Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumMonsanto’s new seeds could be a tech dead end
BY TOM LASKAWY
When I wrote recently about the next generation of genetically engineered seeds, I was in truth referring to the next next generation. The fact is that the next actual generation of seeds is already out of the lab and poised for approval by the USDA.
And Im not talking about Monsantos recently approved drought-tolerant seeds, which the USDA itself has observed are no more drought-tolerant than existing conventional hybrids.
No, the exciting new seeds are simply resistant to more than one kind of pesticide. Rather than resisting Monsantos glyphosate-based Roundup alone, they will now also be resistant to Dow AgroSciences pesticide 2,4-D .
A new pesticide, you say. How exciting! Except 2,4-D, despite its catchy name, has been around since World War II. Not only is it one of the most commonly used pesticides in the world, but it came to further prominence in certain circles when it was incorporated as a main ingredient in Agent Orange.
more
http://grist.org/industrial-agriculture/monsantos-new-seeds-could-be-a-tech-dead-end/
GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)proverbialwisdom
(4,959 posts)Monsanto: 'There is No Need for, or Value, in Testing the Safety of GM Foods in Humans'
By Ethan A. Huff
January 24, 2012
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Noam Chomsky was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize. (photo: Ben Rusk/flickr)
Remembering Howard Zinn
By Noam Chomsky
27 January 12
Editor's note: Today, January 27, is the second anniversary of the death of Howard Zinn. An active participant in the Civil Rights movement, he was dismissed in 1963 from his position as a tenured professor at Spelman College in Atlanta after siding with black women students in the struggle against segregation. In 1967, he wrote one of the first, and most influential, books calling for an end to the war in Vietnam. A veteran of the US Army Air Force, he edited The Pentagon Papers, leaked by whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, and was later designated a "high security risk" by the FBI.
His best-selling A People's History of the United States spawned a new field of historical study: People's Histories. This approach countered the traditional triumphalist examination of "history as written by the victors", instead concentrating on the poor and seemingly powerless; those who resisted imperial, cultural and corporate hegemony. Zinn was an award-winning social activist, writer and historian - and so who better to share his memory than his close friend and fellow intellectual giant, Noam Chomsky?
It is not easy for me to write a few words about Howard Zinn, the great American activist and historian. He was a very close friend for 45 years. The families were very close too. His wife Roz, who died of cancer not long before, was also a marvellous person and close friend. Also sombre is the realisation that a whole generation seems to be disappearing, including several other old friends: Edward Said, Eqbal Ahmed and others, who were not only astute and productive scholars, but also dedicated and courageous militants, always on call when needed - which was constant. A combination that is essential if there is to be hope of decent survival.
Howard's remarkable life and work are summarised best in his own words. His primary concern, he explained, was "the countless small actions of unknown people" that lie at the roots of "those great moments" that enter the historical record - a record that will be profoundly misleading, and seriously disempowering, if it is torn from these roots as it passes through the filters of doctrine and dogma...
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LiberalEsto
(22,845 posts)It is nasty stuff in my opinion. The chemical industry has been lobbying hard for many years to prevent it from being declared a carcinogen.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=226538
Thanks for posting!
Sinistrous
(4,249 posts)The biggest problem with agent orange was that, in the process of manufacturing 2,4,5-T, overheating caused the formation of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzodioxin (TCDD). See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange
2,4-D is an ingredient in such exotic products as Ortho "Weed-B-Gone".