USDA Greenlights Monsanto's Utterly Useless New GMO Corn

—By Tom Philpott

| Mon Jan. 23, 2012 1:15 PM PST

 

You've got to keep an eye on US regulatory agencies in the second half of December. That's when watchdog journalists like me tend to take time off—and regulators like to sneak gifts to the industries they're supposed to be regulating. This year, I was alert enough to detect this gift from the FDA to the meat industry; but the USDA caught me napping. The agency made two momentous announcements on GMO crops, neither of which got much media scrutiny. It deregulated Monsanto's so-called drought-tolerant corn, and it prepared to deregulate Dow's corn engineered to withstand the herbicides 2,4-D and dicamba. More on the later this week.


The drought-tolerant corn decision, which came down on Dec. 21, was momentous occasion, because it marked the first deregulation of a GMO crop with a "complex" trait. What I mean by that is, the other GMOs on the market have simple, one-gene traits: a gene that confers resistance to a particular herbicide, like Monsanto's Roundup Ready seed or a gene that expresses the toxic-to-bugs properties of the bacteria Bt, as in Monsanto's Bt seed. But a plant's use of water is a complex process involving several genes; there's no single "drought tolerant" gene. Generating such traits in plants that succeed in field conditions has been considerably more tricky for the agrichemical giants than than simple traits.
 

And indeed, Monsanto has staked huge PR capital on its ability to do just that. In a famous 2008 press release, the company declared it would "double yield in its three core crops of corn, soybeans and cotton by 2030, compared to a base year of  2000," using patented seeds that will simultaneously "reduce by one-third the amount of key resources required to grow crops." It placed complex traits like drought tolerance at the center of its effort,  promising seeds that would "result in more production per unit of land, and reduced use of energy, fertilizer and water per unit produced."

The drought-tolerant corn the USDA signed off on in December is the first approved crop of that kind. The trouble is, it doesn't work very well. The USDA acknowledged as much in its Nov. 11 Final Environmental Assessment of the crop. It makes clear that the product's "drought tolerance" extends only to "moderate" drought conditions, and it has the same "minimum water requirements" as conventional corn.

And then it drops this bombshell, citing Monsanto's own field tests:    READ MORE

12 DAYS to Stop DOW’s 2-4-D Corn

12 days to stop Dow's 2-4-D corn! PHOTO: Panna

17 Friday Feb 2012

Posted by Bev Hill in Food, Food Politics, Health, Food & Your Health, Chemicals/Pesticides in Your Food 

Dow and USDA hope to quietly approve a new genetically engineered seed line that basically swaps RoundUp (glyphosate) out for an even worse weedkiller (2,4-D).

As you may have heard, the pesticide treadmill is catching up with Monsanto, as glyphosate-resistent “superweeds” run rampant and their blockbuster RoundUp Ready product line nears the end of its life-cycle. Dow wants to drop in an even more toxic herbicide (2,4-D) to keep the treadmill running at high speed. We have 12 days to stop this.

Tell USDA we want off this ride» Urge the agency to reject Dow’s petition for approval of its 2,4-D resistant seed lines. Now, before the public comment period ends, is the time to speak up and say no.

Dow aims to get 2,4-D-resistant CORN to market this year, SOY next year and COTTON in 2015. These three crops dominate U.S. agriculture, covering over 100 million acres of mono-cropped countryside, driving the pesticide market. If they get their foot in the door with corn, there is little chance that soy and cotton will be a problem for approval.     READ MORE

 

Monsanto petition tells Obama: ‘Cease FDA ties to Monsanto’

(Nigel Treblin - AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

 

By Elizabeth Flock

A two-year-old Food and Drug Administration appointment is stirring up online protests once more.

In 2009, President Obama appointed Michael Taylor as a senior adviser for the FDA. Consumer groups protested the appointment because Taylor had formerly served as a vice president for Monsanto, the controversial agricultural multinational at the forefront of genetically modified food.

In recent days, a petition calling for the former Monsanto VP’s ouster is gaining steam.

“President Obama, I oppose your appointment of Michael Taylor,” the petition on Signon.org reads. “Taylor is the same person who was Food Safety Czar at the FDA when genetically modified organisms were allowed into the U.S. food supply without undergoing a single test to determine their safety or risks. This is a travesty.”

Over the weekend, the petition was signed by thousands of people. At this writing, it has around 60,000 signatures of its 75,000 goal.

Requests for comment from Monsanto and the FDA were not immediately returned.
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FDA Panel Judging Birth Control Risk Had Ties to Bayer

A Bayer-Schering employee examines YAZ
birth control pills in the company's factory
in Berlin, 10/27/11.
(photo: Bayer HealthCare AG)

Jeanne Lenzer and Keith Epstein, Washington Monthly
Excerpt: "The FDA's decision not to reveal its advisors' relationships with the drugs' manufacturers and Bayer raises serious questions about the agency's treatment of potential conflicts of interest, a historically problematic area for the department."
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Food System Pays Dearly as Wall Street Occupies Washington

FDA Crushed

Monday 24 October 2011

by: Ben Lilliston, OtherWords | Op-Ed 

 

 

It's nearly impossible to find a legislative or regulatory issue related to food and agriculture that hasn't been deeply shaped (if not outright written) by corporate lobbyists.

Despite the Occupy Wall Street movement's now month-long direct challenge to corporate and financial industry power, the machine keeps rolling along.

The 1 percent recently racked up two more big victories. President Barack Obama signed three new free-trade agreements and regulators watered down rules that govern commodity markets, which ultimately have a big impact on both farmers and consumers. Both developments make the protestors' point: Washington is occupied by corporate power.

In 2008, as the financial sector was barreling toward collapse, we at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) reported on how excessive speculation by Wall Street firms was affecting farmers and the global food system. The result was record global rates of hunger caused by extreme price volatility in the agricultural markets. 

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