Tell the USDA to reject BASF’s new genetically modified GMB151 soybean, a recipe for disaster.
INSECTICIDE-PRODUCING GMO
The new GMO soybean, if given nonregulated status by the USDA, would be the first insecticide-producing soybean grown in the United States. The BASF GMB151 trait expresses a novel, genetically engineered Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) protein, Cry14Ab-1, which damages the gut of the soybean cyst nematode when they ingest it. No other Bt protein on the market targets nematodes.
Bacillus thuringiensis is a species of bacteria that lives in soil and makes proteins that are toxic to some insects when eaten. Natural Bt is allowed as a last-resort insecticide in certified organic operations. Natural Bt as used on organic farms break down quickly in sunlight and can be washed off completely.
But when Bt toxin is genetically modified (GM) into crops, the genetically engineered Bt is expressed throughout the entire plant. The GM plant produces the insecticide and it cannot be washed off.
Despite industry assurances that GM Bt is safe, a 2018 peer-reviewed study found that GM Bt toxin Cry1Ac is immunogenic, allergenic, and able to induce anaphylaxis. The study also found that the GM Bt provoked intestinal lymphoid hyperplasia, a condition associated with food allergy, inflammatory bowel disease, and colon cancer. Another 2018 study found Bt toxins are linked to cell membrane death that leads to leaky gut. A 2020 report by Testbiotech uncovered that Monsanto company data shows that Bt proteins expressed in GM plants are significantly more toxic than natural Bt toxins.
This new GM Bt protein, Cry14Ab-1, has never before been in our food supply and has not been subjected to animal or human feeding studies. The health effects are unknown.
Numerous studies also show a range of problems with GM Bt beyond human and animal health. Peer-reviewed studies document ecological harms such as damage to soil health and negative effects on non-target species such as butterflies, bees, and aquatic organisms. Also, GM Bt crops have not reduced synthetic insecticide use as the industry has claimed. In fact, synthetic pesticide use has actually gone up because crop-damaging pests have quickly become resistant to GM Bt.
Lastly, GM Bt crops negatively affect organic farmers. Not only do GM Bt crops threaten to contaminate organic crops, but organic farmers are having one of the few natural insecticides available to them taken away due to Bt-resistant insects.
HERBICIDE-TOLERANT GMO
BASF’s GMB151 soybean is genetically engineered to tolerate the herbicide, isoxaflutole (pronounced EYE-sox-Ah-FLUTE-ole), manufactured by BASF and sold under the brand name Alite 27.
Isoxaflutole is classified as a probable human carcinogen and is linked to other health problems.
Chemicals like isoxaflutole are commonly known as bleaching herbicides. They rob plants of their ability to make antioxidants that protect delicate chloroplasts, the engines of photosynthesis, from the oxidative stress of sunlight. Isoxaflutole is one of a class of chemicals called HPPD inhibitors that block the production of the enzyme 4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase, which plants use to break down the amino acid tyrosine into homogentisic acid. Weeds use homogentisic acid as a raw material to synthesize the yellow and orange carotenoids and tocopherols they use as sunscreen. Without that protection, green-pigmented chlorophyll in a plant’s chloroplasts quickly degrades in sunlight. The result is a bleached and dead weed.
What’s unusual about this herbicidal mechanism of action is that mammals also break down tyrosine using the same HPPD enzyme. In humans, that enzyme is located mostly in the liver, so isoxaflutole has the potential to cause liver toxicity. Animal studies have also shown it can also be toxic to other organs and that exposure to the chemical in utero can result in developmental defects.
The herbicide is highly toxic to non-target terrestrial and aquatic plants and toxic to freshwater fish.
Isoxaflutole has been approved for use on corn since 1999. The herbicide is applied on less than 10% of corn grown in the U.S. But it has left a large environmental footprint because of its ability to leach into surface and groundwater, and accumulate in the environment. In 2004, scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey monitored 10 major rivers in Iowa and found the presence of isoxaflutole and its toxic degradation products in the water.
Last year, the EPA under then-Administrator Andrew Wheeler, approved isoxaflutole for use on isoxaflutole-tolerant GM soybeans in 25 Midwestern states and covering 90 million agricultural acres. The EPA opened a public comment period, but did not list the docket in the federal registry, preventing the public from knowing there was a public comment period.
DRIFT-PRONE HERBICIDE
Currently, about 600,000 pounds of isoxaflutole are sprayed on corn annually, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. This amount would rise substantially, into the millions of pounds, if the USDA approves BASF’s new GMB151 soybean, increasing contamination of surface and groundwaters.
Since USDA’s approval of dicamba-tolerant soybeans in 2015, millions and millions of acres of crops, trees, native plants and private gardens have been destroyed by dicamba herbicide, a volatile and drift-prone chemical known to travel far beyond its area of application.
Isoxaflutole, like dicamba, is very drift-prone and can travel thousands of feet from its target application area. Like dicamba-tolerant GM soybeans, the approval of isoxaflutole-tolerant GM soybeans and the resulting increase in isoxaflutole spraying will cause damage to other farmers’ crops and private property.
There is so much that is wrong about this new GM insecticide-producing, herbicide-tolerant soybean. Tell the USDA not to make the same mistake it made when approving Bayer-Monsanto’s dicamba-tolerant GM soybeans. The USDA must reject BASF’s isoxaflutole-tolerant GM soybeans.
The Public Comment Deadline Has Ended.
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