Federal Judge Rules USDA Approval of Roundup Ready Alfalfa Illegal
Judge Breyer Orders Complete Environmental Review of Monsantos Gene-Altered Alfalfa
San Francisco, CA, May 3, 2007 - A Federal judge today made a final ruling that the USDAs 2005 approval of Monsantos Roundup Ready® alfalfa was illegal. The Judge called on USDA to ban any further planting of the GE seed until it conducts a complete Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the GE crop.
In the decision, Judge Charles Breyer in the Federal Northern District of California affirmed his preliminary ruling, which echoed the Center for Food Safetys arguments in their lawsuit against USDA, that the crop could harm the environment and contaminate natural alfalfa.
Todays ruling also requires Forage Genetics to provide the locations of all existing Roundup Ready alfalfa plots to USDA within 30 days. The Judge ordered USDA to make the location of these plots "publicly available as soon as practicable" so that growers of organic and conventional alfalfa "can test their own crops to determine if there has been contamination."
Todays decision is consistent with Judge Breyers ruling of February 13th, in which Judge Breyer found that the USDA failed to address concerns that Roundup Ready alfalfa will contaminate conventional and organic alfalfa. In calling today for a permanent injunction, Judge Breyer noted that contamination of natural and organic alfalfa by the GE variety has already occurred, and noted that "Such contamination is irreparable environmental harm. The contamination cannot be undone."
"This ruling is good news for organic farmers and most conventional farmers across the country," said Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director of the Center. "This crop represents a very real threat to their corps and their livelihood. This ruling is a turning point in the regulation of biotech crops in this country," Kimbrell concluded.
The permanent injunction ordered today by Judge Breyer follows his ruling last month finding that USDA violated national environmental laws by approving GE alfalfa without a full Environmental Impact Statement. Monsanto and Forage Genetics, the developers of the GE alfalfa seed, failed to convince the Judge that their interests outweighed the public interest in food safety, freedom to farm natural crops, and environmental protection. In fact, Judge Breyer specifically noted that Monsantos fear of lost sales "does not outweigh the potential irreparable damage to the environment."
The initiated the legal action resulting in todays ruling in February 2006, representing itself and the following co-plaintiffs in the suit: Western Organization of Resource Councils, National Family Farm Coalition, Sierra Club, Beyond Pesticides, Cornucopia Institute, Dakota Resource Council, Trask Family Seeds, and Geertson Seed Farms.
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