Monsanto Confirms Safety of Research Cotton in Texas

Monsanto Company reported the inadvertent harvest of a small amount of regulated Bt research cotton at a trial site in Dawson County, Texas.  Approximately two-tenths of an acre of research cotton was picked from a trial plot regulated by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). The research cotton contains a protein (Cry1A.105) which is present in YieldGard VT PRO™ corn. The protein has regulatory approvals in the U.S. and from various international regulatory agencies. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and USDA have confirmed that it poses no threat to humans or animals.

 “Monsanto has taken responsibility for this release and for resolving it in a manner that is satisfactory to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency,” said Jerry Hjelle, Ph. D., Vice President of Global Regulatory Affairs. “We take product stewardship extremely seriously, and we moved quickly to notify the USDA, FDA and EPA as soon as we became aware of the inadvertent harvest, following established government procedures.”

See Monsanto's media release at http://monsanto.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=666