www.checkbiotech.org ; www.raupp.info ; www.czu.cz

The government was premature in deregulating production of alfalfa that is
genetically engineered to resist a weed-killing herbicide, February 2007 by
Elizabeth Weise .

The U.S. Department of Agriculture should not have acted as it did in 2005
without assessing the environmental effect of crops genetically modified to
resist the herbicide Roundup, ruled U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer
of the Northern District of California. The suit against the USDA was filed
by the anti-biotech Center for Food Safety, the Sierra Club and organic
alfalfa (hay) farmers. It accused the USDA of violating federal law by not
requiring the environmental assessment.

Opponents of biotech crops, which are genetically engineered to have certain
qualities, such as resistance to weed killers, have expressed concerns that
they could interbreed with wild plants and create herbicide-resistant weeds.

Alfalfa is the nation's fourth-largest crop and is fed to farm animals,
especially dairy cattle.

"There's potential for these crops to contaminate non-genetically engineered
alfalfa," says Will Rostov, senior attorney for the Center for Food Safety.
This is particularly a concern for organic farmers, because genetically
engineered plants cannot be sold as organic.

The Roundup Ready alfalfa cited in the suit was developed and sold by Forge
Genetics of Minnesota, using technology from Monsanto. It allows growers to
spray fields with Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, in which the chemical
glyphosate is the active ingredient, killing weeds without hurting the
alfalfa.

Monsanto submitted a detailed environmental analysis of the alfalfa to USDA,
says company spokesman Chris Horner. "Reading the ruling, it's unclear how
much of that was taken into consideration." All weeds built up resistance to
herbicides over time, he says.

Breyer ruled that both sides must sit down together and propose remedies to
him by Feb. 26.

Rostov says his group plans to push for an injunction on the planting, sale
and distribution of Roundup Ready alfalfa until the USDA has done an impact
assessment.

Only about 197,600 acres of the 22 million acres of the alfalfa grown in the
USA in 2006 was genetically engineered, according to the International
Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications.

The USDA is "very committed to protecting the environment" and is evaluating
the ruling, says spokeswoman Rachel Iadicicco.

However, even if the USDA does an environmental assessment, it's unclear
that it would have any effect on whether or not Roundup Ready alfalfa can be
sold.

The judge ruled that under the National Environmental Policy Act, the USDA
must do an assessment if there was the potential for "a significant
environmental impact."

But under the Plant Protection Act, the basis for USDA's regulatory
authority, it can adopt regulations only to prevent the introduction and
dissemination of plant pests.

"If they find that the only thing it does is cause organic farmers harm,
that may be an environmental impact, but under the Plant Protection Act, it
may not be something that (USDA) can take into consideration," says Greg
Jaffe, director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest's
biotechnology project.

[www.usatoday.com]