Minn. farmers warned not to plant Monsanto's latest Roundup soybeans

[n2doc]

The E.U. has not approved the biotech seeds; the uncertainty could present export problems for U.S. farmers and grain producers.
By Tom Meersman Star Tribune MAY 23, 2016 — 5:29PM

Across Minnesota, grain buyers and sellers have been warning farmers this spring to be wary about planting Monsanto’s latest biotech soybean.

The product was launched in U.S. and Canadian markets for the first time this year, but it has not been approved yet for sale in the European Union. Traders and others say that uncertainty, if not resolved, will cause price declines, confusion and disruption in international trade.

“We’re making our farmers aware of the situation,” said David Kee, research director of the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association. “We do not encourage the planting of this because of the risk involved.”

The product in question is Roundup Ready 2 Xtend, a genetically modified soybean seed that is resisistant to a pair of herbicides called glyphosate and dicamba.

It was developed because weeds have become resistant to Roundup Ready varieties with traits that used glyphosate alone.

more
http://www.startribune.com/monsanto-s-latest-roundup-soybean-seed-raising-eyebrows/380552371/

[Blues Heron]

1. This part makes no sense

"
It was developed because weeds have become resistant to Roundup Ready varieties with traits that used glyphosate alone. "

Haven't the weeds become resistant to Roundup?

[n2doc]

2. The combination probably covers more weeds

If they sell one that only does 1 herbicide, weeds will get resistant to that one. They are selling seeds resistant to a combination of herbicides that includes roundup.

Of course, nature generally finds a way.

[Blues Heron]

4. I know, it just seemed like the author

was saying the weeds were becoming resistant to the soy plants themselves,not the herbicide.

[PSPS]

5. ... and dicamba.

[Mnpaul]

7. So now they will use Roundup and something similar to Agent Orange

Dicamba functions by increasing plant growth rate. At sufficient concentrations, the plant outgrows its nutrient supplies and dies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dicamba

Yum.

[arikara]

10. What kind of a sick mind

even thinks up this stuff.

[Shandris]

11. Interesting brand names.

"Hrm. I think we need a new brand name for this chemical! How about one that means DEVIL? I know that makes me confident about the food supply! Or perhaps Vanquish. Because a bloody battle is EXACTLY what I think of when I'm eating sweet peas! Oracle, perhaps? I know lentils make me foretell the future all the time..."

[womanofthehills]

14. the overuse of Roundup just like antiobiotics led to a big problem with resistant weeds

so now they want to use both herbicides together - Roundup and Dicamba

Just as the heavy use of antibiotics contributed to the rise of drug-resistant supergerms, American farmers’ near-ubiquitous use of the weedkiller Roundup has led to the rapid growth of tenacious new superweeds.

But farmers sprayed so much Roundup that weeds quickly evolved to survive it. “What we’re talking about here is Darwinian evolution in fast-forward,” Mike Owen, a weed scientist at Iowa State University, said.

Now, Roundup-resistant weeds like horseweed and giant ragweed are forcing farmers to go back to more expensive techniques that they had long ago abandoned.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/business/energy-environment/04weed.html?pagewanted=all

[oldandhappy]

3. Monsanto

[Dont call me Shirley]

6. monsanto, killer of the earth.

[womanofthehills]

8. Dicamba is drift prone & destroys other crops like tomatoes, potatoes, grapes

It is killing the crops of neighbor farmers. Farmers are angry.

Dicamba also inhibits the enzymes in your liver that help you detoxify chemicals.

[Person 2713]

9. ESP tomatoes . Farmers have asked the EPA to restrict its use

[womanofthehills]

12. Dicamba - very toxic - from 364lbs a yr to 20.5 million

For Immediate Release, April 1, 2016



EPA Set to Approve Use of Toxic Pesticide Dicamba for Newest GE Crops

Agency Opens Door to Massive Increase in Pesticide Use, Fails to Examine Threat to Endangered Species

PORTLAND, Ore.— The Environmental Protection Agency proposed a plan today to approve the use of dicamba on cotton and soybeans that are genetically engineered to tolerate the pesticide. Dicamba has been around for decades, but this new EPA decision would allow the herbicide to be sprayed directly on cotton and soybean crops – opening the door for annual dicamba use to jump from less than 1 million pounds to more than 25 million on these two crops.

The EPA, however, has admitted that every single taxon of threatened and endangered species – including birds, plants, amphibians and mammals – may be harmed by the massive increase in dicamba use. The agency has not yet complied with its obligation to consider impacts to these species under the Endangered Species Act.

“Once again the EPA is allowing for staggering increases in pesticide use that will undoubtedly harm our nation’s most imperiled plants and animals,” said Dr. Nathan Donley, a scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity. “Iconic species like endangered whooping cranes are known to visit soybean fields, for instance, and now they’d be exposed to this toxic herbicide at levels they’ve never seen before.”

Monsanto’s own conservative estimates predict that dicamba use on soybeans would go from 233,000 pounds per year to 20.5 million pounds per year and dicamba use on cotton could go from 364,000 pounds per year to 5.2 million pounds per year. Today’s proposal covers 34 states.

This next generation of crops has been genetically engineered to resist dicamba because the use of crops genetically engineered to resist glyphosate has resulted in the development of glyphosate tolerant superweeds, which now infest nearly 100 million acres of farmland in the United States.

“We can’t spray our way out of this problem. We need to get off the pesticide treadmill,” said Donley. “Pesticide resistant superweeds are a serious threat to our farmers and piling on more pesticides will just result in superweeds resistant to more pesticides. We can’t fight evolution — it’s a losing strategy.”

“I wish that today’s approval was just a bad April Fool’s Day joke, but the reality is that the EPA and USDA routinely make decisions that facilitate the overuse of pesticides, and these decisions are having tremendous negative consequences on the health of the planet and all its inhabitants,” said Donley. “It’s time to take a step back and reassess how we produce our food.”

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 990,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2016/dicamba-04-01-2016.html

[gratuitous]

17. Oh for pete's sake!

What is everyone's problem with a corporation dicking around with the food supply for fun and profit (mostly that second thing)? What could possibly go wrong? If they screw up one crop, another will come along to take its place because free market. Or something. Sure, maybe we can't spray our way of this problem like that hippie Donley says, but do you know how much money Monsanto will get in the meantime? Do you really hate capitalism so much that you'd rather eat?

[womanofthehills]

13. EPA LINK TO COMMENT ON DICAMBA BEFORE MAY 31, 2016

EPA Extends Comment Period on Proposed Decision to Register Dicamba for Use on Genetically-Engineered Crops

https://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=EPA-HQ-OPP-2016-0187

In response to requests, the EPA is extending for an additional 30 days the public comment period on the proposed regulatory decision to register dicamba to control weeds in cotton and soybean genetically engineered (GE) to tolerate dicamba. Public comments on the Agency’s proposed regulatory decision must be submitted no later than May 31, 2016. Comments may be submitted to the EPA docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2016-0187 at www.regulations.gov.

[bemildred]

15. So we are at the combination of antibiotics stage now.

Soon we will have a crisis over multi-herbicide-resistant weeds that nothing will stop, etc.

And they claim to be smart and scientists.

[Sentath]

16. Smart, not wise.

Maybe even "clever, not smart."

Decidedly on the side of "trained, not educated."

Capitalism, as currently constructed, thrives on solving the problem in front of it right now. It gets nothing from plotting a long term course towards stability and safety.