USDA: Bluegrass be damned

Date : 21 July 2011

Contents:

THIRD WORLD NETWORK BIOSAFETY INFORMATION SERVICE

Dear Friends and colleagues,

RE: USDA Will Not Regulate GE Kentucky Bluegrass

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced its decision not to regulate the Scotts GE Kentucky bluegrass - a strain which is genetically engineered to withstand glyphosate, Monsanto's widely used herbicide, also known as Roundup, stating that it is not considered as a plant pest and therefore does not fall under the Department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) biotechnology authority for regulation.

Secondly, APHIS also decided that the GE Kentucky bluegrass as well as the traditional Kentucky bluegrass would not be regulated as a Federal noxious weed under its authority adding that the weed risks posed by both genetically engineered and conventional varieties are "essentially the same."

The new regime laid out in the bluegrass announcement would "drastically weaken USDA's regulation" of genetically modified crops, according to Doug Gurian-Sherman, senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists'.

The decision ignited fears that the GE bluegrass would be widely adopted along with the use of Roundup Ready herbicides which have already been widely documented to have serious negative impacts on health and the environment.

With best wishes,

Third World Network
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