After a decade of development, Monsanto anticipates its genetically engineered Xtend soybean and cotton varieties will be its “largest biotech trait launch…with six times the number of varieties” that it offered in a previous set of GE strains. The new varieties, to go on the market in 2016, are designed to tolerate the herbicides dicamba and glyphosate. The new strains would help farmers combat “super weeds” that withstand widely used glyphosate, also known as Roundup. “Critics argue that…is actually a substantial leap back,” says the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting. The skeptics say dicamba will start the cycle of weeds becoming resistant to chemical controls.
The Center for Food Safety argues “commercializing these crops without any real mandatory controls on how they’re used is going to lead to a lot of environmental and potentially human health problems,” said the Midwest Center story. A Monsanto official says the new varieties “will help farmer achieve better harvests, which will help meet the demand to nourish the growing population.” While USDA has approved cultivation of the GE varieties, EPA has yet to decide if commercialization can proceed.