A court hearing to decide whether, or under what conditions, genetically modified sugarbeets may be grown while the federal government prepares an Environmental Impact Statement concerning their use is scheduled for August 13 at 9 a.m. with Judge Jeffrey White in Federal District Court, 450 Golden Gate Avenue, Washington D.C..
Appearing will be Earthjustice attorney Paul Achitoff and Center for Food Safety attorneys; and lawyers for Monsanto, the beet sugar industry, and the federal government.
In September 2009, federal district Judge Jeffrey White of the Northern District of California ruled that the U.S. Department of Agriculture had unlawfully approved Monsanto’s so-called “Roundup Ready” sugar beets, which are genetically engineered to withstand Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup, for commercial use. The court found that growing the sugar beets may cross-pollinate with non-genetically engineered table beets and Swiss chard and otherwise significantly affect the environment. The court then ordered the federal government to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) before again considering whether to allow the sugarbeets to be planted.
In March of this year, a coalition of organic seed growers and conservation and food safety groups asked the court to ban the genetically engineered sugar beets and sugar beet seeds while the EIS is being drafted. While Judge White denied the preliminary injunction, he indicated that he would consider some form of relief at the hearing now set for August 13.
Roundup Ready crops like corn, soy, alfalfa and sugar beets are designed to withstand repeated dousing with Roundup, which contains the active weed-killing ingredient glyphosate. This leads to overuse of the herbicide, which in turn has already caused Roundup-resistant weeds to develop on millions of acres of farmland. To battle this resistance, farmers often turn to older and more hazardous herbicides like 2,4-D, an active ingredient in Agent Orange.
Earthjustice and the Center for Food Safety are representing the Center for Food Safety, High Mowing Organic Seeds, Organic Seed Alliance and the Sierra Club, plaintiffs in the suit.
In a similar case decided in 2007, a judge banned Roundup-Ready alfalfa. Monsanto appealed that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which overturned it this year on narrow legal grounds.
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