A 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.

Dow and Monsanto say the new chemical combinations and new crops that
tolerate those chemicals are badly needed by corn, soybean and cotton
farmers as weeds increasingly resist treatments of the most commonly
used herbicide – glyphosate-based Roundup.

“They
(farmers) need this new technology,” said Dow AgroScience Joe Vertin,
global business leader for Dow’s new herbicide-protected crops called
“Enlist.”

But critics say key ingredients in these
new herbicides – 2,4-D for Dow and dicamba for Monsanto – already are in
use in the marketplace and have proved damaging to “non-target” fields
because they are hard to keep on target. Wind, heat and humidity can
move the chemical particles miles down the road, damaging gardens,
crops, trees. Many farms have suffered significant damage in recent
years even though the chemicals are currently sprayed under tight
restrictions.

“These are the most dangerous
chemicals out there,” said John Bode, a Washington lawyer hired by the
Save Our Crops Coalition. Bode served as assistant Secretary of
Agriculture in the Reagan administration.