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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA)
published the following report on Friday, January 14, 2000:
Bt. CORN INSECT RESISTANCE MANAGEMENT
ANNOUNCED FOR 2000 GROWING SEASON
EPA has announced new measures for resistance
management in Bt corn. The additional measures to fully manage insect resistance for the
2000 growing season include: registrants must require that growers plant a minimum
structured refuge of at least 20 percent non-Bt. corn; for Bt. corn grown in cotton areas,
registrants must ensure that farmers plant at least 50 percent non-Bt. corn; registrants
will expand monitoring in the field as an early warning system to detect any potential
resistance, and will communicate voluntary measures that will protect non-target insects,
particularly the Monarch butterfly; and there will be sales and planting restrictions in
certain limited geographic areas for some products. The industry has agreed to the
Agency's conditions.
Dow AgroSciences and Mycogen Seeds support the need to
mitigate the development of insect resistance and risks to non-target insects. We seek to
steward our products properly so they continue to be viable in providing benefits to our
customers.
Our attention to stewardship has been illustrated
repeatedly, beginning when Mycogen and Ciba jointly and proactively submitted a voluntary
IRM plan at the time Event 176 was under review for commercial use registration with the
U.S. EPA. Also, in 1994 our Experimental Use Permit for Event 176 included resistance
management field experiments.
Now, with farmers more rapidly adopting this technology, we
recognize the need to adapt to changing conditions and new information. This resulted in
our meeting in early 1999 with the National Corn Growers Association and its member
farmers, and others in our industry to develop a common IRM plan that will minimize the
potential of insect resistance and risks to non-target insects, while assuring the
continual availability of this technology.
While recent concerns regarding the impact this technology
has on the monarch butterfly population have been expressed by certain groups, the most
recent scientific data release by the Monarch Butterfly Watch indicates that there has
been little or no effect on the Monarch Butterfly population and that there has been an
increase in the population. However, we support a cautious approach and are pleased that
EPA has accepted these elements of our proposed plan.
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