Alexandria, Virginia
September 18, 2008
Source:
American Seed Trade Association
(ASTA)
On Sept. 2, 2008, the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a lower court's ruling
to temporally halt planting of Roundup Ready alfalfa, pending
the completion of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) by
USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).
Roundup Ready alfalfa, a product of the Monsanto Company, is
genetically engineered to be tolerant of glyphosate, the main
ingredient in the herbicide Roundup.
The original case was brought against USDA by the Center for
Food Safety and several co-plaintiffs in 2006, alleging that
APHIS had violated federal environmental law in deregulating the
crop in 2005 without first completing the EIS. APHIS deregulated
the product in June 2005 on the basis of the Environmental
Assessment and after considering the comments received under the
Federal Register notice on the petition for deregulation.
However, in 2007, the lower court issued an injunction against
the planting of Roundup Ready alfalfa because the court ruled
that APHIS needed to conduct a more extensive review through an
EIS, which is currently being carried out by APHIS.
All parties involved continue to review their future options. |
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