Court Says No GM Sugar Beets Without Final EIS
by Dan Flynn
Food Safety News
May 24, 2011
http://bit.ly/iSZeHW
Up until now, court challenges to genetically engineered crops have mostly been
about process and procedure, not the merits of the brave new GM world.
But a decision last week out of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is going to
change all that, according to attorney George Kimbrell from the Center for Food
Safety. He says the court order "cements a critical legal benchmark in the
battle for meaningful oversight of biotech crops and food."
"Because of this case," Kimbrell said, "there will be public disclosure and
debate on the harmful impacts of these pesticide-promoting crops, as well as
legal protections for farmers threatened by contamination."
Tom Helscher, Monsanto's spokesman, says there is less to the decision than the
opponents claim. "As a result of subsequent court decisions and USDA actions,
continuation of the appeals had little consequence for Roundup Ready sugar beet
growers or seed companies," he said. "The (USDA) Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service has issued interim measures to allow the planting of Roundup
Ready sugar beets and farmers are planting their Roundup Ready sugar beet
crops."
The Ninth Circuit's summary order directs the U.S. Department of Agriculture to
conduct a "rigorous review" of the impacts of GE sugar beets engineered to be
resistant to Monsanto's Roundup herbicide.
USDA approved the use of so-called Roundup Ready sugar beets in 2008, and their
share of the market quickly grew to as much as 95 percent. Opponents, led by the
Center for Food Safety, initially challenged the USDA action in federal district
court in San Francisco.
They feared the Roundup Ready sugar beets will contaminate organic and other
crops that are not genetically engineered, including table beets and chard.
District Judge Jeffrey S. White agreed, and ordered USDA to write a full blown
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). By last August, Judge White had not only
stuck with his EIS order, but also rejected USDA's "partial deregulation" of GE
sugar beets base on an environmental assessment, and halted plantings.
It was Monsanto that appealed White's decisions to the Ninth Circuit, and that's
been dismissed.
USDA plans on finishing the EIS on GE sugar beets in 2012, at which time it will
be able to make a new decision on commercialization.
Vilsack has taken a "why can't we all get along" approach with interim measures,
hoping to deal with both the pro- and anti-GMO camps.
USDA limited GM sugar beet plantings to exclude environmental hotspots like the
entire state of California and western counties in Washington state. While
those measures were not welcomed by Judge White, they might be how USDA may keep
warring camps apart in the future. |
| The Genetic Engineering Blog is produced by Thomas Wittman and EcoFarm,
and supported by a generous donation from the Newman's Own Foundation. |
