CGI's esu333: USDA Sticks It to Monsanto and Dow—At Least
Temporarily
Date: Sunday, 12-May-2013 12:40:39
Some good news for a change....
Back in early 2012, the US Department of Agriculture seemed on
the verge of approving new genetically modified crops from agrichemical
giants Monsanto and Dow. The two agrichemical giants were pushing new corn
and soy varieties that would respond to the ever-expanding problem of
herbicide-tolerant superweeds by bringing more-toxic herbicides into the
mix—and likely ramping up the resistance problem, as I explained at length in
a post at the time.
Even some mainstream ag scientists were alarmed at the coming
escalation in the war against weeds. Scientists at Penn State—not exactly a
hotbed of alternative ag thinking—delivered a damning analysis of the novel
crops, which would engineered to withstand not only Monsanto's Roundup
herbicide, but also the highly toxic old ones 2,4-D (Dow's version) and
Dicamba (Monsanto's).
Yet in August, the USDA again signaled that approval would be
imminent—and by the end of 2012, people who follow ag regulatory issues were
telling me that the USDA would almost certainly approve the crops over
Christmas break, timing the decision in an effort to minimize the inevitable
uproar.
But then Christmas came and went with no announcement—leading
Dow to issue a January press statement about how the unexpected delay meant
it could not sell its new product to farmers for the 2013 growing season. Yet
the company remained confident about the prospects for approval in time for
planting in 2014—it told the trade journal Delta Farm Press it "expects
all approvals will be in place for sale in late 2013," in time for a its
novels seeds to be used over a "broad geography" in 2014.
But on Friday, the USDA essentially trampled on those
expectations—it announced it was delaying approval of the crops until it
could generate full environmental impact statements (known as EIS's) on them.
The move effectively means that the crops won't be planted in fields next
year, either, a Dow spokesperson told Bloomberg News.
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1 comment:
Finally the government looking after us? These crops are death on a plate. For Obama to want to approve these DEATH Companies just shows us how he doesn't care about world health. All his food is totally organic. I bet you anything that he would not feed that crap to his children. GMO corn fed to cattle is so bad that they would starve before they ate it...That should tell you something. It also has almost "0" food content!!
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