Virgil Meier
Dr. Virgil Meier is a former employee of Scotts Company, the Ohio-based grass seed company that partnered with Monsanto to petition to commercialize genetically modified Roundup Ready bentgrass in 2003. He later joined the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), where he was one of the scientists charged with assessing for commercial approval the same GM bentgrass that he was in charge of developing at Scotts.[1]
Meier was head of turf grass development at Scotts.[2]
Contents
Meier's conflict of interest revealed in lawsuit
The International Center for Technology Assessment (ICTA) filed a 2003 federal lawsuit asking for an injunction to halt field trials of the GM bentgrass until the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) completed a full environmental review. As part of its petition to the court asking for more time to oppose ICTA's suit, the USDA released in 2004 a declaration by Meier in which he admitted that prior to coming to work for USDA, he worked for Scotts, the company seeking commercial approval of the GM bentgrass, where he managed the development of the very same bentgrass that he later reviewed in his role at the USDA. In paragraph 4, Meier acknowledged that he was part of the USDA team that assessed whether to approve the Scotts product for commercial use and that he reviewed a number of the field tests challenged in the ICTA lawsuit.[3][4]
“The Meier declaration clearly calls into question the impartiality of the USDA in reviewing this product,” said ICTA Legal Director Joseph Mendelson III.[5][6]
The GM bentgrass has not been deregulated, as at March 2011.
Meier's GM bentgrass escapes
In 2010 Carol Mallory-Smith, an Oregon State University weed scientist, reported that Scotts Company's genetically modified bentgrass had spread from a test plot in Western Idaho to irrigation ditches in Eastern Oregon. Mallory-Smith went public with this fact after the Oregon Department of Agriculture and the USDA refused to alert the public to the escape.[7]
In early 2011 Oregon Department of Agriculture Director Katy Coba asked Scotts Company and USDA to reveal their plans for eradicating the escaped GM bentgrass. Coba in letters dated Jan. 5 wrote that the ODA "is very concerned about glyphosate-tolerant creeping bentgrass in Malheur County, Ore."
"Both the State Board of Agriculture and the ODA want to emphasize the importance of successfully eradicating the regulated (bentgrass) and are requesting a written response detailing the eradication plan," she wrote.[8]
Meier offers to "cut and paste" from Monsanto's material in writing environmental assessment of GM alfalfa
According to an article for Truthout by Mike Ludwig, Meier played a central role in the USDA's controversial deregulation of Monsanto/Forage Genetics' GM Roundup Ready alfalfa, which was finalised in January 2011. The approvals process began many years before, and Meier was reportedly on hand to help Monsanto:
- Back in 2003, USDA officials were concerned about “deficiencies” in Monsanto’s original petition to deregulate the GE alfalfa seeds, so they drafted a letter with about 90 questions for Monsanto. In several emails, officials working with the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) asked Monsanto officials to comment and “suggest improvements” on at least three drafts of the “deficiency letter.” Monsanto was happy to redraft the letter point by point.
- Monsanto withdrew its original petition in February 2004 after two undocumented conference calls with APHIS personnel. One month before the final petition was submitted in April, Monsanto regulatory officer Glen Rogan sent two emails to APHIS petition reviewer Virgil Meier indicating that Monsanto was willing to help draft the USDA’s EA of Roundup Ready alfalfa. APHIS conducts EA’s to assess the potential environmental impacts of proposed agricultural products.
- Rogan asked Meier to consult his boss and colleagues about the possibility of Monsanto assisting in the assessment because it would be “precedent setting.” Meier, who was in charge of writing the EA, accepted Monsanto’s help and said he would “cut and paste” information right from petition into the EA:
- If you are willing to provide assistance with the EA, I would appreciate it. At this time, no one has voiced concern with this so I am assuming that there is no problem. In a related matter, because I am supposed to write the EA, I would appreciate receiving an electronic copy of the petition (Word?) so I can do cut and paste which I think will speed up the completion of the EA.
- Bill Freese, a policy analyst with CFS [Center for Food Safety], said this kind of cooperation between federal regulators and the biotech industry is unacceptable. “It should go without saying that an applicant should play no role in APHIS’s regulatory review of an applicant’s product, beyond supplying requested information,” Freese wrote in a 2009 letter to the USDA.[9]
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Resources
Notes
- ↑ Jennifer Polis, GE grass threat to land and economy, The Portland Alliance, Nov 2004, acc 6 Mar 2011
- ↑ Richard C. Halverson, New grasses sprout roots - Outdoor Living: Special Supplement, Discount Store News, August 19, 1991, acc 6 Mar 2011
- ↑ Declaration of Virgil Meier, PhD. Civil Action N. 1:03cv0020 (HHK). ICTA et al vs Ann Veneman, Secretary, US Dept of Agriculture. US District Court, District of Columbia, 19 Oct 2004, acc 6 Mar 2011
- ↑ Jennifer Polis, GE grass threat to land and economy, The Portland Alliance, Nov 2004, acc 6 Mar 2011
- ↑ Jennifer Polis, GE grass threat to land and economy, The Portland Alliance, Nov 2004, acc 6 Mar 2011
- ↑ Center for Food Safety, Is USDA Stacking the Deck in Favor of Genetically Engineered Bentgrass?, acc 7 Mar 2011
- ↑ Mitch Lies, Agencies refused to publicize spread of biotech bentgrass, Capital Press, 11 Nov 2010, acc 6 Mar 2011
- ↑ Mitch Lies, Coba presses Scotts for bentgrass plan, Capital Press, 10 Feb 2011, acc 6 Mar 2011
- ↑ Mike Ludwig, Why Monsanto Always Wins, Truthout, February 22, 2011, acc 7 Mar 2011
