According to the Huffington Post, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) plans to introduce an amendment in Washington that would repeal Section 735 from the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2013, a provision that has put St. Louis, Missouri-based Monsanto in the sights of environmentalists around the world.Deep within the nearly 600-page spending bill, Section 735 includes language that lets biotech companies that experiment with genetically-engineered and genetically-modified crops test and sell lab-made products even if legal action is taken against them.“The provision would strip federal courts of the authority to halt the sale and planting of an illegal, potentially hazardous GE crop while the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) assesses those potential hazards,” dozens of farmers wrote the House of Representatives before the bill was passed in March. “Further, it would compel USDA to allow continued planting of that same crop upon request, even if in the course of its assessment the Department finds that it poses previously unrecognized risks.”But despite pleas from agriculturalists around the world, both the Senate and House approved the spending bill — with Section 735 in tow — and the act was signed into law just days later by US President Barack Obama.Since being passed in late March, the spending bill has attracted immense criticism from all different sectors, including small-time farmers, Tea Party activists and even members of Congress. According to Huffington Post, however, Sen. Merkley is expected to be the first lawmaker in Washington to walk into the Capitol with a plan to repeal the amendment. HuffPo reported on Thursday that Merkley is planning to introduce an amendment on a separate farm bill going up to vote shortly that will reverse the so-called ‘Protection Act.’Should the prediction prove correct, it would suggest a change of heart for Sen. Merkley. According to the Vote Smart Project, Merkley was one of 73 senators that voted in favor of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act when it went up for vote on March 22. Only 26 senators voted ‘nay’ during that hearing, and the House approved it shortly thereafter.Monsanto has called Section 735 “a positive step to ensure US farmers and our food chain are shielded from supply disruptions caused by litigation over procedural issues unrelated to sound science or the safety of biotech crops.” Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Missouri) told Politico earlier this year that he co-authored the language of the amendment along with Monsanto. Previously, Blunt received $64,250 from Monsanto to go towards his campaign committee between 2008 and 2012.Demonstrations are scheduled in 36 countries on six continents later this month for anti-Monsanto activists to come together and protest the company. Speaking to Bloomberg this week, Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant said his critics exercise a “strange kind of reverse elitism” fueled by social media campaigns to condemn his company.“Most of the people that become motivated to engage the political issues have become convinced that going down the road of genetically engineered foods is not the way to meet the needs of a food insecure population,” Grant said. “There is space in the supermarket shelf for all of us.” … Read More
Feds delay approval of new Monsanto crops over environmental concerns
Monsanto was awarded a big win on Monday by the United States Supreme Court, but another federal ruling made only days earlier brought some comparatively bad news to the biotech giant.The US Department of Agriculture announced Friday that they’ve ordered additional environmental impact statements (EIS) for herbicide-resistant crops that have been waiting for federal approval. Now Monsanto and the chemical company Dow will have to sit anxiously and await the results of those assessments before they are given the go-ahead to sell genetically-engineer plants that have raised serious environmental issues.At stake is the future for a variety of corn, soybean and cotton crops that have been genetically-engineered to resist two heavy-duty pesticides, namely 2,4-D and dicamba. Both Monsanto and Dow have been hoping to get the go-ahead to sell these crops, but ordering further testing will set the release date back to perhaps 2015.A number of farmers and environmentalists have opposed the selling of crops resistant to these chemicals, because the result could likely mean dousing fields with pesticides in unprecedented levels.”The danger that 2,4-D and dicamba pose is a real threat to crops…nearly every food crop,” Steve Smith, director of agriculture at Red Gold, told Reuters last year.Dr. Gina Solomon, a board-certified in Occupational and Environmental Medicine and Internal Medicine specialist, wrote of concerns stemming from the use of 2,4-D as a crucial component in an infamous chemical warfare campaign during the Vietnam War. “There’s no reason to continue allowing a toxic Agent Orange-ingredient in the places our children play, our families live and our farmers work. EPA must step up and finally put a stop to it,” she said.And although the Environmental Protection Agency refused a petition to ban the sale of these chemicals, the USDA has now said they think further investigation is warranted.Tom Philpott, a reporter for Mother Jones, broke down the significant of last week’s USDA decision to order more testing:“What’s going on here is that under the National Environmental Policy Act, all federal agencies, including USDA, are required to perform an EIS if there’s a chance that a regulatory decision will affect the human environment. But for years, the USDA did not issue such analyses as part of its process of approving GMO crops, and watchdog groups like the Center for Food Safety have repeatedly and successfully sued the department for failing to do so,” Philpott wrote.“The immediate effect will be a substantial delay in any final decision on approval,” added Philpott, who called the decision on the part of the Obama administration to delay a possible approval “such a surprise.” Only weeks earlier, the president signed into law an agricultural spending bill that included a provision that provides biotech companies with liability from future lawsuits filed over possible health hazards brought on by unregulated and untested GMO products.Before that bill was advanced out of Congress, farmers petitioned Washington to warn what that act could accomplish.“The provision would strip federal courts of the authority to halt the sale and planting of an illegal, potentially hazardous GE crop while the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) assesses those potential hazards,” they wrote. “Further, it would compel USDA to allow continued planting of that same crop upon request, even if in the course of its assessment the Department finds that it poses previously unrecognized risks.”In a statement delivered to Bloomberg this week, the Center for Food Safety said they saluted the USDA’s decision, but warned that it won’t necessitate an investigation as thorough as they’d like.“While we welcome this decision, it remains to be seen whether the agency will undertake the required hard-look analysis of the environmental and economic impacts of these crops,” Bill Freese, science policy analyst for the center, wrote in a statement.The Biotechnology Industry Organization, a group that represents makers of biotechnology drugs and crops, said it was “disappointed” by the decision and that the action “sets bad precedent for future consideration of safe and beneficial genetically engineered plant products.” … Read More
Florida scientifically engineers insects to fight incurable citrus disease
Huanglongbing, also known as citrus greening, has infected fruit-bearing trees in all 32 of Florida’s citrus-growing counties. The disease is caused by bacterium transmitted by insects called psyllids, which are nearly impossible to eradicate once they have settled. The small flying insects from Asia feed on citrus trees while depositing bacteria that starve them of their nutrients. Leaves turn yellow, roots decay, and bitter fruits fall off the dying branches prematurely.The disease has no cure, and is quickly sickening citrus trees across Florida, where it first emerged in 2005. The Sunshine State is the second-largest producer of orange juice in the world, and Floridians fear that their $9 billion citrus industry could soon run dry, the New York Times reports.“The long and short of it is that the industry that made Florida, that is synonymous with Florida, that is a staple on every American breakfast table, is totally threatened,” Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat who helped obtain $11 million for research to fight the disease, told the Times. “If we don’t find a cure, it will eliminate the citrus industry.”Florida’s citrus industry employs about 76,000 people, which would be out of a job if the trees stop producing eatable fruit. The industry has already taken a toll from a number of hurricanes, hard freezes and canker disease – which affects the vitality of citrus trees and also causes fruit to drop prematurely.But citrus greening is the largest threat to Florida’s oranges, and the US Department of Agriculture has downgraded its crop estimates for five months in a row, analysts told the Times. The harvest season isn’t even over yet and the latest estimate is already down 10 percent from the first. Between 2006 and 2012, citrus greening has already cost Florida’s economy $4.5 billion and the loss of 8,000 jobs.“We have got a real big problem,” Vic Story, head of a citrus-growing company, told the Times. “It’s definitely the biggest threat in my lifetime, and I’m 68. This is a tree killer.”As a result of the bacterial fruit-killer, some growers have sold their groves or abandoned them, while others have simply given up replanting lost trees until the industry looks more promising.But without a cure for citrus greening, there may be no hope for the industry. Recognizing the economic impact the collapse of this business, growers, researchers and lawmakers have spent millions on research for a cure – and plan to spend millions more.Over the past six years alone, citrus growers have raised and spent $60 million to create a research foundation seeking to eradicate the disease. And this month, Florida lawmakers approved an $8 million fund for greening research. Nelson is also pushing for a bill in Congress to establish a research trust fund using tax funds from imported orange juice.The research is becoming more important than ever as the disease spreads throughout the continental US. The disease-carrying psyllids have recently emerged in Texas, California, Arizona, Louisiana, Georgia, and South Carolina. The disease has already affected neighboring countries, including Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, and Belize.Researchers at Washington State University have this month instigated a $9 million, five-year project to develop a new population of psyllids, which would be termed “nypsyllids”, to replace the disease-bearing ones.“Our current strategies to control the psyllid are mainly focused on chemical control, parasites and predators that can provide some immediate control,” Harold Browning, chief operating officer for the project, told the Capital Press. The scientifically engineered insects would carry genes that make it impossible to transmit citrus greening. The bacteria that causes the disease can lie dormant for five years, but once the symptoms begin to show on fruit-bearing trees, it may be too late to reverse the effects. Asian citrus psyllids can kill a tree in two years, and Floridians are under the pressure of time to find a cure for the disease before it causes the catastrophic collapse of their $9 billion industry. … Read More
The Resident: Beemageddon could spell disaster for US
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‘Beemageddon’ threatens US with food disaster
Honey bees pollinate more than 100 US crops, including apples, zucchinis, avocados and plums, that are worth more than $200 billion a year. Since 2006, about 10 million bee hives at an average value of $200 each have been lost in what scientists call the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), according to a new report by the US Department of Agriculture.There are currently about 2.5 million honey bee colonies in the US, which is a drastic decrease from the 6 million that existed in 1947 and the 3 million that existed in 1990. Last winter alone, the honey bee population declined by 31.1 percent, with some beekeepers reporting losses of 90 to 100 percent. In the previous two winters, beekeepers lost about 22 percent of their populations.“Currently, the survivorship of honey bee colonies is too low for us to be confident in our ability to meet the pollination demands of US agricultural crops,” the USDA report states.California’s almond crop, which blooms toward the end of winter, would suffer the most. About 80 percent of the global almond supply comes from the Golden State’s orchards, and 70 percent of the state’s crop is marketed overseas.US beekeepers truck about 1.5 million out-of-state colonies to the almond orchards each year, which depend on the insect’s pollination. The colonies are tasked with pollinating about 760,000 acres of almond trees at the end of each winter. It takes 60 percent of all US bee colonies to pollinate the $4 billion crop.Zac Browning, a beekeeper, told NPR that the almond orchards have become “ground zero in commercial beekeeping” and that many beekeepers drive over from their home base in the Midwest.But with a bee shortage that gets worse every year, many of the almond orchards will never be pollinated, which could eventually cause a global almond shortage and economic consequences for the US.The USDA knows how the agriculture industry will be affected by the large-scale bee die-offs, but does not know why exactly they are dying in such numbers. The report cites “multiple factors… including parasites and disease, genetics, poor nutrition and pesticide exposure”, while also citing last summer’s drought as a contributing factor.“Undernourished or malnourished bees appear to be more susceptible to pathogens, parasites, and other stressors, including toxins,” the USDA report states.During CCDs, surviving adult bees abandon their hives, leaving behind the queen bee, brood and food stores.“Bees across the country are not in as good a shape as last year,” Eric Mussen, a University of California bee specialist, told the Christian Science Monitor. “When you stress them far enough, the bees just give in.”After large-scale honey bee die-offs each winter, beekeepers try to restore their populations in the summer. But with the populations dropping so low, the economic ramifications are almost unavoidable.The European Commission suspects that neonicotinoids, a class of insecticides chemically related to nicotine, might be responsible – at least partially – for the die-offs and the CCDs. Honey bees have also died off in unusually large numbers in Europe, prompting the commission to impose a two-year ban on neonicotinoids last month to give scientists time to review the chemicals’ impact on bee health.But US officials have stated that they don’t have enough evidence to ban neonicotinoids. And with a drastically decreasing honey bee population, ‘beemageddon’ might be just around the corner.“We are one poor weather event or high winter bee loss away from a pollination disaster,” Jeff Pettis, the USDA’s bee research leader, said in the report. … Read More
EU Announces Potential Ban on Neonicotinoid Pesticides Linked to Bee Deaths, Environmental Collapse
In a major victory for environmental preservation, the European Union has announced a potential history-making ban on neonicotinoid pesticides that have been linked to the death of bees worldwide. … Read More
How did Barack Obama become Monsanto’s man in Washington?
How did Barack Obama become Monsanto’s man in Washington? And when are anti-GMO activist groups going to stop saying they’re “shocked and disappointed” by the president? … Read More
