7-16 IAN Roundup Reversal

 The U.S. Supreme Court reversed a lower court’s nationwide ban on the cultivation of biotech alfalfa. This remands the case back to the District Court and then back to USDA to determine what interim measures can be implemented while the agency completes its environmental impact statement process.

The news was welcomed by a coalition of agricultural organizations who had filed a joint friend-of-the-court brief to the Supreme Court in support of the petitioners in “Monsanto Co. v. Geertson Seed Farms.” David Callister of Howe, Idaho produces some of the most prized feed hay in Central Idaho and he let his enthusiasm for the ruling show:  “Hooray. I’m constantly fighting grass and weeds and having Roundup seed will allow me to raise better hay, at a good price and it’s going to save me money.”

 In the lower court case, environmental groups and individual organic alfalfa farmers sued USDA claiming the agency’s decision to grant deregulated status to Roundup Ready^® alfalfa violated the National Environmental Policy Act. After finding a NEPA violation, the lower court enjoined almost all planting and sale of Roundup Ready^® alfalfa and the Ninth Circuit affirmed.