The government approved cultivation of genetically engineered cotton and soybean varieties from Monsanto that tolerate the weedkillers dicamba and glufosinate. So-called super weeds that are resistant to glyphosate, a widely used herbicide known as Roundup, have prompted work on biotech plants that can be matched with other herbicides.
USDA said a Federal Register notice of its decision was scheduled to appear on Tuesday, the effective date for deregulation of the new Monsanto strains. The soybean strain tolerates dicamba, a broadleaf herbicide, and the cotton strain resists dicamba and glufosinate, a non-selective weedkiller.
“EPA is nearing completion of its concurrrent review of the new use of the related herbicides on these GE plants. It is expected that EPA will make its proposed regulatory decision in the coming months,” said USDA.
Monsanto said, “These weed management solutions will provide farmers with more consistent, flexible control of tough-to-manage broadleaf weeds.” It said it would announce soon its timeline for putting the seeds on the market. Reuters said Monsanto was waiting for Chinese approval of the new soybean variety and expected to have it in time to begin sales of the variety in 2016.
The environmental group Food and Water Watch said approval of dicamba-resistant varieties, following on recent approval of corn and soybeans engineered to tolerate 2,4-D weedkiller, was “simply the latest example of USDA’s allegiance to the biotechnology industry and dependence on chemical solutions.” The new varieties are sure to lead to additional herbicide resistance in weeds, it said.
An array of USDA documents about its multi-step consideration of dicamba-tolerant varieties is available here.
USDA also set a 60-day comment period on a request by Monsanto for commercialization of a GE corn variety with increased ear biomass. The comment period opens on Tuesday. The petition is available here.