Monsanto mulls options after biotech alfalfa ruling
Published:May 9, 2007
Source :Monsanto
The federal district court for Northern California in San Francisco Thursday ordered USDA to conduct an environmental impact assessment of Roundup Ready alfalfa. Judge Charles Breyer also made permanent his earlier injunction that forbade farmers from any further planting of the biotech crop.
Will Rostov is senior attorney for the Center for Food Safety in San Francisco, one of a number of groups which brought the case against USDA that resulted in Thursday's decision. Rostov told Brownfield he considered the ruling a clear-cut win, and perhaps an historic one for the environmental movement.
"Yeah, it's a huge victory for the environment," Rostov proclaimed. "It's the first time that a genetically engineered crop that's been approved for commercialization has been stopped - that planting of it has been stopped."
However, the U.S. farmers who had already planted over 200,000 acres of the biotech alfalfa when the initial injunction took effect are unlike to share Rostov's enthusiasm for Thursday's legal decision. Nor, likely, will others farmers who had already purchased the seed, but are now barred from planting it. And Monsanto spokesman Andrew Burchett told Brownfield the latest ruling will have a bottom line impact on those ag producers.
"For the producers who are making real-time decision this year about how to manage their alfalfa stands, what to plant, in some cases going back and re-seeding in some places where stands have been damaged, this is more than what I would describe as an inconvenience," Burchett explained. "This is a real issue."
That’s why Burchett says Monsanto, which developed Roundup Ready alfalfa, is considering its legal options in the wake of Thursday's decision. But since Monsanto is merely an intervener in the case, rather than a respondent, the company's choices may be limited. Still, Burchett said Monsanto hasn't ruled anything out yet.
"That's something that we're in the process of evaluating," Burchett said. "The ruling came yesterday, on May 3rd, and we're looking at that and we're trying to come up with the best way to go forward to ultimately give farmers a choice about whether or not they want to use this technology."
Court documents suggest USDA has already committed to conducting the environmental impact assessment ordered by the court. Burchett said Monsanto remains committed to Roundup Ready alfalfa as well.
But according to Rostov, getting Roundup Ready alfalfa back on the market could be a years-long process. He points out even after USDA completes the environmental assessment, Monsanto would then have to again petition USDA to deregulate the product. And Rostov pointed out completing the environmental impact statement alone is a daunting task.
"It's going to be a very complicated environmental impact statement, because alfalfa is a national crop and it's going to have varying effects on a regional and local level in more than 40 states," Rostov predicted. "So if the analysis is done well, it's going to require a lot of detail and a lot of specific analysis."
