Court Rejects Genetically Modified Sugar Beets

[Guest guest]

Court Rejects Genetically Modified Sugar Beets

By Bob Egelko

The San Francisco Chronicle, September 23, 2009

_http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_19177.cfm_

(http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_19177.cfm)

 

 

OCA Editors' Note:

OCA applauds our ally the Center for Food Safety _http://truefoodnow.org/_

(http://truefoodnow.org/) for this watershed moment in their efforts to

bring GMOs under the rule of law. The victory breathes new life into our

consumer campaigns for marketplace rejection of food brands that have indicated

they would use GMO sugar.

TAKE ACTION:

_http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/642/t/1961/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=1

2700_

(http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/642/t/1961/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=12700\

)

Write to American Crystal Sugar President David Berg who believes

consumers acceptance of GMO sugar be " a big nonevent. " Tell him you're joining

the

boycott of foods with non-organic sugar.

 

 

SAN FRANCISCO -- The government illegally approved a genetically modified,

herbicide-resistant strain of sugar beets without adequately considering

the chance they will contaminate other beet crops, a federal judge in San

Francisco has ruled.

 

 

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White rejected the U.S.

Department of Agriculture's decision in 2005 to allow Monsanto Co. to sell the

sugar beets, known as " Roundup-Ready " because they are engineered to coexist

with Monsanto's Roundup herbicide.

 

 

Sugar beets produce 30 percent of the world's sugar and, according to

consumer groups, half the granulated sugar in the United States. This year's

planting, centered in Oregon's Willamette Valley, is the first to include a

full crop of the Monsanto product.

 

 

White said the USDA, in concluding that the new crop would have no

significant environmental effects, discounted the likelihood that wind-borne

pollen would spread to fields where conventional sugar beets, table beets and

the beet variety known as Swiss chard are grown.

 

 

Planting genetically modified sugar beets has a " significant effect " on

the environment, White said in his ruling Monday, because of " the potential

elimination of a farmer's choice to grow non-genetically engineered crops,

or a consumer's choice to eat non-genetically engineered food. "

 

 

He said the department must prepare an environmental impact statement,

which would include public input.

 

 

White did not immediately prohibit distribution of the genetically

modified sugar beets, but a lawyer for plaintiffs in the case said they would

ask

the judge for an injunction against sales until the review was completed.

 

 

The ruling " sends a very clear message to the USDA to protect American

farmers and consumers and not the interests of Monsanto, " said Kevin Golden, a

San Francisco attorney for the nonprofit Center for Food Safety, which

opposes genetically modified foods and supports organic farming.

 

 

Golden said the ruling could also affect herbicide use, because the

Environmental Protection Agency has allowed more herbicide spraying in areas

where the resistant crops are grown.

 

 

Representatives of the Agriculture Department and Monsanto were

unavailable for comment. Luther Markwart, spokesman for the 10,000-member

American

Sugar Beet Growers Association, said the group is " looking forward to

aggressively advocating " for farmers who want to use the altered beets.

 

 

The ruling followed a similar decision in 2007 by another federal judge in

San Francisco, Charles Breyer, to halt the nationwide planting of

Monsanto's genetically engineered strain of alfalfa until the USDA conducted an

environmental study. A federal appeals court upheld Breyer's decision last

year.

 

 

The department's 2005 decision on sugar beets acknowledged that pollen

from the genetically modified crop could spread to other beet crops. But the

USDA said farmers would not be harmed because they would still be able to

buy non-genetically modified seeds.

 

 

White, however, cited studies that said winds can carry sugar beet pollen

at least 2 1/2 miles, much farther than the voluntary buffer zones between

beet crops recommended by Oregon agriculture officials.

 

 

He said the department had failed to consider the economic effects of its

decision and had provided no evidence for its conclusion that

non-genetically modified sugar beets would remain available to farmers.

 

 

© 2009 Hearst Communications Inc.