This week, the Center for Food Safety (CFS) led a coalition of farmers, activists, and consumers in a public comment campaign addressing USDA’s latest plan to commercialize illegal GE Roundup Ready Sugar Beets (RRSB).  Last month, USDA released a proposal aimed at commercializing RRSB in spite of increasing evidence that RRSB will contaminate organic and conventional sugar beets, table beets, and Swiss chard, and have a variety of other environmental impacts.  USDA’s latest plan comes on the heels of a federal court decision ordering USDA to destroy illegally planted RRSB seedlings. 

It remains unclear whether or not RRSB root and seed crops will be allowed to be planted in 2011.  If USDA approves commercialization based on the conditions in the draft environmental assessment, CFS will challenge the proposal in court.  

“There is clear evidence of harm to the environment that USDA’s proposal ignores,” said Paige Tomaselli, Staff Attorney for the Center for Food Safety.  “If USDA continues to bow to industry pressure and permits further commercial production of RRSB as proposed, without first preparing an EIS, CFS will once again seek to halt the planting in court.”

Paul Achitoff, attorney for Earthjustice, commented: “The court has already found twice that USDA violated the law in allowing planting of Roundup Ready sugar beets, in addition to its violations for previous GE crops.  USDA’s pending proposal suggests it is poised to do so yet again.  Sugar beet growers who choose to rely on USDA’s expected approval to plant GE sugar beets in 2011 should know that they are taking a calculated gamble.”

Monsanto created “Roundup Ready” crops to withstand its Roundup herbicide (with the active ingredient glyphosate).  Growing previous Roundup Ready crops such as soy, cotton, and corn have led to greater use of herbicides.  It has also led to the spread of herbicide resistant weeds on millions of acres throughout the United States and other countries where such crops are grown, as well as contamination of conventional and organic crops, which has been costly to U.S. farmers.  There is further evidence that such herbicide-resistant crops may be more susceptible to serious plant diseases. 

In 2008, CFS, Organic Seed Alliance, High Mowing Seeds, and the Sierra Club sued USDA for deregulating Monsanto’s RRSB without complying with the National Environmental Policy Act.  USDA failed to conduct an environmental impact statement (EIS) before deregulating the crop.  On August 13, 2010, the federal court sided with CFS and banned RRSB until USDA fully analyzed the impacts of the GE plant on the environment, farmers, and the public in an EIS. 

Three weeks later, USDA issued permits to RRSB seed growers to allow seed stock production for continued commercialization of RRSB.  CFS again sued USDA, this time for illegally permitting a GE crop without any NEPA compliance.  On November 30, 2010, the court granted CFS’s motion for preliminary injunction and ordered the seed crop plowed under.

View CFS Comments to USDA

Legal Comments, Science Comments I, Bill Freese, Science Comments II, Martha Crouch