Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
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Iowa farmers who want to grow a variety of genetically engineered alfalfa will not be allowed to plant the crop this year.
A California federal judge ruled last week that the United States Department of Agriculture did not complete the proper environmental impact statement for Roundup Ready Alfalfa, a variety of biotech alfalfa developed by the Monsanto Company.
As a result of the ruling, all planting of Roundup Ready Alfalfa must cease until an environmental impact study is completed by the USDA, a process that can take several years.
According to Monsanto, approximately 220,000 acres of Roundup Ready Alfalfa were already planted before the ruling was issued.
Those acres will be allowed to remain in production and be harvested, but the ruling orders the USDA to make public the location of the existing Roundup Ready Alfalfa plots.
Andrew Burchett, spokesman for Monsanto, said that the biotech alfalfa is safe and he stressed that the ruling focused on the USDA's environmental impact study process.
"The court has agreed with the finding that Roundup Ready alfalfa is safe, there's no concern about that," said Burchett. "This is a procedural issue."
The case was brought to court by the Center for Food Safety, a Washington, D.C.-based environmental advocacy organization. The group argued that pollen from the genetically modified alfalfa could travel large distances and pollinate non-genetically modified alfalfa or organic alfalfa.
Roundup Ready technology in other crops like corn and soybeans have been widely used for over a decade in many areas of the country, including Iowa. Monsanto has also developed Roundup Ready technology for cotton and canola.
According to statistics from Monsanto, the quantity of acres in production of Roundup Ready corn and soybeans numbers in the tens of millions.
The genetically modified crops are immune to the effects of Roundup, an herbicide that inhibits the growth of weeds. The application of Roundup controls virtually all non-Roundup Ready plants in the field, resulting in healthier crops and higher yields.
According to Burchett, some of the benefits of Roundup Ready technology include superior weed control resulting in higher yielding crops, and an overall reduction in the use of tillage and all other pesticides. Burchett added that the active ingredient in Roundup, a compound called glyphosate, has less toxicity than other pesticides and breaks down very quickly in the soil.
The concerns raised about the biotech alfalfa stem mainly from a fear of cross-pollination with organic or non-biotech alfalfa.
According to Kevin Golden, attorney for the Center for Food Safety, alfalfa is an "open-source pollinator," a type of plant that spreads its pollen through honey bees.
Pollen from these types of plants can travel much further than pollen from corn or soybeans and could effectively contaminate neighboring alfalfa crops, according to Golden.
"The judge ruled that biological contamination may occur," said Golden. "The USDA will be required to do its due diligence and assess the potential for environmental harm."
In general, alfalfa is grown most often in Iowa as a highly nutritious feed for dairy cattle, beef cattle and other livestock animals.
Livestock producers raising their animals to meet organic standards require non-genetically modified feeds that are grown using organic practices.
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