Farmers Skirt Rules on Gene-Altered Crops, Report Says

News Type: Event — Seeded on Thu Nov 5, 2009 5:22 PM EST

Article Source: The New York Times

As many as 25 percent of the American farmers growing genetically engineered corn are no longer complying with federal rules intended to maintain the resistance of the crops to damage from insects, according to an advocacy group's report released Thursday.

The increase in farmers skirting the rules, from fewer than 10 percent a few years ago, raises the risk that insects will develop resistance to the toxins in the corn that are meant to kill them, the report says. And it raises questions about whether the Environmental Protection Agency and the agricultural biotechnology industry are adequately enforcing the rules.

The data "should be a wake-up call to E.P.A. that the regulatory system is not working," Gregory Jaffe, the report's author, wrote in a letter Thursday to Lisa P. Jackson, the administrator of the federal agency. Mr. Jaffe is the biotechnology project director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington advocacy group that does not oppose genetically engineered crops but favors stricter regulation.

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{"commentId":10504968,"authorDomain":"rochart"}

rochart

The data "should be a wake-up call to E.P.A. that the regulatory system is not working,"

More great news from the government and the biotech industry!!!

{"commentId":10504968,"threadId":"717765","contentId":"3465997","authorDomain":"rochart"}

3 votes

#1 - Thu Nov 5, 2009 5:24 PM EST

{"commentId":10505678,"authorDomain":"rochart"}

rochart

It is interesting to see the spin on this that it is the farmers who are at fault.

{"commentId":10505678,"threadId":"717765","contentId":"3465997","authorDomain":"rochart"}

4 votes

#2 - Thu Nov 5, 2009 5:48 PM EST

{"commentId":10523010,"authorDomain":"whosthisguy"}

WDH

Good catch. Blame the farmers who have little choice but to use the biotech corn. If Monsanto didn't have a monopoly on the seeds there wouldn't be as many farmers feeling they need to be "skirting the rules."

{"commentId":10523010,"threadId":"717765","contentId":"3465997","authorDomain":"whosthisguy"}

2 votes

#2.1 - Fri Nov 6, 2009 12:26 PM EST

{"commentId":10510221,"authorDomain":"inghar2004"}

gladbutterfly

Indeed, rochart, it is very interesting to see how things are spinning around. I feel like I live inside a clothes dryer these days.

{"commentId":10510221,"threadId":"717765","contentId":"3465997","authorDomain":"inghar2004"}

2 votes

#3 - Thu Nov 5, 2009 8:51 PM EST

{"commentId":10512384,"authorDomain":"rochart"}

rochart

Further, how do we know that the first survey and report on the farmers processes were accurate? Who did the survey? The government or the biotech industry? One can't count and the other lies. You decide which is which.

The biotech industry has refused to allow peer review of its processes and testing on gmo. The government even allowed them to start using it without fully reviewing the tests themselves.

I suspect the industries biggest concern is that their gmo product lasted less than 10 years, oops, there go the profits! Now they have to explain that away and develop, as they have, a new product with two new genes. How long before mother nature adapts to this one? Not long I suspect.

All that and it happened in America, can't blame it on those uneducated African farmers.

All of that said, no one still knows what effect all this genetic engineering of food has on you and me.

{"commentId":10512384,"threadId":"717765","contentId":"3465997","authorDomain":"rochart"}

4 votes

#4 - Thu Nov 5, 2009 10:59 PM EST

{"commentId":10528622,"authorDomain":"inghar2004"}

gladbutterfly

Yes, the whole industry, and the people I've met who are involved in it, give me the serious creeps. There is no concern there for anything but profit, and that is evil, imho.

{"commentId":10528622,"threadId":"717765","contentId":"3465997","authorDomain":"inghar2004"}

2 votes

#4.1 - Fri Nov 6, 2009 3:45 PM EST

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ROCHART

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Farmers Skirt Rules on Gene-Altered Crops, Report Says

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