USDA Announces Deregulation of Herbicide-Resistant GE Cotton

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announces today the deregulation of Bayer CropScience’s cotton variety genetically (GE) engineered for resistance to the herbicides glyphosate and p-hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase (HPPD)-Inhibitors such as isoxaflutole. As part of the petition process, APHIS prepared a draft plant pest risk assessment (PPRA), draft environmental assessment (EA), preliminary finding of no significant impact (FONSI), and a preliminary determination of nonregulated status.  APHIS made these documents available for a 30-day public review and comment period on June 7, 2018.  After considering the public comments, APHIS has determined it is unlikely to pose a plant pest risk and is deregulating this variety of GE cotton.Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), APHIS conducted a thorough review of the potential environmental impacts and prepared a final EA. APHIS concluded in its final PPRA that this variety of GE cotton is unlikely to pose a plant pest risk to agricultural crops or other plants in the United States.