Oh He## No, They Did NOT Just Do That!

Round-Up Ready Grass??? We're not talking a few crops planted on designated acreage, we're talking this will be marketed for every lawn in the US. The spread of pesticide-resistant weeds will only occur faster, requiring the use of even more toxic pesticides and herbicides. And that's not even counting the potential long-term health effects of the GMO's themselves. :bash Stupid, paid-off, corrupt, over-worked, understaffed idiots in the USDA!

http://motherjones.com/environment/2011 ... le+Feed%29
Wait, Did the USDA Just Deregulate All New Genetically Modified Crops?
In a surprise move, the agency green-lights Roundup Ready lawn grass—and perhaps much, much more.
— By Tom Philpott
Fri Jul. 8, 2011 12:23 PM PDT

It's a hoary bureaucratic trick, making a controversial announcement on the Friday afternoon before a long weekend, when most people are daydreaming about what beer to buy on the way home from work, or are checking movie times online. But that's precisely what the US Department of Agriculture pulled last Friday.

In an innocuous-sounding press release titled "USDA Responds to Regulation Requests Regarding Kentucky Bluegrass," agency officials announced their decision not to regulate a "Roundup Ready" strain of Kentucky bluegrass—that is, a strain genetically engineered to withstand glyphosate, Monsanto's widely used herbicide, which we know as Roundup. The maker of the novel grass seed, Scotts Miracle Gro, is now free to sell it far and wide. So you'll no doubt be seeing Roundup Ready bluegrass blanketing lawns and golf courses near you—and watching anal neighbors and groundskeepers literally dousing the grass in weed killer without fear of harming a single precious blade.

Which is worrisome enough. But even more worrisome is the way this particular product was approved.

Soulshiner, not back in the midwest - we never watered our grass b/c we didn't need to (we also didn't spray for weeds - growing up on 18 acres of mostly tree-covered hillside means you don't care what else is out there, but there were plenty of other people with pretty ornamental lawns). It's only in the more arid climates that is necessary, and even if you have fescue as your grass out here, it still needs water. Yes, people waste it, but that's not the point of this article - it's about the chemicals people put on it to keep weeds from growing and the consequences we'll face from that.

Wow. Just goes to show how we can have vastly different experiences in the same region. Still, this isn't about watering, it's about GMOs.