08.15.14

50 Democrats urge EPA, USDA to reject herbicide

E&E News
By Tiffany Stecker
August 1, 2014

Fifty Democratic members of Congress are asking U.S. EPA and the Agriculture Department not to approve a new herbicide and crops that are genetically engineered to tolerate it.

EPA is currently reviewing comments on the potential approval of Enlist Duo, an herbicide developed by Dow AgroSciences that combines a choline salt of 2,4-D and glyphosate -- the main ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup weedkiller. Concurrently, USDA is considering deregulating corn and soybeans that will not be affected when sprayed with Enlist Duo.

In a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the Democrats link the herbicide to cancer, reproductive disorders and Parkinson's disease, and say the weedkiller will likely promote more herbicide-resistant "superweeds." In his own statement, one of the letter's authors, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), said that 2,4-D is found in Agent Orange, the Vietnam War-era defoliant that caused health problems and birth defects in millions of Vietnamese.

"Right now, we are witnessing agribusiness attempt to wield its powerful influence over federal regulators. They want EPA and USDA to rubberstamp another set of genetically engineered crops rather than listen to the scientific community," wrote DeFazio in a statement. "We must stop this toxic treadmill because the health of our children and our environment is at stake."

Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) co-wrote the letter with DeFazio. The representatives also say USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the agency that regulates genetically modified crops, misinterprets the 2000 Plant Protection Act in the draft environmental impact statement for the corn and soybeans because it constrains the assessment to "plant pest harms."

This overly narrow and arbitrary interpretation of APHIS's authority is contrary to common sense and good governance principles, as well as contradicts prior acknowledgments by APHIS that its GE crop review is 'considerably broader' than its review of 'traditional' plant pests," states the letter.

The proposed registration for Enlist Duo would only apply to six states -- Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin -- where EPA found no effects of the herbicide on endangered species.

The Center for Food Safety warned the agencies not to make the decisions during Congress' five-week departure from Washington.

"If either USDA or EPA had any surprises in store over the August recess, they'd better think again," said Colin O'Neil, director of government affairs at the Center for Food Safety, in an email.

The link between 2,4-D and Agent Orange is erroneous, said Garry Hamlin, a spokesman for Dow AgroSciences, as the cause of the birth defects are linked to another chemical in the 1970s herbicide, 2,4,5-T. The Agriculture Department considers 2,4-D safe to use, according to its environmental assessment released earlier this year, and EPA has found that 2,4-D is not a carcinogen.