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NationofChange / Op-Ed
Published: Wednesday 9 May 2012
“The corporation and the feds claim that 2,4-D was not the deadliest ingredient of the killer defoliant and has not yet been proven to cause cancer in humans, so they’re pressing ahead to let this corporate-constructed seed be planted across America”
Making Chemical Giants Happy at Our Expense
Thanks to the blessings of nature and good farmers, you and I can enjoy such scrumptious delights as fresh corn-on-the-cob, popcorn and many other variations of this truly great grain. And now, thanks to Dow Chemical and federal regulators, we can look forward to "Agent Orange Corn." The chemical giant is in line to gain approval for putting a genetically altered corn seed on the market that will produce corn plants that won't die when doused with high levels of 2,4-D.
This potent pesticide was an ingredient in Dow's notorious Agent Orange defoliant, which did such extensive and horrific damage to soldiers and civilians in the Vietnam War. However, the corporation and the feds claim that 2,4-D was not the deadliest ingredient of the killer defoliant and has not yet been proven to cause cancer in humans, so they're pressing ahead to let this corporate-constructed seed be planted across America.
Dow now sells 2,4-D to help kill various weeds, but the herbicide is so strong that it also kills nature's own version of corn plants. Thus, Dow's genetic engineers went into the corporate lab and manufactured a new corn that's immune to the weed-killer. This would let the chemical maker profit from selling the patented seed, plus enjoying a huge increase in sales of its 2,4-D herbicide. How happy for Dow! Not so happy, though, for consumers worried about the untested long-term health consequences of the altered corn and the carcinogenic possibilities of ingesting more 2,4- D. Also, when sprayed, this herbicide can vaporize and spread for miles, killing crops that are not immune, poisoning the surrounding environment, and endangering the health of farmers and townspeople throughout the area.
Dow is hardly alone in pursuing its happiness at the expense of others. Indeed, rather than finding ways to cooperate with the natural world, America's agribusiness giants generally reach for the quick, high-tech fix in a futile effort to overpower nature.
Their attitude is that if brute force isn't working, they're probably not using enough of it.
Monsanto, for example, has banked a fortune by selling a corn seed that it genetically manipulated to produce corn plants that won't die when sprayed with a toxic weed-killer called "Roundup." Not coincidentally, Monsanto also happens to be the maker of Roundup, so it has profited from the seed and from the surge in Roundup sales that the seed generated.
Slick
But Mother Nature, damn her, has rebelled. So much of Monsanto's poison was spread across America in the past decade that weeds naturally and rather rapidly developed a resistance to it. As a Dow Chemical agronomist put it, "The real need here is to diversify our weed management systems." Exactly right! We need non-chemical, non-GMO, sustainable systems that work with nature
But, no, the Dow man didn't mean that at all. He was calling for more brute force in the form of his corporation's altered corn seed — the one that can withstand being doused with Dow's super-potent 2,4-D weed killer. Use this, he promises, and this time nature will surely be defeated.
Wrong. Nature doesn't quit. The weeds will keep evolving and will adapt to Dow's high-tech fix, too. By pushing the same old thing relentlessly, says an independent crop scientist, agribusiness interests "ratchet up (America's) dependence on the use of herbicides, which is very much a treadmill." So much unhappiness for so many just to make one corporation happy by getting much richer at our expense.
It's time to start listening to the weeds — and cooperating with Mother Nature. To advance this common sense approach, a national coalition is backing a California "Right to Know" initiative requiring GMO-altered foods to be labeled. To help, go to Organic Consumers Association at www.OrganicConsumers.org, and get involved in the coalition's Money Bomb Monsanto Campaign.
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ABOUT Jim Hightower
National radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of the book, Swim Against The Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow, Jim Hightower has spent three decades battling the Powers That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be - consumers, working families, environmentalists, small businesses, and just-plain-folks.
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By Aviva Shen
12 comments on "Making Chemical Giants Happy at Our Expense"
May 11, 2012 3:20am
@ RICHRBLAKE: What are the "essential oils," so no one makes a mistake in your recipe?
May 10, 2012 8:04am
It's unbelievable how companies like Monsanto are allowed to ruin our environment. They are contributing to the honey bee Colony Collapse Disorder in a big way. I created a children's book to illustrate this at www.losthive.com
May 09, 2012 8:27pm
BTW: To this day, children are still being born in Vietnam with birth defects caused by Operation Ranch Hand, which took place from 1961-1971. Not sure of the half life of 2,4 -D, although, somehow it appears to be present at harmful levels 40+ years after application.....
May 09, 2012 8:24pm
FYI: To this day, children are still being born in Vietnam with birth defects caused by Operation Ranch Hand, which took place from 1961-1971. Not sure of the half life of 2,4 -D, although, somehow it appears to be present 40 years after application.....
May 09, 2012 7:22pm
What is going on? 2,4-D has been used on corn world wide since the early 1950's. However if applied at the wrong time the crop will be damaged. Exactly the same as for wheat.
As there are plenty of weeds which have developed resistance to 2,4-D, to totally depend on 1 herbicide group will soon lead to failures as has happened with Glyphosate where it has been used as the only herbicide in the system as with tolerant crops AKO Roundup Ready. Also 2,4-D did not and does not control most grasses at the rates used, so it is a partial solution at best for weeds in corn, or other crops.
Re toxicity and hazard. This chemical will damage broad leafed crops, we know that, and care is needed other wise your insurance premiums will get too high for you to consider using it. Each big review by the major pesticide regulators of the world seem not to suggest that this product is unduly hazardous to the environment, users and consumers if used according to the registered labels. I have lost count of how many reviews I have seen in a 40 year career in weed science. The last one from Canada seemed to reduce its hazard some what.
Re vinegar or corn starch, very good for small areas, but for broad acre low value crops, comes down to how much more will the world pay for its food? Old herbicides are generic, and their cost is totally dependent on the price of oil, the cost of regulation to sell, and the sales process plus enough profit to pay the office staff to keep the company going.
Re salt, with soils which are fairly saline to start with it tends to do nasty things to soil structure etc.
However with electronic guidance systems, the spot spraying individual weeds with a concentrated solution a liquid fertilizer (currently used now in other ways) plus surficants made from canola oils etc could be quite useful for some weeds. Grass weeds which have their growing points underground are much more difficult target with non translocated chemicals.
Observing theses discussions makes me realize just how little the overall community actually knows about agriculture and how much science goes into it.
Sure Dow is trying to cash in on an opportunity as its newer herbicides are failing due to weed resistance.
Associating the term "Agent Orange' with this discussion is a highly emotive and is an effective way of generating opposition. It is a stark example of "the ends justifying the means". I suppose one could say 'never let the facts get in the way of a good story', the details are just too complicated.
May 09, 2012 5:22pm
Codex Alimentarius; The UN Global Takeover of Food and Health Freedom being implemented in the US by passage of HR 875 and S 425 and Special clauses inserted into the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), designed to force America to submit to Codex standards.
It is all about control of the food supply by ‘Big Pharma’ and ‘World Government’ under UN Control. It is global fascism endorsed and supported by the current white house occupier.
If you can control the food supply you can control the world. People will die because they cannot afford the synthetic seeds that produce the crops that kill them. Wake Up Folks and see the destruction being forced onto us, and it's not just by Republicans.
May 09, 2012 2:18pm
THE BIRTH DEFECTS EXPERIENCED IN VIETNAM AFTER THE USE OF AGENT ORANGE PROBLEMS WERE CAUSED BY A CONTAMINANT THE IN THIS HERBICIDE. DID ANYONE EVER ATTEMPT TO SUE THE SUPPLIERS (DOW
May 09, 2012 12:20pm
It is not enough to say "there's no proof". Herbicides are guilty until proven innocent. Correlation does not prove causation but the research must be done to prove causation. As long as the research has not been done, use should not be done. Dow and Monsanto are opposed to the research because it probably will prove harm. Things that kill some life likely harm all life.
May 09, 2012 12:08pm
I like the past comments. If people refuse to pay attention to this horror leashed upon our planet, than so be it, but for me and mine I will not be quite. And as Pikewich said the only thing we can hope for now is that the principals and stockholders of Monsanto and the stupid greedy farmers that continue to destroy their one land eat this stuff themselves. And when their lying in their cancer ridden death beds, their inherit-ants will learn to stop this shit.
Tippecanoe, Ohio
May 09, 2012 11:05am
The chemical companies are in cahoots with Congress and they will get their way no matter how dangerous it is to the population. Unfortunately, corporations own our political system and that is the way of the future. Unless we clean house and get all the lobbyists out of Washington, we will have this forever.
May 09, 2012 10:31am
America in decline.
As the end marches irrevocably forward, the level of insanity AKA corporate plunder of the rest of us increases beyond the imagination of the best fiction writers.
As Earnest Callenbach wrote in his last piece of writing "Last Words to an America in Decline" as he approached his death:
"As empires decline, their leaders become increasingly incompetent - petulant, ignorant, gifted only with PR skills of posturing and spinning, and prone to the appointment of loyal idiots to important government positions. Comedy thrives; indeed writers are hardly needed to invent outrageous events."
Rings true, doesn't it?
The upside in this is my hoping the people who create this poison will go ahead and eat it too. I am sorry for those who are caught by surprise though. The Big Pharma industry should experience a huge growth in sales of cancer drugs due to this wonderful application of defoliant on our food supply.
May 09, 2012 10:18am
Vinegar mixed with some vegetable oil, salt, a couple of essential oils and niacin is a very good weedkiller and completely nontoxic to the environment. A really good pre-emergent weedkiller is corn gluten which you should spread on your lawn in the winter and in the spring it will come in very strong and almost entirely weed-free.