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A coalition of environmental groups have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to ban further planting and distribution of genetically-modified sugar beets and sugar beet seeds distributed by Monsanto Co. The court papers filed Tuesday by attorneys for Earthjustice and the Center For Food Safety specifically ask the court to set a moratorium of all planting, production and use of the seeds and beets until a federal district court can fully explore a remedy for government deregulation of the crop.
The coalition filed the lawsuit, charging that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection service (APHIS) approved the glyphosate-resistant, commercially known as “Roundup Ready,” sugar beets without properly determining socioeconomic and environmental impacts. The groups fear the possibility of genetic contamination of organic and conventional crops, increased weed resistance to glyphosate-based herbicides, as well as choice limits on both farmers and consumers to grow or buy sugar beets or end products that are genetically-modified.
“We’re asking the court to halt all use of the genetically-engineered sugar beets and seeds, now and into the future, until the federal government does its job to protect consumers and farmers alike,” said Paul Achitoff, attorney for Earthjustice.
The foundation for yesterday’s filing dates back to September 2009, when a Northern California District Court ruled that APHIS had improperly approved Monsanto’s sugar beet product for commercial use. The court ruled that the government’s decision to deregulate Roundup Ready sugar beets “demonstrated that deregulation may significantly affect the environment,” and that the modified crop “may cross-pollinate with non-genetically engineered sugar beets and related Swiss chard and table beets.” APHIS has been ordered by the court to prepare a full Environmental Impact Statement on modified sugar beets.
“Monsanto’s gene-altered sugar beets were illegally approved by the Bush administration’s [Department of Agriculture]. The profound economic impacts on organic and conventional farmers, as well as the environment, were not assessed,” said Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety. “As a result, the planting of these crops should be halted to avoid further harm.”
The coalition wants the court to ban further use of the crop until the environmental impact is complete, a process that can take a year or more.
“[Oregon's] Willamette Valley is the prime region for organic chard and beet seed production,” explained Frank Morton, owner of Wild Garden Seed and grower of organic chard and table beet seed. “Without measures to protect farmers like from GE contamination, organic chard and beets as we know them are at serious risk of being lost.”
The modified beets grown for seed in this area of Oregon begin to flower as early as mid-May following a spring planting. The pollen from the crop, which is compatible with non-modified or organic seed crops, is likely to blow throughout the valley, creating a scenario of cross-contamination. Modified sugar beets are also a crop grown in neighboring Nebraska.
Because the court in California has previously determined that such a moratorium is appropriate for modified alfalfa seeds produced by Monsanto, there is a firm likelihood that the court will once again find at least partially in favor of the environmental groups. At the time of the ban on Monsanto’s modified alfalfa seed, only 1 percent of the estimated 22 million acres of alfalfa in the U.S. was planted with the crop. Planting of modified sugar beets, however, is much more prolific, with more then 90 percent of all planted crops believed to be modified, and providing roughly 50 percent of the county’s sugar.
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