Release of Roundup Ready alfalfa challenged
February 24, 2006
A lawsuit filed last week in San Francisco seeks to derail the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s June 2005 approval of Roundup Ready alfalfa for commercial sales. Plaintiffs – led by Geertson Seed Farms, an Adrian, Ore., alfalfa seed producer that has been in the business since 1942 – claim the USDA didn’t “adequately” look at public health, environmental and economic concerns before clearing the seed. Monsanto, which developed the herbicide-resistant strains of alfalfa, and Forage Genetics, the Idaho crop development company that did the seed increase, have an estimated 1 million pounds of seed available for sale. Many farmers are trying to decide if they will plant the crop in 2006. In the Pacific Northwest, where export hay is a big business and growers are uncertain how genetically altered forage would be accepted in overseas markets, Monsanto last summer agreed to not offer the seed. Monsanto spokeswoman Mica DeLong said, however, that alfalfa produced from genetically modified seed has been approved for sale in Mexico and Canada, two of the U.S.’s biggest alfalfa markets, and it is close to being approved in Japan. Monsanto also has submitted approval requests to Korea and expects that market also to open to U.S. producers by the end of the year. In the meantime, DeLong said, growers and shippers have been instructed not to ship the alfalfa to Korea. DeLong added that test kits are available to growers and exporters that can distinguish between Roundup Ready and non-Roundup Ready alfalfa. The U.S. District Court suit seeks to find the USDA in violation of the National Environmental Protection Act and force it to prepare an environmental impact statement. Monsanto and Forage Genetics are not named as defendants. In addition to Geertson Seed Farms, the suit is brought by the Center for Food Safety, Beyond Pesticides, Cornucopia Institute, Dakota Resource Council, National Family Farm Coalition, the Sierra Club and the Western Organization of Resource Councils. Will Rostov, a CFC attorney in San Francisco, said plaintiffs haven’t decided if they will seek an injunction to halt seed sales. “We’re evaluating that,” he said this week in a telephone interview. USDA spokeswoman Karen Eggert said the agency doesn’t comment on pending litigation. In a news release, Rostov said the genetically altered alfalfa has “potential significant and large-scale environmental effects.” The Center for Food Safety refers to a WORC fact sheet for details on environmental implications. The suit says that Geertson, which grows and processes 10 varieties of alfalfa seed, could be at risk of having seed sources contaminated with Roundup Ready seed through cross-pollination. Geertson Seed Farms contends that because of the small size of the alfalfa seed, it’s almost impossible to thoroughly clean it. It always contains weed seed: “Alfalfa seed is probably the biggest vector of weed seed from one end of the country to the other. you can’t clean them out.” When Roundup Ready alfalfa seed is grown, the weeds that are grown there will be RR also, Geertson said. “Roundup Ready alfalfa will contain large numbers of glyphosate-resistant weed seed.” Because pollen drifts up to 2 1/2 miles, Gertson said, seed growers are concerned that they can’t keep contamination from Roundup Ready to non-Roundup Ready varieties. “Bees pollinate alfalfa, and we know that bees can forage for miles,” said Pat Trask, one of the South Dakota plaintiffs quoted in the CFC news release. The Trasks run a 15,000-acre seed production business on the edge of the Black Hills. California, where the suit was filed, is one of the largest alfalfa seed production states and also has the largest planting of alfalfa grown for forage in the United States. The lawsuit and related documents are available on the Internet at www.centerforfoodsafety.org/press_release2_16_2006.cfm. Capital Press reporter Mitch Lies and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Tam Moore is based in Medford, Ore. His e-mail address is tmoore@capitalpress.com. |
