The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) recently made it a little easier for Monsanto and Syngenta to push their poison. The agency has deregulated two more strains of genetically engineered corn.
Though the FDA stated in September that it planned to implement more strict protocols for permitting GE wheat strains due to non-GMO crops being contaminated through cross pollination, they have apparently decided the two more GMO corn varieties don’t pose the same exact threat!
The agency’s comparative laxity in deregulating the GE corn strains is in stark contrast to increasing worldwide concern over GE crops and the increased pesticide use they reportedly bring.
Here’s the big shocker – the infiltrated US FDA decided that Monsanto’s rootworm and glyphosate-resistant strain, MON 87411, merits a non-regulated status. The agency also sold us all out to the Swiss biotech company by deregulating Syngenta’s glyphosate-resistant strain, MZHGOJG.
And another ‘coincidence?’ APHIS’ corn deregulation notices were published the same day that the environmental groups Center for Food Safety (CFS), Earthjustice, and 5 others filed a brief challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s approval of Dow AgroSciences’ glyphosate pesticide, Enlist Duo, which pairs glyphosate with 2,4D, a doubly toxic, carcinogenic herbicide that will make cancers likely double in the next decade. Though the registration of Enlist Duo was recently reversed.
CFS says the EPA approved the duel pesticide due to the explosion of glyphosate-resistant super weeds resulting from overuse of glyphosate on crops genetically engineered to resist the pesticide’s effects.
Earthjustice attorney Paul Achitoff said:
“Allowing this 2,4-D/glyphosate cocktail to be sprayed on the up to 150 million acres of corn and soybean acreage found in these states may harm or kill dozens of imperiled species, as well as increase the health risk to humans. EPA is supposed to be our watchdog, not the chemical industry’s lapdog.”
Perhaps deregulating two more herbicide-‘resistant’ corn strains makes the agency more than just Biotech’s supporter.
CourtHouseNews