By BRAD DEVEREAUX
Opponents of genetically modified sugar beets have filed a request for a preliminary injunction last week in U.S. District Court for the Northern Division of California. If approved, the injunction could force farmers to return to planting traditional seeds in the future. The vast majority of U.S. farmers — about 95 percent — planted the seeds in question during 2009.
Since Roundup Ready beets were approved for use in 2005, farms all over the country quickly began using the seeds. The seeds are genetically modified (GM) to withstand the herbicide Roundup, which many farmers favor because it requires fewer applications than other traditional herbicide chemicals and does a good job of protecting sugar beets from weeds.
While Roundup would kill plants grown from ordinary sugar beet seed, the Roundup Ready seed has genetics that make it resistant to glyphosate, the main ingredient of Roundup herbicide. The seeds are based on genetic technology made by Monsanto, an agriculture company of St. Louis, Mo. The technology is used by seed companies and sold to farmers across the U.S.
In 2009, 95 percent of the beets planted in the U.S. were Roundup Ready, according to Monsanto spokesman Garrett Kasper.
“It has the fastest rate of adoption of any biotech crop,” Kasper said. “That’s a testimony to the growers. Clearly they want the technology and we’re going to fight for their right to have it.”
The company is responding to a request for a preliminary injunction filed Tuesday, Jan. 19, in U.S. District Court for the Northern Division of California. Plaintiffs, the Center for Food Safety, High Mowing Organic Seeds, Organic Seed Alliance and the Sierra Club, filed the injunction asking the court to suspend the use of Roundup Ready seeds or beets until they take a hard look at the technology with an Environmental Impact Statement through the National Environmental Policy Act.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack is listed as the defendant, along with defendant-interveners Monsanto Company, Syngenta Seeds, Inc., the American Sugar Beet Growers Association, Betaseed, Inc., and Sesvanderhave USA, Inc.
One argument for the injunction comes from organic beet seed producers, mostly found in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, who argue that cross-pollination of GM beets could corrupt their organic varieties. They say that some cross-pollination has undoubtedly taken place already, according to media reports.
Representatives of the Center for Food Safety have gone on record in the past about potential “biological pollution and economic impacts” that could be caused by gene-altered crops. The organization is asking the use of Roundup Ready technology to be halted until it can be looked at closely through the NEPA process.
Thomas Schwartz, Executive Vice President of the American Society of Sugar Beet Technologists and the Beet Sugar Development Foundation in Denver, said his comments were limited because the organization’s legal team is very involved in the litigation.
“We think the grounds for the injunction are not solid,” he said, adding that the plaintiffs took five years after the Roundup Ready seeds were approved for use to request the injunction. An injunction is usually requested to stop something that poses an imminent threat or danger, but Schwartz said the timing of the injunction request doesn’t fit.
“If it was so imminent, you would think they would be more concerned about it and move it a little faster,” he said. “We are confident Roundup Ready beets are safe for the environment and for humans.”
Luther Markwart, executive vice president of the American Sugar Beet Grower’s Association, echoed Schwartz’s comments in his statement about the request for an injunction.
“They are asking the court to take radical action to shut down production, causing disastrous impact to 10,000 sugar beet growers and collateral damage to the economy in 10 states.
Kasper said the federal judge met with the plaintiffs and defendants on Dec. 4.
Kasper said the hearing should follow sometime in June.
This is a two-part story on the injunction filling.
2 is a question and answer session with Monsanto Company spokesman Garrett Kasper.