For related articles and more information, please visit OCA’s Genetic Engineering page and our Millions Against Monsanto page.

Dow is taking this step to counter claims that the new corn, called Enlist, could encourage the use of a powerful herbicide found in the Vietnam War defoliant Agent Orange, because Enlist is designed to be resistant to this chemical. Enlist’s opponents say that if this herbicide is more widely employed, the environment and public health would be endangered. More than 140 agricultural, consumer, environmental and public-health groups sent USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack a letter, which was signed by 365,000 people last month urging him to reject the crop.

In response to an article we ran in late April about this campaign, Dow dismissed as “hyperbole” criticism surrounding Enlist. The company said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determined 2, 4-D (the Agent Orange herbicide) poses “a reasonable certainty of no harm,” and that, in fact, a different chemical, 2,4,5-T, is the principal contaminant in Agent Orange.

“The surest way to increase per acre herbicide volume is to do nothing to solve the weed resistance problem,” Dow wrote. “Returning to agriculture as it was 20 years ago … will merely force farmers into additional cultivation connected with increasing erosion, agricultural runoff, soil compaction and fuel use with attendant contributions to air pollution.”