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Herbicide-friendly sugar beets lose in court

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

 

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

 

 

 

 

(09-22) 13:45 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- The government illegally approved a

genetically modified, herbicide-resistant strain of sugar beets without

adequately considering the chance they will contaminate other beet crops, a

federal judge in San Francisco has ruled.

 

 

\The ruling by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White rejected the U.S. Department of

Agriculture's decision in 2005 to allow Monsanto Co. to sell the sugar beets,

known as " Roundup-Ready " because they are engineered to coexist with Monsanto's

Roundup herbicide.

 

Sugar beets produce 30 percent of the world's sugar and, according to consumer

groups, half the granulated sugar in the United States. This year's planting,

centered in Oregon's Willamette Valley, is the first to include a full crop of

the Monsanto product.

 

White said the USDA, in concluding that the new crop would have no significant

environmental effects, discounted the likelihood that wind-borne pollen would

spread to fields where conventional sugar beets, table beets and the beet

variety known as Swiss chard are grown.

 

Planting genetically modified sugar beets has a " significant effect " on the

environment, White said in his ruling Monday, because of " the potential

elimination of a farmer's choice to grow non-genetically engineered crops, or a

consumer's choice to eat non-genetically engineered food. "

 

He said the department must prepare an environmental impact statement, which

would include public input.

 

White did not immediately prohibit distribution of the genetically modified

sugar beets, but a lawyer for plaintiffs in the case said they would ask the

judge for an injunction against sales until the review was completed.

 

The ruling " sends a very clear message to the USDA to protect American farmers

and consumers and not the interests of Monsanto, " said Kevin Golden, a San

Francisco attorney for the nonprofit Center for Food Safety, which opposes

genetically modified foods and supports organic farming.

 

He said the ruling could also affect herbicide use, because the Environmental

Protection Agency has allowed more herbicide spraying in areas where the

resistant crops are grown.

 

Representatives of the Agriculture Department, Monsanto and sugar beet companies

that backed the government in the case were unavailable for comment.

 

The ruling followed a similar decision in 2007 by another federal judge in San

Francisco, Charles Breyer, to halt the nationwide planting of Monsanto's

genetically engineered strain of alfalfa until the USDA conducted an

environmental study. A federal appeals court upheld Breyer's decision last year.

 

The department's 2005 decision on sugar beets acknowledged that pollen from the

genetically modified crop could spread to other beet crops. But the USDA said

farmers would not be harmed, because they would still be able to buy

non-genetically modified seeds.

 

White, however, cited studies that said winds can carry sugar beet pollen at

least 2 1/2 miles, much farther than the voluntary buffer zones between beet

crops recommended by Oregon agriculture officials.

 

He said the department had failed to consider the economic effects of its

decision and had provided no evidence for its conclusion that non-genetically

modified sugar beets would remain available to farmers.

 

E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko.

 

 

 

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