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No go for GMO alfalfa
June 21, 2010: Monsanto's delusional grandstanding aside, the Supreme Court's decision on GMO alfalfa maintains the ban on planting the engineered seed and for the first time ever recongizes the economic and environmental impacts of genetic contamination as illegal.
Tom Laskawy of Grist.com writes:
"Despite the news reports claiming victory for Monsanto, the Supreme Court did not overturn the central tenet of the case: that the USDA prematurely approved Roundup Ready alfalfa. The District Court, in effect, made it once again illegal to plant Roundup Ready alfalfa -- and the Supreme Court endorsed that ruling. While the Justices did declare that the USDA, if it wants to, has the right to give the seed a preliminary approval (i.e. for limited, restricted planting), the Supreme Court decision does not by itself give Roundup Ready alfalfa the green light."
Although the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service released a statement that while comfortably sits on the fence, doesn't rule out preliminary approval for restricted planting, the bigger win for biotech opponents is in reconginzing gene flow, writes Laskawy:
"More importantly, the Supreme Court has also now ruled for the very first time that 'environmental harm' includes economic effects such as reduced agricultural yield or loss of market due to genetic contamination, as well as the concept of what biologists refer to as "gene flow" (in practice, the idea that genetically engineered material may get into conventional plants through cross-pollination). The Supreme Court now accepts that this phenomenon in and of itself is harmful and illegal under current environment protections."
