Urges EPA not to approve toxic herbicide designed to work with new seeds
Congresswoman Chellie Pingree expressed disappointment in the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) decision yesterday to approve the sale of genetically modified corn and soybean seeds designed by Dow Chemical Company and intended to be used with a toxic new herbicide.
"Dow is making all sorts of promises about these new GMO products, but they are exactly the same promises that Monsanto made with their Roundup Ready crops," Pingree said. "And now parts of the country are being overrun by super weeds and there have been huge die-offs of milkweed and other plants vital to the Monarch Butterfly population. Monsanto promised their GMO crops were going to result in farmers using fewer chemicals but just the opposite happened and you can expect the same thing to happen with Dow's products."
Yesterday USDA approved the sale of corn and soybean seeds designed to be resistant to a new herbicide called 2,4-D. The seeds and herbicide are both made by Dow Chemical and make up what the company calls the Enlist Duo system. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has yet to approve the use of 2,4-D.
"There is still hope that the EPA won't approve this toxic new herbicide," Pingree said.
"But I'm disappointed that USDA has taken the first step down this dangerous road. They've admitted that if both the seeds and the herbicide are approved, the use of 2,4-D is likely to increase up to 600%. "
Enlist Duo is designed to compete with Monsanto's Roundup Ready system, which includes GMO seeds that are resistant to that company's glyphosate herbicide. But widespread use of the herbicide has led to an explosion of "super weeds" that don’t respond to the chemical.
