Monsanto, DuPont unleash highly toxic, drift-prone dicamaba herbicide, endangering public health and North America's food supply

Wednesday, July 13, 2016 by: L.J. Devon, Staff Writer
Tags: dicamba herbicide, chemical agriculture, Monsanto

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(NaturalNews) Certain kinds of plant growth are becoming more invasive in farmers' fields. These super weeds are resisting the increased use of glyphosate and other herbicides. It has been going on for awhile now. Nature is fighting back. Weeds are finding new ways to adapt and survive.

Take for instance, the garlic mustard plant (Alliaria petiolata), which has become increasingly invasive in the Midwest in recent years. It is now recommended that farmers fight back this plant with cold weather application of glyphosate. This strategy also kills many great herbs, such as shepherd's-purse and common chickweed, to name a few.

As ecological diversity of plant life disappears and as super weeds take hold in the fields, biotech corporations have only one solution...

Abusive cycle continues with wide scale release of toxic dicamba herbicide

Corporations, like Monsanto and DuPont, believe the solution to the problems they create is to continue the abusive cycle of creating stronger herbicides - which only endanger public health, strip the soil of its minerals and nutrients, and kill off beneficial, native plant life.

How else would these biotech corporations continue to protect their monopoly on genetically modified seeds? How else would they continue to control farmers, agriculture, and the food supply?

Even though these corporations continue to destroy the environment and public health, regulators at the USDA continue to give Big Biotech the green light for unleashing new waves of highly toxic herbicides.

Like partners in crime, Monsanto, DuPont, and the USDA are coming together to unleash the highly toxic, drift prone dicamba herbicide for Monsanto's new line of GM dicamba-tolerant soybean and cotton seeds.

Monsanto always has another "answer" for the problems they create. The USDA even admits that these new dicamba-tolerant seeds are "not likely to provide for agronomic sustainability" but they approved their commercial release anyway.

The USDA predicts that there will be an 88-fold increase in dicamaba spraying in the next year. To prepare for wide scale dicamaba sales, Monsanto has already asked the Environment Protection Agency to increase tolerance levels for dicamaba by 150-fold for use on cotton seed.

Dicamba is very drift prone, threatening organic farming and all broad leaf plants

Virtually all broadleaf plants, including fruits, nuts, vegetables, and non-GM commodity crops face certain eradication in the presence of dicamba. Not only does this herbicide drift after it is sprayed, but it also evaporates in the days and weeks after application, drifting for miles before destroying another person's crops and plants. Dicamba is designed to disrupt the normal growth processes of plants through hormonal pathways.

Unleashing the new herbicide will have irreversible effects on native flora and fauna and will continue the chemical assault on human health. To make matters worse, dicamba has a bad reputation for drifting to neighboring fields and committing genetic damage to organic, non-GM crops. Organic farmers suffer crop losses because of herbicide drift. Herbicides like dicamba inadvertently yet predictably assault the property of organic farmers, hurting their yields and making it harder for them to keep their food free of toxins. Furthermore, organic farmers have no recourse in the courts because herbicide-doused, GM seeds are a protected, patented property. In fact, Monsanto has a sordid history of actually suing organic farmers, claiming that their GM technology is stolen when their GM seeds mate with plants from neighboring organic farms.

On top of all this, organic farms have to go through strict, expensive testing and validation to prove that their crops are indeed clean and free from biotech toxins. Shouldn't it be the other way around? Shouldn't toxic GM food be placed under heavy scrutiny, labeled with warning stickers, and strictly sanctioned off so it won't pollute real whole foods?

If herbicides and GM traits drift to organic fields, organic farmers should be able to sue Monsanto, not the other way around. Thankfully there are ways to grow clean food and protect it right at home, year round. These clean growing methods can and should be implemented on a large scale, but since the North American agricultural system is rigged and owned by the biotech industry, individuals will have to take matters into their own hands. Learning to grow your own food is a great way to make positive change happen, right at home.

Sources include:
AGWeb.com
GMWatch.org