Opponents of a new biotech corn variety developed by Dow AgroSciences are making a final push to get U.S. regulators to reject Dow's application to roll out herbicide-tolerant crops that critics believe will wreak havoc on the environment and endanger human health. Farmers, scientists and consumer groups scheduled a news conference on Thursday to urge U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to shut down Dow's regulatory application for a multi-crop project it calls "Enlist."
Read MoreA new biotech corn developed by Dow AgroSciences could answer the prayers of U.S. farmers plagued by a fierce epidemic of super-weeds. Or it could trigger a flood of dangerous chemicals that may make weeds even more resistant and damage other important U.S. crops. Or, it could do both.
Read MoreA coalition of more than 2,000 U.S. farmers and food companies said Wednesday it is taking legal action to force government regulators to analyze potential problems with proposed biotech crops and the weed-killing chemicals to be sprayed over them. Dow AgroSciences, a unit of Dow Chemical, and Monsanto Co. are among several global chemical and seed companies racing to roll out combinations of genetically altered crops and new herbicides designed to work with the crops as a way to counter rapidly spreading herbicide-resistant weeds that are choking millions of acres of U.S. farmland.
Read MoreA plan to speed up processing lines at U.S. chicken and turkey plants while cutting the ranks of government inspectors at the plants is prompting a backlash from consumer groups and food safety advocates who say unsafe poultry will go undetected. Several groups have demanded the U.S. Department of Agriculture revamp the program, which the government calls the "modernization of poultry slaughter inspection" act, and this week one launched an online petition to try to overturn the plan.
Read MoreGlobal agribusiness company Monsanto Co posted a higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Wednesday, as the company said early U.S. spring planting and a 15 percent sales jump boosted its full-year outlook. Shares sagged after an early jump amid a general market slump and as the company said results for the second half of the year would likely be flat.
Read MoreA group of U.S. family farmers said on Wednesday it is appealing its lawsuit against Monsanto Co to challenge the company's patents on technologies for genetically modified seeds. The group of organic farmers and seed dealers says its industry is at risk from Monsanto's growing market dominance.
Read MoreCritics of genetically modified crops are making new demands for government mandated labeling to identify foods on grocer shelves that contain ingredients from transgenic corn, soybeans and other crops. Labeling drives are underway on both state and federal levels, and on Tuesday several U.S. consumer groups released a survey and results of a petition drive that they say shows overwhelming consumer support for labeling of foods containing genetically modified organisms (GMO).
Read MoreScientists, environmentalists and farm advocates are pressing the question about whether rewards of the trend toward using more and more crop chemicals are worth the risks, as the agricultural industry strives to ramp up production to feed the world's growing population. The debate has heated up in the last several weeks, with a series of warnings and calls for government action including a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Read MoreEvery time someone calls former U.S. government scientist Gerald Zirnstein a whistleblower, he cringes a little. When he coined the term "Pink Slime" to describe the unlabeled and unappetizing bits of cartilage and other chemically-treated scrap meat going into U.S. ground beef, Zirnstein was a microbiologist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He made the slime reference to a fellow scientist in an internal - and he thought private - email. But that email later became public, and with it came an explosion of outrage from consumer groups.
Read MoreUtilizing biotech "drought-tolerant" corn to boost global food production would be a less-effective tactic than planting conventional corn and improving agronomic practices, a veteran plant scientist said on Tuesday. "The technology has gotten a tremendous amount of attention. We think undue attention," said Doug Gurian-Sherman, a plant pathologist and senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, in an interview at the Reuters Food and Agriculture Summit.
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