MoJo:Wait, Did the USDA Just Deregulate All New Genetically Modified Crops?

[hootinholler]

It's a hoary bureaucratic trick, making a controversial announcement on the Friday afternoon before a long weekend, when most people are daydreaming about what beer to buy on the way home from work, or are checking movie times online. But that's precisely what the US Department of Agriculture pulled last Friday.

In an innocuous-sounding press release titled "USDA Responds to Regulation Requests Regarding Kentucky Bluegrass," agency officials announced their decision not to regulate a "Roundup Ready" strain of Kentucky bluegrass—that is, a strain genetically engineered to withstand glyphosate, Monsanto's widely used herbicide, which we know as Roundup. The maker of the novel grass seed, Scotts Miracle Gro, is now free to sell it far and wide. So you'll no doubt be seeing Roundup Ready bluegrass blanketing lawns and golf courses near you—and watching anal neighbors and groundskeepers literally dousing the grass in weed killer without fear of harming a single precious blade.

Which is worrisome enough. But even more worrisome is the way this particular product was approved. According to Doug Gurian-Sherman, senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists' Food and Environment Program, the documents released by the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) along with the announcement portend a major change in how the feds will deal with genetically modified crops.

Notably, given the already-lax regulatory regime governing GMOs (genetically modified organisms, click here for a primer), APHIS seems to be ramping down oversight to the point where it is essentially meaningless. The new regime corresponding with the bluegrass announcement would "drastically weaken USDA’s regulation," Gurian-Sherman told me. "This is perhaps the most serious change in US regs for crops for many years."
...

Much more, including a cogent explanation...

I thought it was worth mentioning.

-Hoot

[Angry Dragon]

1. K&R for exposure

[pscot]

2. Vilsack was once named Biotech Governor of the Year

by an industry lobbying group. Now we know why.

[roody]

3. Join the Organic Consumers Association

or get on their email list.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/

[SpiralHawk]

4. Holy Freaking Genetically Mutant Planet, Batman. This is Big...

...and it appears to be distinctly against the desire and the will of the majority of citizens of These United States, but rather in skankulous, scuzzbucket, knee-bent, ass-slobbering, belly-groveling service to the BatShit Corporate Borg (R).

Keep this Mutant BatShit Thread kicked till the whole Mutant BatShit Story comes out...

[hootinholler]

5. You took me back to mychildhood with that one.

I have to wonder how many grasses are capable of crossing with bluegrass and bentgrass?

There was a prank by a college band where all the members had pockets full of grass seed of a different variety than the field they were playing on. When they marched into a formation of their school letters they dumped the seed and the following spring there is was.

-Hoot

[KoKo]

6. K&R....The "Mighty M" marches on...

[SpiralHawk]

7. Mighty Mutant?

Or Mighty MoJo?

[hootinholler]

8. I think he means Mighty Monsanto

:shrug:

At least that's what I got.

-Hoot

[Hissyspit]

9. Kick nt

[JohnyCanuck]

10. Roundup and birth defects. Is the public being kept in the dark?

Concerns about the best-selling herbicide Roundup® are running at an all-time high. Scientific research published in 2010 showed that Roundup and the chemical on which it is based,glyphosate, cause birth defects in frog and chicken embryos at dilutions much lower than those used in agricultural and garden spraying. The EU Commission dismissed these findings, based on a rebuttal provided by the German Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety, BVL. BVL cited unpublished industry studies to back its claim that glyphosate was safe.

snip

The Commission has previously ignored or dismissed many other findings from the independent scientific literature showing that Roundup and glyphosate cause endocrine disruption, damage to DNA, reproductive and developmental toxicity, neurotoxicity, and cancer,as well as birth defects. Many of these effects are found at very low doses, comparable to levels of pesticide residues found in food and the environment.

The need for a review of glyphosate is particularly urgent in the light of the shortcomings of the existing review of the pesticide, on which its current approval rests. In this report, we examine the industry studies and regulatory documents that led to this approval.We show that industry and regulators knew as long ago as the 1980s and 1990s that glyphosate causes malformations – but that this information was not made public. We demonstrate how EU regulators reasoned their way from clear evidence of glyphosate’s teratogenicity (i.e. possessing the ability to induce birth defects /JC) in industry’s own studies (the same studies that BVL claimed show the safety of glyphosate) to a conclusion that minimized these findings in the EU Commission’s final review report.

The German government and its agencies played a central role in this process. As the“rapporteur” member state for glyphosate,Germany was responsible for liaising between industry and the EU Commission and reporting the findings of industry studies. We show how Germany played down findings of serious harm in industry studies on glyphosate. It irresponsibly proposed a high “safe” exposure level for the public that ignored important data on glyphosate’s teratogenic effects. This level was accepted by the Commission and is now in force.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/57277946/RoundupandBirthDefectsv5

[hootinholler]

12. Thank you for that link

First I'd heard about a link to birth defects.

-Hoot

[QC]

11. Tom Ballsack was one of the first of a line of bad appointments. n/t

[Jakes Progress]

13. Now who is vilsack's boss? How much money can one

asshat chemical corporation contribute to a president's reelection campaign?

How's that for change you can believe in?

[Quantess]

14. Too late to recommend.

[pam4water]

15. Me too :(

[sulphurdunn]

16. In 2010, 466 agribusiness concerns

and 1,155 lobbyists spent $121 million getting what they want from the federal government. The biggest recipient was Uber Blue Dog Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)and chair of the Senate agricultural committee. She raked in a cool $1 million plus. :kick: