BioDemocracy News #35 Action Alert on Bt Crops August 15, 2001 by: Ronnie Cummins, Organic Consumers Association organicconsumers.org ________________________________________________________ Tell the EPA to Stop Allowing Bt Crops to Be Grown in the USA Contact the EPA today and tell them to end the registrations for all Bt crops! The deadline for comments to the EPA extended until Sep 21, 2001

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Stop Bt Crops

Despite public opposition from consumers and mounting criticism from scientists, the Bush Administration's Environmental Protection Agency is about to make the decision within the next two weeks to "re-register" or to continue allowing untested and unlabeled genetically engineered Bt crops to be grown on millions of acres across the USA.  Genetically engineered Bt corn, cotton, and potatoes have been spliced with bacterial DNA (Bacillus thuringiensis) to produce proteins that are toxic to some insect pests and butterflies. But as mounting evidence indicates Bt crops pose a serious threat to the environment, public health, and organic agriculture and should be taken off the market.

The Organic Consumers Association and two national coalitions of which we are a member, Genetically Engineered Food Alert <www.gefoodalert.org> and the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture, urge you to send comments to EPA before August 31, 2001.

To date, all commercialized genetically engineered insecticidal plants produce a type of Bt toxin, one of a family of related molecules produced by a soil bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). To develop what are known as Bt crops, a company clones the insecticidal gene from the bacterium and inserts it into a crop plant. The plant then produces the toxin in most, if not all, parts of the plant through all, or most, of a growing season.

For more details, see Sample Letter.  Please email or mail comments to EPA by August 31. You can put your comments right into the text of your email message. If you choose to send your comments as an attachment to your email message, make sure they are formatted in Word Perfect 6.1/8.0 or as an ASCII file. 

IMPORTANT! 

You must note the reference:  Docket Number OPP-00678B in your comments.  Put this docket number in the subject line of your message.