Difference between revisions of "Virgil Meier"
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“The Meier declaration clearly calls into question the impartiality of the USDA in reviewing this product,” said ICTA Legal Director Joseph Mendelson III.<ref>Jennifer Polis, [http://www.theportlandalliance.org/2004/nov/gecrops.htm GE grass threat to land and economy], The Portland Alliance, Nov 2004, acc 6 Mar 2011</ref> | “The Meier declaration clearly calls into question the impartiality of the USDA in reviewing this product,” said ICTA Legal Director Joseph Mendelson III.<ref>Jennifer Polis, [http://www.theportlandalliance.org/2004/nov/gecrops.htm GE grass threat to land and economy], The Portland Alliance, Nov 2004, acc 6 Mar 2011</ref> | ||
| − | The ICTA's lawsuit has | + | The ICTA's lawsuit has prevented the GM bentgrass from being deregulated, as at March 2011. |
==GM bentgrass escapes== | ==GM bentgrass escapes== | ||
Revision as of 23:42, 6 March 2011
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, according to Portland Indymedia activist Jennifer Polis. He later joined the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), where he was one of the scientists charged with assessing the GM bentgrass for commercial approval.[1]
Meier was head of turf grass development at Scotts.[2]
Polis writes that the International Center for Technology Assessment (ICTA) filed a federal lawsuit seeking to halt field trials of the GM bentgrass until the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) completed a full environmental review. As a result of the injunction, the USDA admitted that Meier, a former employee of Scotts, was one of the USDA scientists involved in evaluating the GM bentgrass for approval.[3]
“The Meier declaration clearly calls into question the impartiality of the USDA in reviewing this product,” said ICTA Legal Director Joseph Mendelson III.[4]
The ICTA's lawsuit has prevented the GM bentgrass from being deregulated, as at March 2011.
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.[5]
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.[6]
Contact
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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
- ↑ 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
- ↑ 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
