Court Orders Uprooting of Monsanto Biotech Sugar Beets

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Court Orders Uprooting of Monsanto Biotech Sugar Beets

_http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/nov2010/2010-11-30-093.html_

(http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/nov2010/2010-11-30-093.html)

SAN FRANCISCO, California, November 30, 2010 (ENS) - A federal judge today

issued a preliminary injunction ordering the immediate destruction of 256

acres of genetically engineered sugar beet seedlings planted in Oregon and

Arizona in September.

Judge White determined that the seedlings had been planted in

violation of federal law and regardless of his previous ruling that made

planting of GE sugar beets illegal until the U.S. Department of Agriculture

completes an Environmental Impact Statement, EIS.

Judge White isssued the injunction in a lawsuit filed by Earthjustice and

Center for Food Safety on behalf of a coalition of farmers and conservation

groups.

The lawsuit was filed on September 9, after the U.S. Department of

Agriculture revealed it had permitted the seedlings to be planted although a

court

ruling in August vacated the USDA's deregulation of biotech sugar beets,

based on the agency's failure to prepare an EIS.

The plaintiffs - The Center for Food Safety, Organic Seed Alliance, High

Mowing Organic Seeds, and the Sierra Club - had immediately sought a court

order to halt the planting.

Center for Food Safety attorney Kimbrell said, **Today's decision

is a seminal victory for farmers and the environment and a vindication of

the rule of law. The public interest has prevailed over USDA's repeated

efforts to implement the unlawful demands of the biotech industry.**

Half of the nation's sugar comes from sugar beets, and 95 percent of them

are grown using Monsanto's Genuity® Roundup Ready® sugar beets, which are

genetically engineered for tolerance to the herbicide glyphosate, the active

ingredient in the Monsanto pesticide Roundup.

Judge White ruled today that GE sugar beets could harm the environment and

consumers, noting that containment efforts were insufficient and past

contamination incidents were " too numerous " to allow the illegal crop to remain

in the ground.

In his court order, Judge White noted, " farmers and consumers would likely

suffer harm from cross-contamination " between GE sugar beets and non-GE

crops. **The likely environmental harm established by Plaintiffs is

irreparable,** the judge wrote.

On September 28 Judge White ruled that USDA's Animal and Plant Health

Inspection Service, APHIS, had violated the National Environmental Policy Act

by allowing the plantings without analyzing the potential environmental,

health, and socioeconomic impacts of growing GE sugar beets.

**The legality of Defendants' conduct does not even appear to be a close

question,** wrote the judge in today's ruling, noting that the government

and Monsanto had tried to circumvent his earlier ruling.

" Failing to conduct the required environmental review and depriving

Plaintiffs and the public 'of the opportunity to participate in the NEPA

process

at a time when such participation is required and is calculated to matter'

constitutes irreparable harm, " ruled Judge White.

Achitoff of Earthjustice, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, said,

" USDA thumbed its nose at the judicial system and the public by allowing this

crop to be grown without any environmental review. "

**Herbicide resistant crops just like this have been shown to result in

more toxic chemicals in our soil and water,** said Achitoff. **USDA has shown

no regard for the environmental laws, and we're pleased that Judge White

ordered the appropriate response.**

Judge White heard testimony from the parties during a three-day hearing in

November before issuing today's ruling.

USDA lawyers argued that the seedlings were separate from the rest of the

sugar beet crop cycle and had no impact by themselves, but the judge

rejected this argument.

He found that the law requires USDA to analyze the impacts of not only the

seedlings, but the rest of the Roundup Ready® sugar beet production

process as well, before any part of that process can begin.

In 2004, Monsanto Company and plantbreeding company KWS SAAT AG had

requested that APHIS deregulate the biotech sugar beets. Their petition states

that the GE beets should not be regulated because they are **unlikely to pose

a plant pest risk.**

After completing an Environmental Assessment, APHIS deregulated the GE

sugar beets as requested, effective March 4, 2005.

Five years later, 95 percent of the 2010 U.S. sugar beet crop was

genetically modified Genuity® Roundup Ready® sugar beets, Monsanto says.

But in September of 2009 Judge White found APHIS had unlawfully

deregulated GE sugar beets.

On August 13, 2010, the court vacated the deregulation determination,

ruling that APHIS' Environmental Assessment failed to consider certain

environmental and interrelated economic impacts.

The judge sent the issue back to APHIS for an Environmental Impact

Statement, a more extensive examination of the impacts of GE sugar beets. The

EIS

process is ongoing and the agency says it should be complete by spring

2012.

The August ruling made any future planting and sale of the GE sugar beets

illegal until APHIS complies with federal law.

But almost immediately after the ruling, the agency issued permits

allowing companies to plant seedlings to produce seed for future Roundup Ready

sugar beet crops, even though the crops are still illegal to grow, and no EIS

has been completed.

Growers rushed to plant the seed crop in Oregon and Arizona, and these are

the crops that must be uprooted.

In October, Monsanto and KWS submitted a request to APHIS for *partial

deregulation* of Roundup Ready® sugar beets. Their accompanying *Environmental

Report,* argues that they should be allowed to conduct the future

planting, harvesting, and interstate movement of GE sugar beet crops, both seed

and

root, **under conditions designed to ensure any risks posed by the

introduction of these sugar beets into the environment are thoroughly

mitigated.**

APHIS is now in the process of evaluating the partial deregulation

request, and the agency would have to issue special guidelines to authorize any

interim planting of the GE sugar beets while it completes the court-ordered

environmental impact statement and then makes a final decision.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2010.