Sunday, April 18, 2021
Corporate Compliance Insights
  • Home
  • About
    • About CCI
    • Writing for CCI
    • NEW: CCI Press – Book Publishing
    • Advertise With Us
  • Topics
    • See All Articles
    • Compliance
    • Ethics
    • Risk
    • FCPA
    • Governance
    • Fraud
    • Internal Audit
    • HR Compliance
    • Cybersecurity
    • Data Privacy
    • Financial Services
    • Leadership and Career
  • Vendor News
  • Jobs
    • Compliance & Risk
    • Information Security
  • Events
    • Calendar
    • On-Demand Webinars
    • Submit an Event
  • Downloads
    • eBooks
    • Whitepapers
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About
    • About CCI
    • Writing for CCI
    • NEW: CCI Press – Book Publishing
    • Advertise With Us
  • Topics
    • See All Articles
    • Compliance
    • Ethics
    • Risk
    • FCPA
    • Governance
    • Fraud
    • Internal Audit
    • HR Compliance
    • Cybersecurity
    • Data Privacy
    • Financial Services
    • Leadership and Career
  • Vendor News
  • Jobs
    • Compliance & Risk
    • Information Security
  • Events
    • Calendar
    • On-Demand Webinars
    • Submit an Event
  • Downloads
    • eBooks
    • Whitepapers
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
Corporate Compliance Insights
Home Governance

Who Should Regulate GMOs?

by Peter McGrath
December 18, 2015
in Governance
Who Should Regulate GMOs?

On October 15, 2014, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) granted a Dow AgroSciences’ petition to register “Enlist Duo” as a new pesticide product pursuant to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).  FIFRA requires the EPA to determine that the registration will not cause unreasonable effects to the environment.  Enlist Duo contains and mixes two previously registered pesticides 2,4-D and glyphosate.  The EPA’s registration allowed use of the new pesticide in six states on new types of genetically engineered corn and soy bean varieties bearing the trade name “Enlist,” which Dow genetically engineered specifically to be immune to those two pesticides.

In March 2015, the EPA amended the registration to allow Enlist for use in nine additional states.  Enlist Duo addresses an agricultural and environmental concern that itself arose from a prior generation of genetically engineered crops, specifically, herbicide-resistant “super weeds.”  Such super weeds developed in response to proliferation of earlier genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and the ability of the weeds to compete for space with those organisms also rendered the weeds resistant to traditional pesticides and herbicides.  Glyphosate-resistant crops allow growers to saturate fields with amounts of glyphosate and 2,4-D in excess of what had traditionally been used, killing super weeds without killing the crop.

Agricultural companies sell both the patented genetically modified seed and the herbicide used on it as a crop system.  The crop system allows a grower to cover a field with a product like Roundup, which will result in killing of all of the weeds, including the new super weeds, but allowing the growth of the genetically modified resistant plants.

Environmentalists immediately filed suit to challenge the registration, arguing that the EPA failed to assess adequately the new products’ health and ecological risks, violating both the FIFRA and the Endangered Species Act.  The environmentalists argued that runoff from fields doused with Enlist Duo could affect endangered species or endangered species’ habitats.  The environmentalists allege that the EPA failed to consult the all expert wildlife agencies before registering the new product.

In November, the EPA actually joined with the environmentalists to urge the court to vacate the EPA’s registration of the herbicide after the EPA discovered new data in Dow’s patent application suggesting that the registration application might have underestimated the product’s “synergistic” risks to endangered non-target plants.  The EPA told the court that Dow did not submit to the EPA during the registration process the extensive information relating to potential synergies Dow cited to the patent office.  Previously, the EPA claimed that Enlist Duo combines two well-studied herbicides and that the EPA’s assessment of 2,4-D exposures are far below levels of concern.  The EPA had said that it was not required to review potential effects of glyphosate prior to registering Enlist Duo, since that ingredient is already commonly used on genetically modified crops.  The EPA now states that it has become aware of previously existing information about possible synergistic effects that it did not consider and can no longer represent that its conclusions were correct regarding whether issuance of the registration met the standard required by FIFRA and whether the buffer zones included in the registration support the finding that the registration will have no affect upon threatened or endangered plant species.

This process is interesting because the EPA has gone beyond the application materials submitted by Dow to review the side effects of chemicals related to production of genetically modified plants.  It raises the question of whether other agencies should be taking those effects into account or should be automatically referring questions to the EPA when they arise in the course of the work of those other agencies.  That is, should the Patent Agency as a matter of course forward to the EPA all materials it receives relating to patented biological processes?  Should the Department of Justice or courts forward to the EPA all filings in patent or contract disputes regarding GMOs?

It is still possible that the EPA will ultimately approve registration of Enlist Duo in some form based on greater restrictions than were included in the initial registration.  The fate of Enlist Duo will most likely not resolve the issues relating to proper registration and use of GMOs, but it may provide some guidance as to the proper process to determine where and how such products may be used.


Previous Post

Star Wars and Levels of Due Diligence

Next Post

Tom Fox FCPA Training Series: Episode 1 — What is the FCPA?

Peter McGrath

September 17 - Peter McGrath headshotA frequent lecturer and author on diverse environmental issues, Peter McGrath, a member at Moore & Van Allen, brings to his wide-ranging clients extensive counseling and litigation experience with environmental issues arising in business and real estate transactions.

Related Posts

ESG reporting complications symbolized by knot on leafy background

We Asked the SEC and Others About the Impact of Standardized ESG Reporting. The Answers Were Complicated.

April 8, 2021
Deloitte’s Board Practices Quarterly: 2021 Boardroom Agenda

Deloitte’s Board Practices Quarterly: 2021 Boardroom Agenda

March 9, 2021
global map with land masses in green

2021 Global and Regional Trends in Corporate Governance

March 2, 2021
A director contemplates information at her desk.

Key Concerns for Directors in 2021: Recovery from COVID-19 Is Top Priority

March 2, 2021
Next Post

Tom Fox FCPA Training Series: Episode 1 -- What is the FCPA?

2Behavox and CCI webinar: Power of Ai in F
OneTrust offers download to demonstrate privacy management leadership
Top 10 Risk and Compliance Trends

Jump to a Topic:

anti-corruption anti-money laundering/AML Artificial Intelligence/A.I. automation banks board of directors board risk oversight bribery CCPA/California Consumer Privacy Act Cloud Compliance communications management Coronavirus/COVID-19 corporate culture crisis management culture of ethics cyber crime cyber risk data analytics data breach data governance decision-making diversity DOJ due diligence ESG fcpa enforcement actions financial crime GDPR GRC HIPAA information security KYC machine learning monitoring regtech reputation risk risk assessment Sanctions SEC social media risk technology third party risk management tone at the top training whistleblowing
No Result
View All Result

Privacy Policy

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS Feed

Category

  • CCI Press
  • Compliance
  • Compliance Podcasts
  • Cybersecurity
  • Data Privacy
  • eBooks
  • Ethics
  • FCPA
  • Featured
  • Financial Services
  • Fraud
  • Governance
  • GRC Vendor News
  • HR Compliance
  • Internal Audit
  • Leadership and Career
  • On Demand Webinars
  • Opinion
  • Resource Library
  • Risk
  • Uncategorized
  • Videos
  • Webinars
  • Whitepapers

© 2021 Corporate Compliance Insights

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About
    • About CCI
    • Writing for CCI
    • NEW: CCI Press – Book Publishing
    • Advertise With Us
  • Topics
    • See All Articles
    • Compliance
    • Ethics
    • Risk
    • FCPA
    • Governance
    • Fraud
    • Internal Audit
    • HR Compliance
    • Cybersecurity
    • Data Privacy
    • Financial Services
    • Leadership and Career
  • Vendor News
  • Jobs
    • Compliance & Risk
    • Information Security
  • Events
    • Calendar
    • On-Demand Webinars
    • Submit an Event
  • Downloads
    • eBooks
    • Whitepapers
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Subscribe

© 2021 Corporate Compliance Insights