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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] USDA Quietly Approves New GMO Corn, While Touting Safety of Agent Orange Ingredient
  • Date: Fri, 06 Jan 2012 08:43:59 -0700


USDA Quietly Approves New GMO Corn, While Touting Safety of Agent Orange
Ingredient
http://www.treehugger.com/green-food/usda-quietly-approves-new-gmo-corn-safety-agent-orange-ingredient.html
Rachel Cernansky
Living / Green Food
January 4, 2012

Over the holidays, the USDA approved a strain of Monsanto's genetically
engineered corn that can now be planted freely in the environment and
distributed throughout the U.S. food supply, with no oversight or efforts to
track its safety.

Monsanto says the strain is drought-tolerant, but the USDA itself has
actually found otherwise.

Instead, the agency ignored its own results as well as concerns from the
public, which has little trust in the safety of the crop. Nearly 45,000
public comments were written in opposition to the particular corn variety and
only 23 comments were written in favor, according to the Cornucopia Institute.

Approving an Agent Orange Chemical
Other GMO crops are also on the way. Cornucopia reports that the USDA has
opened a public comment period for a soybean variety from Monsanto containing
increased levels of an omega-3 fatty acid—which you hear a lot about as being
healthy, but it doesn't not naturally occur in soybeans.

The agency is also holding a public comment period for a GMO corn from Dow
engineered to better resist the poisonous herbicide 2,4-D.

Cornucopia explains more:

While the USDA attempts to assure the public that 2,4-D is safe,
scientists have raised serious concerns about the safety of this herbicide,
which was used as a key ingredient in “Agent Orange,” used to defoliate
forests and croplands in the Vietnam War.

2,4-D is a chlorophenoxy herbicide, and scientists around the world have
reported increased cancer risks in association with its use, especially for
soft tissue sarcoma and malignant lymphoma. Four separate studies in the
United States reported an association with chlorophenoxy herbicide use and
non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Mark Kastel from Cornucopia said, "the approval of a cultivar resistant to
2,4-D will cause an exponential increase in the use of this toxic
agrichemical,” comparing it to Monsanto's GMO corn that has become resistant
to its Roundup herbicide—and which has led to the evolution of superweeds
that grow up to three inches per day.

Bad News for Public Health and Safety
The science of the effects of this chemcial is frightening:

Research by the EPA found that babies born in counties with high rates of
2,4-D application to farm fields were significantly more likely to be born
with birth defects of the respiratory and circulatory systems, as well as
defects of the musculoskeletal system like clubfoot, fused digits and extra
digits. These birth defects were 60% to 90% more likely in counties with
higher 2,4-D application rates.

Birth defects were also found to be more likely in babies conceived in the
spring—when application of herbicides is at its highest.

There's also a touch of irony that should not be overlooked, again from
Cornucopia:

In its petition, Dow AgroSciences states that 2,4-D is increasingly
important for chemical farmers because of the presence of weeds that have
developed resistance to glyphosate, as a result of the widespread use of
Monsanto’s genetically engineered glyphosate-resistant crops.

When Monsanto introduced glyphosate, it was touted as a safer and less
toxic alternative to herbicides like 2,4-D. Now, an emerging body of
scientific literature is raising serious concerns about the safety of
glyphosate as well.




  • [Livingontheland] USDA Quietly Approves New GMO Corn, While Touting Safety of Agent Orange Ingredient, Tradingpost, 01/06/2012

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