Federal Judge Orders First-Ever Moratorium On Sale Of Genetically Altered Seed

USDA approval of genetically engineered alfalfa is vacated, seed sales halted

San Francisco, CA, March 12, 2007 - A Federal judge ruled today that the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) 2005 approval of genetically engineered (GE) alfalfa is vacated and ordered an immediate halt to sales of the GE seed. The ruling follows a hearing last week in the case brought by the Center for Food Safety (CFS) against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for approving GE alfalfa without conducting the required Environmental Impact Statement.

"We are pleased that the judge called for halt to sales of this
potentially damaging crop," said Will Rostov, a Senior Attorney for CFS. "Roundup Ready alfalfa poses threats to farmers, to our export markets, and to the environment. We expect the USDA to abide by the law and give these harmful effects of the crop full consideration."

The preliminary injunction ordered (PDF) by Judge Charles Breyer in the Federal Northern District of California today follows his ruling last month finding that USDA violated national environmental laws by approving GE alfafa without a full Environmental Impact Statement. Monsanto and Forage Genetics, the developers of the GE alfalfa seed, argued against the injunction. But while Monsanto and its allies claimed that delaying the sale or planting of their GE seed would harm farmers, the judge found otherwise. "Disappointment in the delay to their switch to Roundup Ready alfalfa is not an interest which outweighs the potential environmental harm…" posed by the GE crop, he wrote.

Today's decision is consistent with Judge Breyer's ruling of February 13th, in which Judge Breyer found that the USDA failed to address concerns that Roundup Ready alfalfa will contaminate conventional and organic alfalfa. The ruling noted that "…for those farmers who choose to grow non-genetically engineered alfalfa, the possibility that their crops will be infected with the engineered gene is tantamount to the elimination of all alfalfa; they cannot grow their chosen crop." Commenting on the agency’s refusal to assess this risk and others, the judge noted that "Nothing in NEPA, the relevant regulations, or the caselaw support such a cavalier response."

Judge Breyer will hold a hearing and is expected to decide whether to impose a permanent injunction in late April.

The Center for Food Safety represented itself and the following co-plaintiffs in the suit: Western Organization of Resource Councils, National Family Farm Coalition, Sierra Club, Beyond Pesticides, Cornucopia Institute, Dakota Resource Council, Trask Family Seeds, and Geertson Seed Farms.

In the Headlines

Several readers have requested that we include the news headlines in the main posts so that they will go out on the feed, rather than the sidebar of the blog. You wanted it...you got it. Enjoy!

USDA, you got some 'splainin to do. Casting more doubt on the agency's oversight, another variety of rice in Arkansas has been contaminated by a genetically engineered variety. The recent contamination, found in a popular non-GE variety called Clearfield (CL 131), is thought to be from an unapproved GE line. USDA is barring planting of all CL 131 seed until they figure out where the unidentified genes came from, and whether or not is has been approved for the commercial market. Facing seed shortages due to last year's contamination of another popular rice variety, Cheniere, growers in Arkansas are now facing a potential severe seed shortage. Clearfield 131 and Cheniere together represent 39% of the South’s certified seed supply, so the latest incident is raising serious concerns about the availability of sufficient amounts of uncontaminated seed as planting season nears.

Patents are for toasters. This story from the Memphis Commercial Appeal features CFS' own Science Policy Analyst, Bill Freese. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has rejected a key patent in Monsanto's Roundup Ready technology, possibly stripping Monsanto of its power to profit from licensing deals. The patent is one of four that the nonprofit Public Patent Foundation asked the patent office to review last fall, alleging that the patents were granted to Monsanto without merit. It's unclear what will happen with the other three patents under review, but we'll keep you posted.

LA Times hosts cloned dinner "taste test." As the LA Times reported Sunday:

"six intrepid diners agreed to participate in cloned beef's debut on the culinary scene in a private dinner convened by The Times. Several prospective diners declined the invitation. Eric Schlosser, author of "Fast Food Nation" and self-described omnivore, said: "I'd rather eat my running shoes than eat meat from a cloned animal." Spago chef Lee Hefter, who recently opened the Beverly Hills steakhouse Cut, agreed to host this dinner before abruptly changing his mind. "I don't want people to think that I would ever use it," he said. "I don't want to condone cloned beef. I don't want to eat it. I don't want it in my kitchen."

The Times' pretentious party to "taste the future of food" was ultimately held at the Tony Campanile restaurant. I don't know about you, but personally, I don't care whether or not you can taste the difference. Beef from cattle infected with Mad Cow disease doesn’t taste any different either. The concerns about cloned animals go far beyond whether or not my cloned steak will be as tasty as its conventional counterpart with my desired wine pairing. Perhaps all that "Bandol red" interfered with the "intrepid" diners' mental capacity to have a science or ethics discussion comparable to one that could be held by any high school debate club - or was it the Daphne Malvasia prosecco-style sparkling wine from Medici Ermete? Me, I'll take running shoes (and wine I can pronounce) with Schlosser any day, thank you very much.

Monsanto in the Middle. According to this story from NutraIngredients USA, Monsanto is filing a motion to intervene in a case recently won by CFS, calling on USDA to conduct a full environmental impact statement on Monsanto’s RoundUp Ready alfalfa. Monsanto said it decided to intervene "in order to give farmers the choice to use the technology." I've heard they also have several bridges for sale if you're interested.

Total Recall. DairyQueen has a great post over at the Ethicurean, "Why USDA & FDA Should Change Recall Protocols," addressing the paucity of information given to consumers when contaminated food is recalled, California's attempt to remedy the situation, and the possibility of USDA following California's lead. Where does the FDA stand? In the way.

Side note: In case you're unfamiliar with the Ethicurean, and you're thinking this is bound to be a dry read full of gross-me-out statistics, I give you this: "Why doesn’t the USDA come up with catchy names for its bacterial strains, a' la the Department of Defense? 0157:H7 could be known as Operation Gut Storm, for example." Genius.

This is Your Food on Drugs

The Washington Post published two interesting stories over the weekend concerning drug use and production in the food supply. In the first installment of "what the heck are they thinking?" FDA says it may soon approve a new drug for use in cattle, despite warnings against such approval by the American Medical Association, FDA's own scientists, and a myriad of health, consumer and food safety groups. The drug is part of a class of antibiotics that are very important to treating serious human illness, and scientists and health professionals warn that its introduction into the food supply would probably speed the emergence of microbes resistant to that important class of antibiotics, as has happened with other drugs. But FDA, in it's apparent unwavering adherence to the rules, claims it can't reject the drug on these concerns due to restrictive language in something called "Guidance #152." Anyone seen the movie Brazil? "Guidance #152?" It doesn't even have a dash or a stroke. It can't possibly be important enough to override the agency's clear directive to protect public health...wait. What's that clunking noise in the ceiling? (Update: Rick Weiss has a Q&A on the article in the WashPost HERE)

Meanwhile, the second Wash Post article has USDA backing the commercial production of a controversial variety of rice genetically engineered to produce pharmaceutical proteins. The rice, created by California-based Ventria BioScience, is set to be grown and processed in Kansas (where they don't grow rice commercially), after the company was chased out of other states, including Monsanto's stomping grounds, Missouri, and Ventria's home-state California. Ventria has developed three varieties of rice, each engineered with a different human gene to produce one of three human proteins. Two of them -- lactoferrin and lysozyme -- are bacteria-fighting compounds found in breast milk and saliva. The third makes serum albumin, a blood protein used in medical therapies.

Sounds yummy, doesn't it? But not to worry, USDA says everything will be fine. Never mind that unapproved GE "pharm" crops have contaminated conventional crops in the past; or that two strains of conventional rice have now been found to be contaminated with three different genetically engineered varieties; or that pesky StarLink corn incident. USDA's track record isn't exactly spotless, and was further tarnished by two recent court judgements that CFS won against the agency for not following environmental regulations on approving GE bentgrass and GE alfalfa, but I'm sure they'll do a better job this time. In case you are not convinced, USDA is accepting public comments on the plan until March 30th. You can submit comments online at www.regulations.gov, Docket No. APHIS-2007-0006.