USDA recently announced plans to allow Dow Chemical Company to begin marketing its new GM corn and soybeans, Enlist Duo, that is resistant to 2,4D. They also indicated they are leaning toward approving Monsanto’s new GM crops resistant to another herbicide, dicamba.

This is despite opposition  from farmers, scientists and health professionals who have voiced concerns about the risks that ac- company such a release.  Agriculture had moved away from 2,4D, which is a highly toxic and drift prone herbicide in favor of what were believed to be more benign products. Now that critical problems are arising with weed resistance to the most commonly used herbicides like glyphosate (Round Up), the companies are returning to their arsenal of older stronger herbicides. Specialty crop farmers and organic farmers  fear damages and crop  losses if 2,4D comes back into heavy use.

USDA  has acknowledged that if Dow’s GM seeds are approved, applications of 2,4D could increase by 200 to 300 percent by 2020.

According to the Center for Food Safety, “the biotech industry is about to repeat the same mistakes that got us into this predicament”. Agriculture experts warn that the weeds that became resistant to glyphosate will quickly become resistant to 2,4D and dicamba.   ❑

(From The Organic & Non-GMO Reporter, September 2014) Reprinted in the Sept-October 2014 Rural Papers