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EPA
Report Sides With NCGA on Monarch Butterflies (9-5-01)
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) has released a report stating Bacillus thruingiensis
(Bt) corn poses little risk to monarch butterflies, putting to rest
controversy stemming from a two-year-old Cornell University study that
asserted the Bt pollen was harmful to monarchs.
The EPA report said
while there is a small chance that one in 100,000 monarch caterpillars
could be affected by toxic corn pollen, research suggests even those
larvae will mature into healthy butterflies.
The National Corn
Growers Association (NCGA) has said in the past Bt corn poses no threat
to the Monarch Butterflies and NCGA Biotech Working Group Chairman and
Plain City, Ohio, corn grower Fred Yoder said he is glad to see the
EPA agrees.
"It's definitely
a positive," he said. "With this report, we can put this issue
behind us and move on. Growers need continued access to the technology,
and this is a big step towards that."
EPA`s conclusion
that the corn is relatively harmless to monarch populations is based
in part on field studies conducted last summer by the U.S. Department
of Agriculture (USDA) in Maryland, Iowa and Minnesota. Data from those
studies have not been published, but have been turned over to EPA for
review.
EPA Extends Bt Re-registration
Comment Period
EPA is currently engaged in a comprehensive reassessment of the time-limited
registrations for all existing Bt corn and cotton and has extended its
comment period. The EPA announced it is allowing until Monday, Sept.
10, to comment on the implications of the revised risk and benefit sections
of the reassessment, the draft Potential Risk Mitigation and Regulatory
Options paper, and the Bt Cry1F Corn Biopesticide Regulatory Action
Document (BRAD) for regulatory decisions affecting the Cry1F and other
Bt corn products.
Growers can quickly
submit their comments on Bt re-registration by clicking on the Action
Alert on the NCGA web site: www.ncga.com.
Last
reviewed September 5, 2001
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