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]
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Conflict of interest revealed in lawsuit
The International Center for Technology Assessment (ICTA) filed a 2003 federal lawsuit asking for an injuction 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 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 creeping bentgrass that he later reviewed in his role at the USDA. In paragraph 4, Dr. 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.
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]
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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
