pesticide treadmill, not increase the speed,” George Naylor, Center for Food Safety Board Member and Iowa corn and soybean farmer, said in a statement.

Genna Reed, a researcher with Food & Water Watch, adds that "the unfair reality is that the weed resistance explosion and increased spraying of 2,4-D that will occur once these crops are approved will have the greatest effect on those farmers who aren’t even growing GMOs or using 2,4-D."

In the 30-day public comment period that remains before the USDA can give final approval, groups including the Center for Food Safety and Food & Water Watch are encouraging people to weigh in with their comments to the USDA.

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Comment by DTOM on August 9, 2014 at 9:03pm

Indeed 'archonic' seems to be a very apt adjective, everything around us seems to be sick and polluted - I for one now find it unbearable - one can only hope the purge of the affliction and healing commences of this planet begins soon.

Comment by DTOM on August 9, 2014 at 8:47pm

I am of the opinion that those pushing and attempting to enforce this agenda are absolutely bat-shit insane -they are poisoning the planet they supposedly seek to control, but it makes no sense unless we consider 2 possibilities.

Either:

1). They possess the means to cleanup the planet and reverse the effects of all of the nuclear waste, aerosoled depleted uranium, pollution, chemtrails, GMOs etc that THEY have afflicted the planet with

or 

2). They are total psychopathic nihilists, who would rather try to either control everything on this world by force or failing that destroy everything, and be of the belief that they have 'won' - akin to a psychopath pulling you off a cliff with him - than permit the rest of humanity to live upon this planet in peace.

Comment by Less Prone on August 9, 2014 at 8:17pm

It's plain crazy, given that glyphosate destroys the soil, the health of anyone in contact with it and those who eat the gmo produce. Adding 2,4-D (=dioxin) to the toxic cocktail makes things much worse. Adding poisons together doesn't just add the poisonous effect linearly but totally wrecks havoc on the immune and nervous systems.

Comment by karl wendland on August 9, 2014 at 2:00pm
DOW - damnation on the world!
Makers and profiteers of Napalm in Vietnam - nazi company run by zionist exterminators.
Curse them and all their works.
We are coming for you and all your political cronies.
Guillotines WILL arrive for these bastards.

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