The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DewDiligence]

EPA approves MON’s Triple Pro Refuge-in-a-Bag (RiB) product for the Southern US corn belt:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/monsanto-expands-refuge-bag-portfolio-120000010.html

MON now has a RiB option for all three of its latest-generation corn products: Smart Stax (for the US Midwest corn belt), VT Double Pro (for the Western US corn belt), and VT Triple Pro (for the Southern US corn belt). The VT Double Pro RiB mix will be 90/10 (i.e. 10% conventional seed for insect protection) rather than the 95/5 mix for SmartStax and VT Double Pro; the diference is due to the prevalence of cotton growing in the Southern US corn belt, which makes insect resistance a bigger potential problem.

Al three Refuge-in-a-Bag products allow growers to omit allocating a separate physical refuge for insects and are thus a major convenience for growers. In addition, these RiB products produce greater yield than their non-RiB counterparts insofar as the proportion of conventional seed is reduced relative to the requirements when growers use a physical insect refuge.