Monsanto Co. will pay a $2.5 million civil fine for failing to tell farmers about the Environmental Protection Agency's planting restrictions on its genetically-modified cotton.
The St. Louis crop biotechnology giant ran afoul of the EPA, which regulates crops that are genetically modified to make their own pesticide, by distributing its Bollgard insect-resistant cotton seed in several Texas panhandle counties despite EPA-imposed planting restrictions there.
Monsanto's Bollgard seed contains genetic material from a common soil micro-organism called Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt, which makes a natural toxin fatal to certain insects that attack crops such as cotton and corn.
As a condition of clearing Bollgard for commercialization, the EPA blocked the planting of the seed in some places where it might encourage the evolution of insects able to survive exposure to the Bt toxin, which is widely used by organic farmers. The grower's instructions prepared by Monsanto failed to alert farmers as required to the EPA's planting ban involving 10 Texas counties.
Monsanto disclosed its mistake, which began in 2002, to the EPA in 2007. The agency lifted the planting restrictions on the Texas counties in September 2008.
"People who manufacture and distribute pesticide products must follow the federal registration requirements," Steve Owens, of the EPA's Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, said in an EPA statement. "These requirements are critical to preventing the development and spread of insect resistance."
Monsanto, which is paying the largest civil penalty ever under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, said its error hasn't led to the development of Bt-resistant insects in those Texas counties, which are Carson, Dallam, Hansford, Hartley, Hutchison, Lipscomb, Moore, Ochiltree, Roberts and Sherman.
"We take full responsibility for this oversight, and we are committed to compliance with the terms of our EPA registrations," said John Chambers, a Monsanto cotton-seed executive.
In another development, Monsanto said Thursday it will do the international regulatory work necessary for U.S. farmers to be able to export a generic version of its genetically modified soybean through 2021—four years longer than promised in December. About 40% of U.S. soybeans are exported.
Copyright ©2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
