| Monsanto corn failing in four states - maybe more First, the superweeds started turning Monsanto's Roundup Ready crops into a farmer's nightmare. Now, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency, Monsanto Bt corn that's genetically engineered to kill insects is losing its effectiveness against rootworms in four states - and may be failing in others. Rootworms in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, and Nebraska are suspected of developing tolerance to the plants' insecticide, based on documented cases of severe crop damage and reports from entomologists, the EPA said. There have also been reports of Bt corn failure from Colorado, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. The EPA said that Monsanto's program for monitoring suspected resistance is "inadequate". The EPA said that Monsanto's proposed solution of using Smartstax corn, which contains two types of Bt toxin, in fields where bugs have developed resistance could merely hasten resistance to Smartstax. EPA's recommendation - which undermines the whole justification for introducing Bt crops - is that farmers use conventional insecticides to kill the bugs. [Read the Article] Monsanto still denies the superinsect problem, despite the evidence. [Read the Article] Meanwhile, the EPA is asking for more information on pest resistance in GM insecticidal plants.
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USDA works to speed up approval of GM crops Apparently the revolving door between government and the biotech industry is not good enough. Now even the façade of separation between the regulators and the regulated is being dismantled. Under a new two-year pilot program at the US Dept of Agriculture (USDA), regulators are training the world's biggest biotech firms, including Monsanto, BASF, and Syngenta, to conduct environmental reviews of their own GM seed products as part of the government's deregulation process. This would eliminate a critical level of oversight for the production of GM crops - at a time when even the US EPA is admitting GM crop failures. Regulators are also testing new cost-sharing agreements that allow biotech firms to help pay private contractors to prepare mandatory environmental statements on GM plants that the USDA is considering deregulating.
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Virus confirmed in GM salmon AquaBounty's GM salmon, currently under review by the US Food and Drug Administration for potential sale to American consumers, tested positive for the Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA) virus in November 2009. The virus appears to be a new strain of ISA. AquaBounty's GM fish are in a closed, land-locked facility, so the virus is thought to have entered the facility through imported eggs or young fish. [Read the Article] A representative of the environmental organizations Living Oceans Society and Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform explains more about the discovery in a video interview. [Watch the Video] AquaBounty's sickly GM salmon has swallowed hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars.
[Read the Article] However, no one has investigated the human health impacts of GM salmon. [Read the Article]
Kucinich introduces GMO bills for consumer protection and choice Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) has announced legislation that would prohibit open-air cultivation of GM pharmaceutical and industrial crops, preventing biological contamination of the food supply. The bill would also establish a tracking system to regulate and ensure the safety of GM pharmaceutical and industrial crops. "Under pressure from profit-minded industry, we have already allowed the spread of genetically modified crops into our agriculture at great cost to our economy and with unknown effects on our bodies," said Kucinich. [Read the Article] Kucinich also introduced a bill requiring labeling of GMOs.
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