From Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-kimbrell/agent-orange-corn-biotech_b_1291295.html
Posted: 02/22/2012
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is currently deciding whether or not to approve an application by Dow Chemical for its controversial genetically engineered (GE) corn variety that is resistant to the highly toxic herbicide 2,4-D, one of the main ingredients in Agent Orange.
Today, the USDA extended the public comment period on this issue until the end of April 2012, largely due to pressure from the Center for Food Safety (CFS), the nation's leading organization in the fight to regulate GE crops. If approved, CFS has vowed to challenge USDA's decision in court, as this novel GE crop provides no public benefit and will only cause serious harm to human health, the environment, and threaten American farms.
Dow's "Agent Orange" corn will trigger a large increase in 2,4-D use--and our exposure to this toxic herbicide--yet USDA has not assessed how much, nor analyzed the serious harm to human health, the environment, or neighboring farms. This GE corn will foster rapid evolution of resistant weeds that require more toxic pesticides to kill, followed by more resistance and more pesticides--a chemical arms race in which the only winners are pesticide (aka biotechnology) firms.
The advent of Dow's 2,4-D resistant corn is a clear indication that first-generation GE, herbicide-resistant crops--Monsanto's Roundup Ready (RR) varieties--are rapidly failing. RR crops, which comprise 84 percent of world biotech plantings, have triggered massive use of glyphosate (Roundup's active ingredient) and an epidemic of glyphosate-resistant weeds. These resistant "superweeds" are regarded as one of the major challenges facing American agriculture.
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