By the Earth First! Journal Collective
Dow Chemical, the conglomerate known for plutonium leaks at its nuclear facility in Colorado, the chemicals napalm and Agent Orange, cancer-causing breast implants and the Bhopal disaster, is now setting its sights on the genetically engineered soy market.
Last week, Dow submitted an application to the Food and Drug Administration seeking approval for a new “first-ever, three-gene” soybean. The little Frankenbean will be tolerant of a Dow AgroSciences herbicides.
Dow is seeking to take over the market from Monsanto’s Roundup ready GE soy products which currently account for 90 percent of the soy acreage in the US.
Since the introduction of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready soybean in 1996 several species of weeds have developed a resistance to the GE plants glyphosate compounds and are now spreading rampantly throughout the Americas. Dow’s new product, the company says, will effectivly kill the newly adapted weeds, at least until they adapt again.
Dow has been enticing farmers and seed companies to a farm outside its headquarters in Indianapolis to show off its new product.