02/21/07 Judge rules against USDA on GMO alfalfa

Farm and Ranch February 21, 2007 Alfalfa seed growers and other groups challenging USDA's de-regulation of Monsanto's Roundup Ready alfalfa have won a round in U.S. District Court. Geertson: "Yes, we won a lot more than we thought we would." That's Phillip Geertson, an Oregon alfalfa seed producer and one of the challengers of USDA's approval of the GMO alfalfa. The Plaintiffs said USDA should have done a complete Environmental Impact Statement before deregulating Roundup Ready Alfalfa and U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer agreed. Geertson: "The judge understands the whole situation and he understands apparently all this genetic engineering going on without any supervision or control. The USDA has essentially been relying on the integrity of the geneticists to do things that are right. And people who have a lot of money to be made from what they are doing often times are not totally ethical." In a written ruling, Judge Breyer stated that for those farmers who choose to grow non-genetically engineered alfalfa, the possibility that their crops will be infected with the engineered gene is tantamount to the elimination of all alfalfa; they cannot grow their chosen crop. The Plaintiffs are to have proposed remedies to Judge Breyer by February 26th and Geertson says they want the judge to prohibit the further sale and planting of any Roundup Ready Alfalfa seed. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.