Crops genetically modified (GM, genetically engineered) to resist Monsanto’s weedkiller Roundup (glyphosate) aren’t the only GM crops designed to be grown with weedkiller. GRAIN tells us about a new such crop. It’s a soya (soybean, Glycine max) designed to be grown with a weedkiller called 2,4-D. The chemical and biotech giant Dow sells 2,4-D in several weedkillers, including one called Frontline.
The new crop, not yet licensed for release, is made by Dow. It doesn’t seem to have a brand name yet, being called by the not-catchy name ‘event DAS-44406-6’. For now I’ll call it Frontline Soya.
[Edit] There’s irony, intentional or not, in the warlike name of the weedkiller Frontline. 2,4-D was an ingredient in Agent Orange. That was sprayed on vegetation and trees during the Vietnam War and some people’s health is still affected by it.
Science on the Land 
2,4-D Isn’t that Agent Orange?
According to a box in the GRAIN article, Agent Orange contained 2,4-D along with 2,4,5-T which is no longer permitted in the States http://www.toxipedia.org/display/toxipedia/2,4,5-T
The box then mentions dioxins http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs225/en/ saying that these were responsible for some of the damage to human health when Agent Orange was sprayed, and saying that ‘some of today’s 2,4-D preparations are likewise contaminated with dioxins due to the way they are manufactured.’ I don’t know what’s being meant there. In fact, this story exposes my (lack of) chemistry knowledge in several ways.
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