ACTION ALERT
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), about 94 percent of all cotton grown in the U.S. is genetically engineered. Not all of that cotton ends up in clothes. Cottonseed oil is used in a long list of foods, including mayonnaise, salad dressings, cereals, breads and snack foods.
Cotton is already the world’s ‘dirtiest’ crop, due to its heavy use of pesticides. Now Dow wants to make cotton even more toxic, by unleashing a new genetically engineered cotton that resists the deadly 2, 4-D herbicide.
Dow’s 2,4-D is one of the two toxins used to make Agent Orange, the deadly chemical sprayed in Vietnam during the 1960s and known to be responsible for a host of severe illnesses and birth defects.
If the USDA approves Dow’s new 2,4-D-resistant cotton, farmers will start spraying massive amounts of 2,4-D herbicide on a crop that already accounts for more than its fair share of the global use of pesticides and herbicides.
TAKE ACTION: Deadline: Midnight May 19: Stop Dow’s New ‘Agent Orange’ Cotton!
Photo Credit: Fujoshi via Compfight cc