(Reuters) -
A coalition of more than 2,000 U.S. farmers and food companies said Wednesday
it is taking legal action to force government regulators to analyze potential
problems with proposed biotech crops and the weed-killing chemicals to be
sprayed over them.
Dow
AgroSciences, a unit of Dow Chemical, and Monsanto Co. are among several global
chemical and seed companies racing to roll out combinations of genetically
altered crops and new herbicides designed to work with the crops as a way to
counter rapidly spreading herbicide-resistant weeds that are choking millions
of acres of U.S. farmland.
Dow and
Monsanto say the new chemical combinations and new crops that tolerate those
chemicals are badly needed by corn, soybean and cotton farmers as weeds
increasingly resist treatments of the most commonly used herbicide -
glyphosate-based Roundup.
"They
(farmers) need this new technology," said Dow AgroScience Joe Vertin,
global business leader for Dow's new herbicide-protected crops called
"Enlist."
But critics
say key ingredients in these new herbicides - 2,4-D for Dow and dicamba for
Monsanto - already are in use in the marketplace and have proved damaging to
"non-target" fields because they are hard to keep on target. Wind,
heat and humidity can move the chemical particles miles down the road, damaging
gardens, crops, trees. Many farms have suffered significant damage in recent
years even though the chemicals are currently sprayed under tight restrictions.
"These
are the most dangerous chemicals out there," said John Bode, a Washington
lawyer hired by the Save Our Crops Coalition. Bode served as assistant
Secretary of Agriculture in the Reagan administration.
Unlike many
other protestors of new biotech crops, the coalition comprises many grower
groups that use and support biotechnology. This is not a biotech complaint,
they say, but one focused on the danger of the chemicals to be used with the
biocrops.
"The danger
that 2,4-D and dicamba pose is a real threat to crops...nearly every food
crop," said Steve Smith, director of agriculture at Red Gold, the world's
largest canned tomato processor, and a leader of the Save Our Crops Coalition.
The
coalition represents more than 2,000 farmers and groups such as the Indiana
Vegetable Growers Association, the Ohio Produce Growers and Marketers
Association, and major food processors Seneca and Red Gold.
Over the
last four years, more than $1 million in damages have been filed in lawsuits
and insurance claims by Midwestern growers who have suffered crop losses due to
2,4-D and dicamba that has drifted onto their farms, Smith said.
Those
losses would increase with the new herbicide-tolerant crops because farmers
would then be spraying more of the herbicides and later in the growing season,
the coalition says.
In their
legal petitions, the group is asking the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to
conduct an environmental impact study on the ramifications of a release of a new
2,4-D tolerant corn that is to be accompanied by Dow's new herbicide mix
containing both 2,4-D and glyphosate. It wants a similar environmental impact
statement on the dicamba and glyphosate herbicide tolerant crops being
developed by Monsanto.
The coalition
is also demanding the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conduct a
Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) meeting and appoint advisors to the panel to
address herbicide spray drift.
The legal
petitions are provided for as part of the regulatory process and require a
response from the agencies before petitioners can file suit to force a
response.
Dow's plans
to roll out as early as 2013 its 2,4-D tolerant corn and new 2,4-D based
herbicide as the "Enlist Weed Control System" is a hot button issue
for many groups because of high profile problems in the past with 2,4-D, which
was a component of Agent Orange defoliant used in Vietnam.
A separate
petition started by the Center for Food Safety says that 2,4-D, will
"likely harm people and their children, including farmers, and the
environment" and says USDA has not properly assessed the impacts of Dow's
plan for a new 2,4-D based crop system.
Dow
AgroSciences executives say the fears are unwarranted as their herbicide
formulation does not have the problematic "drift" and volatility
problems that other 2,4-D formulations have that cause farms even miles away to
be impacted when one farmer sprays the herbicide on his fields.
Dow says as
long as farmers use their formulation under their specifications, they would
not have the same problems associated with current versions of 2,4-D on the
market.
"We're
highly into stewardship and want to be sure the farmers get this right,"
said Dow spokeswoman Kenda Resler-Friend.
"Nobody
wants trouble with their neighbor. They want to do the right thing." Kenda
Resler-Friend.
Coalition
members say no matter how good Dow's formulation might be, generic versions of
2,4-D on the market will be much cheaper and many farmers will use those more
volatile versions on the new 2,4-D tolerant crops.
(Editing by Ryan Woo)
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