The People Vs. Monsanto

We can thank our founding fathers for the “balance of powers” in our federal government, because that’s the only thing that is saving environmental regulation in this country, after the dark ages of the Clinton/Bush era.

Last week, Judge Jeffrey S. White of Federal District Court in San Francisco ruled that the US Department of Agriculture had failed to assess the environmental impact of planting genetically modified sugar beets when it granted Monsanto the go-ahead to market and sell its GMO beets.

This is a very important ruling. About 95% of the sugar beets planted in the US are Monsanto GMO beets, and about 50% of the US supply of sugar is made from sugar beets. Chances are, if you’ve eaten anything sugary in the past year, you’ve eaten a genetically modified organism and not known it.

The judge accepted evidence provided by the plaintiffs (the Center for Food Safety, the Sierra Club, the Organic Seed Alliance, and High Mowing Organic Seeds) that GMO sugar beets can cross-pollinate and contaminate table beets, kale, cabbage, and a number of other vegetables, and that organic farmers won’t be able to ensure that their crops are GMO-free if Monsanto is allowed to sell GMO beet seed.

Let’s be clear about what GMO crops are. Many people think that Monsanto and other companies are altering the genetic makeup of beets and other plants to make them more hardy and more resistant to pests and weeds. Not so. Monsanto genetically alters crops to make them more resistant to Monsanto’s highly profitable herbicide, Roundup, thereby increasing their profit and cornering the market: Monsanto provides the seeds, then provides the tons of herbicide the farmers need to make those beet plants grow big enough and produce enough beet to justify the high cost of the GMO seed they purchased from Monsanto in the first place.

The judge’s ruling is a major victory for environmental groups, consumers, and farmers (who’ve had no say in Monsanto’s efforts to squeeze more money out of them). The ruling could eventually lead to a ban on planting GMO sugar beets, since it requires that the USDA conduct an environmental impact statement, and there’s not a lot of extra money in the federal budget allocated for that purpose.

The judge will meet with both parties in the lawsuit and issue a remedy later this year, but so far it looks like Monsanto has lost this round.