Monsanto Takes Center for Food Safety Legal Victory to Highest Court
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to hear a first-time case about the risks of genetically engineered crops. Named Monsanto v. Geertson Seed Farms, No. 09-475, the case before the high court will be yet another step in an ongoing battle waged by the Center for Food Safety to protect consumers and the environment from potentially harmful effects of genetically engineered (GE) crops.
The modified alfalfa seed at the heart of the dispute has been engineered to be immune to Monsanto’s flagship herbicide Roundup. Monsanto intervened in a 2007 federal district court ruling that the Department of Agriculture’s approval of GE alfalfa was illegal. The Center for Food Safety (CFS) filed a 2006 lawsuit on behalf of a coalition of non-profits and farmers who wished to retain the choice to plant non-GE alfalfa. CFS was victorious in this case – in addition CFS has won two appeals by Monsanto in the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit: in 2008 and again in 2009. Now, upon Monsanto’s insistence, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case.
“This is truly a ‘David versus Goliath’ struggle, between public interest non-profits and a corporation bent on nothing less than domination of our food system,” said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety. “That Monsanto has pushed this case all the way to the Supreme Court, even though USDA’s court-ordered analysis is now complete, and the U.S. government actively opposed further litigation in this matter, underscores the great lengths that Monsanto will go to further its mission of patent control of our food system and selling more pesticides.”
The federal district court required the Department of Agriculture to undertake an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) assessing the impacts of the crop on the environment and on farmers; the first time the U.S. government had ever undertaken such analysis for any GE crop. The court permitted farmers that had already planted to continue, but halted any further planting pending the agency’s re-assessment. That the EIS was required is not in dispute; the legal issue is only the scope of relief while USDA analyzed the impacts of the crop for the first time.
In October 2009 Monsanto asked the Supreme Court to hear further arguments. In response, the Center and the U.S. government separately opposed that request the following December. USDA completed the first draft of the EIS in December 2009.
“Although we believe a further hearing is unnecessary, we are confident we will again prevail, as the lower courts have already three times determined,” continued Kimbrell. “We hope that this grand stage will further inform the public, policymakers and the media about the significant risks of genetically engineered crops and the vital need to protect farmers and the environment.”
Alfalfa is the fourth most widely grown crop in the U.S. and a key source of dairy forage. It is the first perennial crop to be genetically engineered. It is open-pollinated by bees, which can cross-pollinate at distances of several miles, spreading the patented, foreign DNA to conventional and organic crops. Such biological contamination threatens the livelihood of organic farmers and dairies, since the U.S. Organic standard prohibits genetic engineering, and alfalfa exporters, since most overseas governments also reject GE-contaminated crops.
“We trust the Supreme Court will uphold farmers right to choose their crop of choice and protect us from the constant fear of contamination from GE crops,” said Phil Geertson, an alfalfa farmer based in Idaho.
Related:
To view the recently completed EIS on GE alfalfa, supplementary documents and comment on the EIS, click here
A 2009 study showed that the use of genetically modified crops, the vast majority Monsanto’s “roundup ready” crops, has caused over the last 13 years a dramatic increase in herbicide use, by 383 million pounds, and concomitant harms to the environment and human health.
The U.S. Department of Justice has undertaken an investigation of Monsanto regarding violations of anti-trust and monopoly laws and is set to hold public hearings in spring 2010.
Another 2009 study showed that, despite decades of promises and hype, GE crops do not increase yields.
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The Center for Food Safety is national, non-profit, membership organization, founded in 1997, that works to protect human health and the environment by curbing the use of harmful food production technologies and by promoting organic and other forms of sustainable agriculture. On the web at: http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org
Filed under: GE Crops, GE Food, Legal Actions
Genetic engineering is going against nature and does not increase the value of foods for human consumption. It also interferes with nature’s way to increase growth of plants and save the value of the foods. Such inerference can not be beneficial – for humans or the plants.
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I am so grateful to you and the other organizations that are concerned for this planet and the life on it. For that is what this is about. This is not just about food safety for humans. This issue concerns life on the earth. Any genetically modified crop has pollen that travels miles from it’s source, affecting every other plant and animal it comes in contact with in one way or another. This is a disaster to the earth as we know it. We have no idea what the effects of genetically modified plants on that which lives around them.. Bees, bugs, birds, the earth that these plants are growing from and go back to will all be affected. But does Monsanto care. Not in the least. Which is why they should be banned and disbanded.,
Are you aware of, or actively organzing resistance to, a proposed use of cast-off substances from coal fired plants? Apparently this substance contains chemicals that may be harmful. And certainly we don’t want them in the soil of organic produce.
Please respond.
THank you.
Someone mentioned a Facebook button. Great idea, but until there is one I cut and past the address into the link option under comments. It works great and gets the word out.
Genetic engineering is a farce and an insult at best. It trades quantity for quality and corporate profits for human health. We can not consider ourselves a civilized or developed people by any degree if we allow this kind of business to flourish in our country.
Kristi- the cast-off from Coal fired plants is a very serious issue & I thank you for bringing it to attention here. I think it only fair to say that we don’t want them in ANY soil or food there-of.
Fall-outs from chem-trail spraying of barium & other toxic heavy metals across the skies globally also poses exponentially serious contamination to our soils, waters, food as well as directly & indirectly to our bodies.
Kudos to Geertson Seed Farms for trying to fight the fight. What chance do that have when countless former Monsanto employees or attorneys hold high office in Washington? How is that even remotely fair. Maybe we should start there…pass a bill that states if you’ve worked for or with the National Cattleman’s Association, Tyson, Smithfield, Monsanto, etc etc etc you may not hold office in Washington. Maybe then the rest of us will have a fighting chance to be educated and aware of what is being sold as food to this country!