U.S. Supreme Court Overturns Ban on Monsanto's Biotech Alfalfa

8/9/2019 U.S. Supreme Court Overturns Ban on Monsanto's Biotech Alfalfa

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A tractor pulls a hay harvesting machine over an Idaho alfalfa

field. (Photo by Sam Sayer)

U.S. Supreme Court Overturns Ban on

Monsanto's Biotech Alfalfa

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WASHINGTON, DC, June 22, 2010 (ENS) - In the first

Supreme Court ruling on genetically engineered crops, the

high court Monday reversed a nationwide ban on the

planting of Monsanto Inc.'s genetically modified alfalfa. The

seeds are engineered to tolerate the company's Roundup

Ready herbicide.

In a 7-1 ruling, the justices overturned a lower courtinjunction that has prohibited farmers from planting

Roundup Ready alfalfa for three years.

The opinion of the court, written by Justice Samuel Alito,

stated that the district court abused its discretion when it

prohibited the planting of Roundup Ready alfalfa in 2007.

The case, Monsanto Co v Geertson Seed Farms, was

decided by only eight of the nine Supreme Court justices.

Justice Stephen Breyer did not participate because his

brother, District Judge Charles Breyer, had handled the

case in the district court for the Northern District of

California.

The sole dissenter was Justice John Paul Stevens, who

called the district court's order "somewhat opaque."

"It is troubling that we may be asserting jurisdiction and

deciding a highly fact-bound case based on nothing more

than a misunderstanding," Justice Stevens wrote in his

dissent. "It is also troubling that we may be making law

without adequate briefing on the critical questions we are

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passing upon."

In its ruling, the Supreme Court reversed the Ninth Circuit

Court of Appeals decision upholding the California district

court injunction and removed a temporary ban on planting

the pesticide-tolerant alfalfa.

In his majority opinion, Justice Alito held that the USDA's

abbreviated environmental assessment had satisfied the

review requirements imposed by the National

Environmental Policy Act.

The original plaintiffs, who became the respondents in

Monsanto's appeal to the Supreme Court, had claimed in

their 2006 lawsuit that the USDA's approval of the

genetically modified alfalfa violated the National

Environmental Policy Act.

Alfalfa,Medicago sativa, is a flowering plant in the pea

family cultivated for cattle feed and hay. The engineered

alfalfa was approved for planting by the U.S. Department

of Agriculture after it determined that a formal

Environmental Impact Statement was not necessary.

The district court disagreed and ordered the USDA to

conduct a full EIS after finding sufficient evidence that the

genetically modified crop could contaminate alfalfa in

neighboring fields, creating a "significant possibility of

serious environmental harm" and harming farmers'

livelihoods and the American alfalfa market for years into

the future.

The district court imposed a temporary ban on the crop

until the EIS could be completed, and the Ninth Circuit

deferred to the district court's findings, which the Supreme

Court has now overturned.

"This Supreme Court ruling is important for everyAmerican farmer, not just alfalfa growers," said David

Snively, Monsanto's senior vice president and general

counsel. "All growers can rely on the expertise of USDA,

and trust that future challenges to biotech approvals must

now be based on scientific facts, not speculation."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant

Health Inspection Service, APHIS, which began

deregulating Monsanto's Roundup Ready alfalfa seed in

2005, will now decide whether or not to allow regulated

planting to proceed while the agency completes an

Environmental Impact Statement.

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Bales of alfalfa on a Minnesota farm (Photo by Dee Pix)

Steve Welker, Monsanto alfalfa business lead, said, "This

is exceptionally good news received in time for the next

planting season. Farmers have been waiting to hear this for

quite some time. We have Roundup Ready alfalfa seed

ready to deliver and await USDA guidance on its release.

Our goal is to have everything in place for growers to plant

in fall 2010."

But the Center for Food Safety, which represented the

farms and environmental groups, said that while the court

reversed the injunction, it did not address an order vacating

a decision to allow commercialization of the crop.

"The justices' decision today means that the selling and

planting of Roundup Ready Alfalfa is illegal," Andrew

Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety,

said Monday.

"The ban on the crop will remain in place until a full and

adequate EIS is prepared by USDA and they officially

deregulate the crop," Kimbrell said. "This is a year or more

away according to the agency, and even then, a

deregulation move may be subject to further litigation if the

agency's analysis is not adequate."

The Supreme Court ruling upheld the environmental

groups' standing to bring future challenges.

"In sum, it's a significant victory in our ongoing fight to

protect farmer and consumer choice, the environment and

the organic industry," said Kimbrell.

Phillip Geertson, who in 1968 founded the Greenleaf,

Idaho farm that was lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, said the

ruling was "a great victory for us."

But U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat

who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he is

"disappointed by the Supreme Court's decision."

"In holding that the USDA did not need to conduct a full

environmental impact study before authorizing the use of a

new genetically modified seed, the Court has undermined

congressional efforts to protect organic and conventional

farmers and the environment," said Leahy.

"I believe the decision erroneously approves Monsanto's




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Alfalfa growing wild along a Colorado roadside (Photo by

Narrisch)

argument for a dangerous pollute-first, investigate-second

approach to enforcing federal environmental laws," he said.

Senator Leahy and Representative Peter DeFazio, an

Oregon Democrat, are circulating a Congressional sign-on

letter in the House and Senate asking the USDA to

maintain the ban on genetically engineered alfalfa to protect

the $1.4 billion organic dairy industry and other organic

and conventional farmers.

The sign-on letter states, "...consumers, farmers, dairies,

and food companies don't want GE alfalfa plants and seeds

released into the environment.

The letter points out that the USDA's Draft Environmental

Impact Statement admits that if genetically engineered, GE,

alfalfa is approved:

GE contamination of non-GE and organic alfalfa

crops will occur

GE contamination will economically impact smalland family farmers

Foreign export markets will be at risk due to

rejection of GE contaminated products

Farmers will be forced to use more toxic herbicides

to remove old stands of alfalfa

Geertson, whose farm has been producing alfalfa seed

since 1942, says he is opposed to Monsanto's GE alfalfa

seed because, "Alfalfa is not just a prolific field crop, but

feral alfalfa and weedy alfalfa is commonly found beyond

the fields by roadways, irrigation canals, backyards and

beyond."

"While proponents of Roundup Ready alfalfa downplay the

problems associated with contamination from GE alfalfa,"

he says, "once Roundup Ready alfalfa is grown

commercially throughout the country, the GE genes will be

virtually impossible to contain and will spread through the

environment threatening all conventional and organic

alfalfa."

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2010. All rights

reserved.



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U.S. Supreme Court Overturns Ban on Monsanto's Biotech Alfalfa