Tech | December 27, 2011 | 23 comments

USDA deregulates two more GM seeds for Monsanto

source: http://www.truth-out.org/usda-deregulates-two-monsanto-genetically-engineered-seeds/1324580927

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JanforGore
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on Thursday its decision to deregulate two Monsanto genetically engineered (GE) seed varieties: a corn variety engineered to resist drought conditions and an herbicide-resistant soybean engineered to produce more fatty acids than regular soybeans.

Regulators legalized the seeds after reviewing risk assessments, public comments and data provided by Monsanto.

Monsanto is planning "on-farm trials" of drought-tolerant corn, known as MON 87460, during the upcoming planting season "to give farmers experience with the product" and generate commercial data, according to a statement from the company.

The corn contains a protein gene from a bacterium that reportedly limits yield loss when corn plants are stressed by drought conditions.

Earlier this year, Truthout exposed a controversial program in five African countries that involves putting Monsanto drought-tolerant corn in the hands of farmers facing drought conditions. The program is part of an effort funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is working to establish a "Second Green Revolution" in Africa.

Critics say such efforts could replace traditional and sustainable farming methods with American-style industrial agriculture and prevent African governments from effectively regulating GE crops.

Last week, Truthout revealed that the USDA is taking steps to speed up the approval process for GE crops after industry groups put mounting pressure on top officials in recent years.

The USDA also announced a public comment period for two additional GE crop seeds, including another Monsanto soybean that is engineered to provide omega-3 fatty acids. Regulators have submitted favorable assessments of the seeds and are expected to approve them sometime next year. The public comment period on both products runs until February 27, 2012.

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23 comments // USDA deregulates two more GM seeds for Monsanto

  • artemis6
  • Ambill94
    • 0
      Ambill94  

    • "Regulators legalized the seeds after reviewing risk assessments, public comments and data provided by Monsanto."

      Makes me feel better that our regulators are on the job...otherwise this stuff could get scary...

    • 5 months ago
  • queenofit
    • +3
      queenofit  

    • My knee jerk response is pretty lame, I know that, but sometimes I just feel like shooting from the hip when I read this crap.....So, here goes..... I guess one of these days we will wake-up and read that Monsanto has taken over our country. And we will just sit here, we'll just get mad; rant and rave (like I am right now). And then it will all be over, we will be owned by Monsanto. I mean, they just keep gaining more and more control, no matter how much evidence is mounted against them, no matter how much science is proving the harm they do, no matter what they have done to our health in the past, they just keep steam rolling right on down the road, unfettered. I swear....

    • 5 months ago
  • JanforGore
  • rerushg
    • 0
      rerushg  

    • Better living through chemistry!
      Let's see.... you cull out the masses with chemistry and... shazam!... better living for those who survive!

    • 5 months ago
  • AmericanStandard
    • -1
      AmericanStandard  

    • I love janforgore because she makes all these posts about how corrupt administrative agencies are, then anytime someone brings up Ron Paul she flips out because he wants to end corrupt administrative agencies. Mind = blown!

    • 5 months ago
  • JanforGore
    • +5
      JanforGore  
    • AmericanStandard:

      And what has Ron Paul ever done about this? I don't see any bills out here with HIS name on them. Have the letters GMO ever parsed his lips in succession in public? Just calling to close down everything because you want to make it even easier for corporations to pollute the environment isn't the answer and I never said that should be done. It isn't the agency intrinsicly as far as its original purpose, it is the people in them who can be bought because of the nature of politics as a whole, which Ron Paul has been a part of for years as well. Or does he not get campaign donations? So your point?

      Matter of fact, this is exactly how it would be without the USDA so you should be happy. GMOs are essentially UNregulated which is why this is happening in the first place. So your comment regarding me is irrelevant. I'm not the hypocrite. GMOs need to be regulated AND labelled because they threaten the population as a whole. And the USDA needs to be brought back to its original purpose and people such as Ron Paul need to stop using the word "freedom" as a cliche' to get votes by totally ignoring the safety and health of Americans because they really support corporations through deregulation which places undue harm on small farmers and consumers who ultimately bear the brunt of the cost because of it.

      Does he even want LABELS ON GMOS? OH, of course not, because that would be a REGULATION to keep people INFORMED and SAFE and hurts the "freedom" of business. Much better to have nothing and let them eat it and have to sue Monsanto down the line or see their crops contaminated...Spare me. This exemplifies the world of deregulation and it needs to stop.

    • 5 months ago
  • CarlosBobthe3rd
  • AmericanStandard
    • -3
      AmericanStandard  
    • JanforGore:

      Ron Paul is for enforcement of contract law. Under a Ron Paul administration, the farmers who have had land and seed stock contaminated with gmos would be protected. Further citizens could file suit against monsanto for violation their right to bodily integrity and require labeling. Now you cannot sue because they are in compliance with current regulations. Further each state can set rules as needed.

    • 5 months ago
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  
    • CarlosBobthe3rd:

      Well considering he was in Congress already and did nothing about them as well, that remains to be seen. However, I would rather discuss the ways we can go about stopping this through activism now. Which was the point of the post. This isn't a Ron Paul thread.

    • 5 months ago
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
    • +2
      JanforGore  
    • AmericanStandard:

      How do you protect them after the fact once the contamination has occurred? It should not happen to begin with, which tells me by your statement that he would allow them to continue being planted. So what is new about that compared to now? And they are not in any way in compliance with the laws of nature or any other laws. Are you serious? They are in compliance with "current regulations?" What regulations? They are not being regulated which is the point you seem to be ignoring. And you cannot entrust this to individual states because this is a cross border contamination that effects everyone. You cannot have one state voting one way and one state another. It is like clean air and water, it effects us all.

    • 5 months ago
  • LivingPong
  • NEVERSCARED
  • MotherForTruth
  • JanforGore
    • +2
      JanforGore  
    • MotherForTruth:

      However, this is much bigger than his or anyone's campaigning for 2012. Funny too because I see no mention of this on his campaign website. Right now the only one in Congress who even cares about and talks about this is Dennis Kucinich. Not one candidate however on any side including Ron Paul has mentioned the words Monsanto or GMOs.

    • 5 months ago
  • MotherForTruth
  • JangoFetish
    • 0
      JangoFetish  

    • Weird! I just saw the movie "UNKNOWN" last night and it mentioned something about corn like this and it being entirely free to the entire world. Now if they can just harvest fuel from the corn n the world would be even that much better of a place.

    • 5 months ago
  • ecoalex
    • +1
      ecoalex  

    • The misguided Gates foundation is a knowing agent of Monsanto,and big pharma as they push corporate solutions for problems better solved locally in Africa and elsewhere.

      Occupy Windows, by ditching it,use Linux.I'm 5 years windows free and miss noting,but gain freedom and a clear conscious.It's easy,files can be copied to linux easily,and Windows left a distant memory.

      Linus is open source,you can't get more of,by,for the people than Linux.

      It is free,Over 33,000 apps to any and all work,there's no real reason not to leave Bill Gates behind.

      Occupy Windows!

    • 5 months ago
  • TokenGimp
    • +1
      TokenGimp  

    • Has the Government ever made a wise decision when playing with nature? We have Asian Carp, Asian Beetles, Japanese Beetles, Purple Loosestrife, Zebra Mussels, Dutch Elm Disease, West Nile Virus, Fire Ants, Killer Bees just to name a few invasive species I can think of and many are in my neighborhood. Remember DDT?

      Invasive species can't be controlled and are wreaking havoc on our native species and ruining the way of life for 100's of thousand of people. It cant's be a good idea for a conglomerate such as Monsanto to release more invasive species into the environment. They've shown with Round-up resistant flax they will sue people and bankrupt them for being downwind and catching their pollen. What will happen when they have more products and they breed with other things? USDA needs to stop playing God, Darwin or whomever they are playing. First it's going to hurt American Farmers, but eventually everyone else and every living thing on earth with something they can't control.

      Monsanto has been brainwashing children for decades at Epcot & Disney with their exhibitions, but this is the real world not an amusement park.
      Time to get Monsanto out of the fun house.

    • 5 months ago
  • JanforGore
    • +4
      JanforGore  

    • Our children neither asked for nor deserve this either.

      And just as a note. THIS is one of the most underreported stories of ANY year. But I suppose it is even too risky for Current to cover anywhere?

    • 5 months ago
  • JanforGore
    • +3
      JanforGore  
    • Image

    • NOTE: Despite all the hyperbole about the promise of GM drought resistant crops, it has taken until now for the first GM drought resistant crop to be approved for marketing anywhere in the world. That crop is a Monsanto GM drought resistant maize for cultivation in the United States - see below.

      By contrast, non-GM plant breeding has achieved success after success in producing a variety of drought resistant crops, including a whole series of drought resistant maize varieties, and these have been made available in many countries, including developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to drought. Some interesting examples are listed here:
      http://www.gmwatch.org/component/content/article/31-need-gm/12319
      ---
      ---
      Monsanto Corn Unlikely To Help Drought-Stricken Farmers
      Union of Concerned Scientists, December 22 2011
      http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/monsanto-drought-corn-1363.html

      Statement by Doug Gurian-Sherman, Senior Scientist, UCS Food & Environment Program

      Yesterday, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced it would allow unlimited planting of a genetically modified variety of corn designed by Monsanto Co. to be resistant to certain kinds of droughts. The company and the USDA have both admitted the crop will fare only modestly better than current conventional varieties under low- and moderate-level drought conditions. This means that this corn will be useful only for a fraction of corn acres – just 15 percent by USDA estimates.

      In addition, there are several types of new drought-tolerant corn, made through conventional breeding, in the United States and abroad likely to do as well or better than Monsanto's corn. Data from U.S. researchers suggest that conventional breeding is producing drought tolerance two to three times faster than genetic engineering.

      Below is a statement from Doug Gurian-Sherman, senior scientist for the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Food & Environment Program:

      "Monsanto's new corn will not be a silver bullet for farmers suffering from the kind of severe drought facing the Southwest right now. While the industry continues to say it'll do better, achieving substantially higher levels of drought tolerance with genetically modified crops in the foreseeable future is uncertain. Furthermore, it's unlikely this drought-resistant crop will actually save water as Monsanto would like everyone to believe. Classical crop breeding can produce drought-resistant crops that are cheaper and more effective than what Monsanto has come up with.

      "Ultimately, the only way to address the water challenges that American farmers face every day will require readdressing how we farm, which crops we breed and grow, and how we allocate the water we use to farm. The biotechnology industry has been working on drought-tolerant and water-saving crops for more than a decade, and the results so far, while useful, are underwhelming compared to conventional techniques like breeding. At most, this crop is a Band-Aid, not a cure."

    • 5 months ago
  • JanforGore
    • +2
      JanforGore  

    • And this is the Obama administration now doing this BTW for anyone who thinks he isn't deep in their pockets. One very good reason why I am not voting for him at this time. People who care about the environment simply cannot in my mind condone his acceptance of Monsanto monopolizing and KILLING agriculture as we know it! This is why this kind of information is also so important. People don't know about public comment periods for these mutant seeds that are deregulated by the USDA based on Monsanto's biased information because no one else is talking!

      Perhaps we might make some headway if the public comment period was bombarded with comments from consumers saying they will BOYCOTT Monsanto and will not support this type of forced feeding upon Americans and peoples of the world without their knowledge and consent! And did you read this? "On farm trials." They just can't wait to contaminate and OWN EVERYTHING you eat, and this is where Democrats as well as Republicans FAIL US in Congress. Monsanto as well as DOW, Bayer and Syngenta are the death knell to agriculture. Time to pull this crap out of the ground!

      Monsanto is also being sued in India for biopiracy and Bill Gates supports them! Any guesses as to where they pulled the drought resistant traits from they are putting in their mutant seeds? It's already in nature! We don't need them! This is just big $$$$$$$$$$$ for them.
      ~~~
      "The USDA also announced a public comment period for two additional GE crop seeds, including another Monsanto soybean that is engineered to provide omega-3 fatty acids. Regulators have submitted favorable assessments of the seeds and are expected to approve them sometime next year. The public comment period on both products runs until February 27, 2012."

      Where is the peer review of this? This isn't SCIENCE. "Regulators" have submitted favorable assessments based on MONSANTO's "tests" and being wined and dined by lobbyists!

      OCCUPY THE USDA

    • 5 months ago
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