{"id":127154,"date":"2014-07-01T16:54:28","date_gmt":"2014-07-01T16:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=127154"},"modified":"2014-07-01T16:54:28","modified_gmt":"2014-07-01T16:54:28","slug":"epa-drops-ball-24-d-gmo-crops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/sicence-technology\/epa-drops-ball-24-d-gmo-crops\/","title":{"rendered":"EPA Drops the Ball on 2,4-D for GMO Crops"},"content":{"rendered":"

Statement of Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cA coalition of organizations including Food & Water Watch,\u00a0the Center for Food Safety, Pesticide Action Network, National Family Farm Coalition,\u00a0Environmental Working Group, Just Label It, CREDO Action, SumOfUS and Organic Consumers Association has submitted over 500,000 comments to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) urging it not to approve Dow\u2019s registration for its new version of the pesticide 2,4-D. If approved Dow AgroSciences\u2019 \u2018Enlist\u2019 package, would include the Enlist Duo herbicide, composed of 2,4-D and glyphosate, that will be used with Enlist 2,4-D and glyphosate-tolerant corn and soybeans.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of recognizing that adding 2,4-D tolerant GMO crops and Dow\u2019s new 2,4-D formulation into our food supply is not a sustainable solution to the problem of herbicide-resistant weeds, the EPA could instead allow this herbicide\u2019s use in new ways. This will only address the glyphosate-resistant weed problem until weeds become resistant to 2,4-D. The minimal benefits of this expanded use of 2,4-D will very quickly be outweighed by its myriad negative impacts.\u00a0Susceptible plants and animals will be exposed to this dangerous herbicide,\u00a0and organic and non-GMO farms situated near farms growing Enlist crops may be affected through drift. This could ultimately affect consumers who will be exposed to foods from 2,4-D crops and to 2,4-D residues without even knowing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn its\u00a0Environmental Risk Assessment for 2,4-D<\/a>, the EPA found \u2018information gaps,\u2019 \u2018key uncertainties\u2019 and \u2018insufficient information\u2019 in the analysis of the impacts of 2,4-D on nontarget organisms. The agency even admitted concerns for direct and indirect effects on birds, mammals, insects (like honeybees) and plants. But despite the defined and undefined risks revealed by the EPA, the agency has decided that the approval of Dow\u2019s 2,4-D herbicide will \u2018not cause any unreasonable adverse effect on the environment.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAs for its human health evaluation, the EPA based all of its safety determinations on a study that was conducted by Dow AgroSciences. Not only is the study inherently biased due to its funding source, but basing health risks off of just one study ignores evidence of health impacts, ranging from reproductive toxicity to immunotoxicity, found in many of the other studies acknowledged by the EPA.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is abundantly clear that by approving this herbicide, EPA would be overtly violating its own mission to protect human health and the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

###<\/div>\n
Food & Water Watch is a nonprofit consumer organization that works to ensure clean water and safe food. We challenge the corporate control and abuse of our food and water resources by empowering people to take action and by transforming the public consciousness about what we eat and drink. This piece<\/a> was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Statement of Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter \u201cA coalition of organizations including Food & Water Watch,\u00a0the Center for Food Safety, Pesticide Action Network, National Family Farm Coalition,\u00a0Environmental Working Group, Just Label It, CREDO Action, SumOfUS and Organic Consumers Association has submitted over 500,000 comments to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) urging it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,13],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-127154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news","7":"category-sicence-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127154\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}