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SW: →Herbicide in Your Food: clearify
This exposure to herbicides will likely increase if Monsanto/Dow's new SmartStax™ technology gains approval which they predict by the end of the decade. In addition to applications of glyphosate corn can also be doused with Dow's LibertyLink glufosinate herbicide [http://news.dow.com/dow_news/corporate/2007/20070914a.htm]. SmartStax will combine ("stack") eight different genes for insect control and herbicide tolerance. The benefit for Monsanto will be increasing control of the market and greater profit, "Stacking traits not only provides farmers with one-stop
shopping, ''it represents incremental margin on a bag of seed corn for Monsanto''" says Monsanto's Robert Fraley [http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-08-2003/0001942873&EDATE=]. Further, tolerance of other herbicides, such as [http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=BEEC59D8-E7F2-99DF-399F4FBCDAD2FC74&sc=I100322 dicamba] will likely be added in time. Though applications of dicamba is meant to alternate with glyphosate as a response to resistance. Unfortunately however, engineered crop volunteers and weeds are even evolving resistance to ''multiple herbicides'' requiring ever stronger chemicals to kill [http://www.i-sis.org.uk/whatlurk.php]. Says Tom Philpott about another possible the glyphosate/glufosinate combination, "Wow. So you’d get farmers dousing their fields with not one but two broad-spectrum herbicides—blotting out biodiversity while conjuring up a few super-duper-weeds that will need their own chemical/GMO 'solution' in the near future" [http://www.grist.org/article/2009-07-20-farmers-battle-weeds-chemical-treadmill-speeds/].
In another report by the Center ''[http://www.organic-center.org/reportfiles/Pesticide_SSR_2008.pdf Simplifying the Pesticide Risk Equation: The Organic Option]'', which quantifies and compares the exposures to hazardous pesticide residues on conventional vs organic produce, Dr. Charles Benbrook states that "recent USDA pesticide residue and food consumption surveys show that most people consume three to four residues daily just through [conventionally grown] fruits and vegetables. 'Accounting for residues in conventional milk, tap water and other foods, the average American exposes him or herself to ten to 13 pesticide residues daily'" [http://www.organic-center.org/reportfiles/Pesticide_SSR_Press_Release_FINAL.pdf].
