Center from Food Safety Goes to Court over GE Alfalfa
Center from Food Safety Goes to Court over GE Alfalfa
Blog by David Murphy
Food Democracy Now
Date: 3/24/2011 11:52:25 PM ( 13 y ) ... viewed 11298 times
FOOTAGE FROM
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Key Organic Industry leaders
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I see this as a movement Standing Up for Nature's Original Technology,
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WALT ROBB AND DAVID KIMBRELL
OF THE CENTER FOR FOOD SAFETY
The Center for Food Safety is featured in the video.
March 18 they launched a legal case to half the growing of GE Alfalfa.
Please go to the Center For Food Safety to support the Campaign.
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FROM THE FOOD DEMOCRACY NOW
BLOG by Dave Murphy
Farmers and Consumer Groups File Lawsuit Challenging GMO Alfalfa Approval
Posted by Dave on March 20, 2011
In what could be the best news for organic advocates in months, our friends at the Center for Food Safety and Earthjustice filed a lawsuit against the USDA last Friday, challenging the agency's recent approval of Monsanto's genetically modified (GMO) alfalfa.
Center for Food Safety and their allies are arguing that the Obama administration's approval is not only unwise, since 93% of alfalfa hay planted in the U.S. is grown without any herbicides, but also unlawful since the USDA's final court mandated Environmental Impact Statement was not fully completed in accordance to the law.
After watching the Obama administration bumble through a series of approvals of GMO crops, including GMO alfalfa, sugar beets, and a corn for ethanol, it's good to know that some adults are finally stepping up to continue the fight against an out of control industry that continues to contaminate conventional and organic farmer's fields, destroying important markets for farmer income and exposing the environment to long-term genetic contamination with their GMO products.
Below is a copy of the press release that Center for Food Safety and EarthJustice announcing the latest round in their lawsuit. Despite heavy biotech industry influence in the entire U.S. government, including the White House, Congress, our regulatory agencies and state capitals, Center for Food Safety has won a series of impressive victories in the courts in the past several years. Let's hope their winning streak continues...
Already more than 117,000 American citizens have called on President Obama and Secretary Vilsack to reconsider their decision on GMO alfalfa — if you haven't already, make sure you join them by signing the letter.
Press Release:
“Roundup Ready” Alfalfa Will Increase Pesticide Use and Cause Grave Harm to Environment and Organic Industry"
USDA Failures Guarantee Transgenic Contamination, Creation of More Superweeds
San Francisco, CA – Today, attorneys for the Center for Food Safety (CFS) and Earthjustice filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), arguing that the agency’s recent unrestricted approval of genetically engineered (GE), “Roundup Ready” Alfalfa was unlawful. The GE crop is engineered to be immune to the herbicide glyphosate, which Monsanto markets as Roundup. USDA data show that 93% of all the alfalfa planted by farmers in the U.S. is grown without the use of any herbicides. With the full deregulation of GE alfalfa, USDA estimates that up to 23 million more pounds of toxic herbicides will be released into the environment each year.
“USDA has once again failed to provide adequate oversight of a biotech crop,” said Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director of the Center for Food Safety. “This reckless approval flies in the face of overwhelming evidence that GE alfalfa threatens the rights of farmers and consumers, as well as significant harm to the environment. APHIS has refused to apply and enforce the law and instead has chosen to bow to the wishes of the biotech industry.”
This is the second case challenging the legality of USDA’s handling of GE alfalfa. In 2007, in another case brought by CFS, a federal court ruled that the USDA’s approval of the engineered crop violated environmental laws by failing to analyze risks such as the contamination of conventional and organic alfalfa, the evolution of glyphosate-resistant weeds, and increased use of Roundup. The case resulted in USDA undertaking a court-ordered four-year study of GE alfalfa’s impacts under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Remarkably, it marked the first time USDA had ever undertaken such a study, known as an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), in over 15 years of approving GE crops for commercial production. While USDA worked on the EIS, GE alfalfa remained unlawful to plant or sell, a ban that remained in place despite Monsanto appealing the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Earthjustice attorney Paul Achitoff commented: “We expect Monsanto to force-feed people genetically engineered crops—that’s its business model. We hoped for better from the USDA, which has much broader responsibilities. GE alfalfa will greatly increase use of toxic chemicals from coast to coast, threatens the organic dairy industry, and will have farmers going back to Monsanto every year to buy its patented seed and Roundup.”
The plaintiffs include a diverse coalition of conventional and organic farmers, dairies and agricultural associations, and environmental and consumer groups: CFS, Beyond Pesticides, Cornucopia Institute, California Farmers Union, Dakota Resources Council, Geertson Seed Farms, National Family Farm Coalition, Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance, Sierra Club, Trask Family Seeds and Western Organization of Resource Councils.
“We in the farm sector are dissatisfied but not surprised at the lack of courage from USDA to prohibit Roundup Ready alfalfa and defend family farmers,” said plaintiff farmer Pat Trask.
Known as the “queen of forages,” alfalfa is the key feedstock for the dairy industry. Organic dairies stand to lose their source of organic feed, a requirement for organic dairy, including milk and yogurt products. The organic sector is the most vibrant part of U.S. agriculture, now a 26 billion dollar a year industry and growing 20% annually.
“Approving the unrestricted planting of GE alfalfa is a blatant case of the USDA serving one form of agriculture at the expense of all others,” says plaintiff Ed Maltby, Executive Director of the Northeast Alliance of Organic Dairy Producers. “If this decision is not remedied, the result will be lost livelihoods for organic dairy farmers, loss of choice for farmers and consumers, and no transparency about GE contamination of our foods.”
Because alfalfa is pollinated by bees that can fly and cross-pollinate between fields and feral sources many miles apart, the engineered crop will contaminate natural alfalfa varieties. Roundup Ready alfalfa is the first engineered perennial crop, meaning it remains in the ground for 3-6 years and is widely prevalent in wild or feral form throughout America, further increasing the likelihood and extent of transgenic contamination.
“USDA’s review is inaccurate and completely failed to consider critical issues. The decision to deregulate Roundup Ready alfalfa opens the door to widespread transgenic contamination, costing farmers their markets, reputation and ability to grow natural varieties,” said plaintiff farmer Phil Geertson.
“We are an organic, grass-fed beef operation relying on alfalfa in pasture mix and for winter feed. GE alfalfa means contamination of all alfalfa seeds within a few years. Our options include giving up organic production at great revenue loss or finding another forage at great cost increase,” says organic beef producer Jim Munsch from Wisconsin.
Approval of Roundup Ready alfalfa will spur the glyphosate-resistant epidemic that is already regarded as one of the most serious challenges facing U.S. agriculture. Weeds evolve resistance to glyphosate just as bacteria evolve immunity to overused antibiotics. While other Roundup Ready crops spawned the epidemic, Roundup Ready alfalfa will exacerbate it by increasing the frequency and intensity of glyphosate use on millions of acres of cropland. Farmers respond to resistant weeds by applying more and more herbicides, soil-eroding tillage operations, and even hand-weeding on hundreds of thousands of acres. Such “superweeds” have expanded four-fold to infest over 10 million acres since just 2008, with some projecting 38 million acres by 2013. Alfalfa, the fourth most prevalent crop in the U.S., is grown on over 20 million acres, spanning every state.
“Alfalfa grows in dense stands that naturally suppress weeds, and so has traditionally been the one crop in farmers’ rotations that provides a much-needed break from the onslaught of toxic herbicides. Roundup Ready alfalfa will only foster still more resistant weeds, and thereby increase the pesticide dependence of U.S. agriculture beyond already unsustainable levels,” said Bill Freese, CFS Science Policy Analyst.
The latest USDA data show that less than 10 percent of alfalfa acres are sprayed with any herbicide, and consequently, GE alfalfa will dramatically increase the use of such chemicals across the country, with all of their attendant hazards to wildlife, plants, groundwater, and people.
STANDING UP FOR NATURE's ORIGINAL TECHNOLOGY,
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1-To support mobilization of one Farmers’ Market in our local area, the Hillcrest Farmers’ Market in San Diego. To continue to work with local organic farmers and help them sell more of their produce.
2-To continue to develop a 1/3 acre parcel of land near San Diego State College named the Enchanted Garden Intentional Community Growing Grounds where those who live here and who live around the world may study our process of learning how to keep the beat with nature through learning to live together cooperatively as a household that seeks to live in harmony with the earth. The motto of the house will be Keep The Beet. Through growing a simple beet in a pot, we can regain our beat with nature. Not all in the house garden. Some like to prepare food. Others help with other jobs, or rent. The land, as of January 2010 is being refinanced. A Trust to hold the land is being explored. The Seed Dream would be to leave a museum and park for future generations to learn from this experiment in cooperative living that has been going on since the early 1970′s. The intent is that what we learn here can help others, and Washington, understand and adapt to some of the shifts being asked of all of us now.
3- To develop relationships with those who influence Washington and government. A vast coalition across all political, religious, and philosophical lines has now formed. Mainstream media needs to be reached through bloggers filling the gap where journalism once told all points of view. Elected leaders need to be encouraged to follow the principles expressed in the song “America The Beautiful.”
4- We see the world as we know it now coming to an end. A Shift has already happened. It is for each of us to adapt to the earth and relearn the laws of nature, rather than attempt to further adapt nature to our ways. The source of our economic and health crisis is that we have lost our beat with nature. We can regain the beet through becoming once again a nation of gardeners who live in a world of gardeners. One Pot+One person=You are a Gardener. Start to grow your own food now.
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