Last-Ditch Fight Against Roundup Ready Beets
By MARIA DINZEO
The following contains portions of an article from Courthouse News:
The U.S. Agriculture Department’s decision to partially deregulate and allow planting of “Roundup ready” genetically modified sugar beets has been challenged again by the Center for Food Safety. The nonprofit watchdog group claims the USDA’s Feb. 4 final environmental assessment did not adequately address the hazards of planting the beets that Monsanto genetically engineered to resist its herbicide Roundup.
In its complaint, the Center calls the USDA’s approval of the beets a “commercialization scheme” and says the assessment “is substantially inadequate in that, among other things, it fails to adequately address the risk of transgenic contamination by RRSB [Roundup ready sugar beets]; fails to address relevant economic impacts; fails to adequately analyze impacts to the public interest; lacks an adequate and meaningful alternative analyses; fails to take hard look at cumulative impacts; and fails to adequately address impacts on public health.”
The center says the Roundup ready sugar beets could harm the environment and contaminate other sugar beet crops, and closely related crops, including chard and table beets.
The Center for Food Safety asks the court to enjoin the USDA from allowing any Roundup-resistant sugar beets to be planted until the agency prepares a proper environmental impact statement in compliance with NEPA.
CLICK HERE to read the full article and to find a link to the e-filing.
Source: Courthouse News
Posted by Haylie Shipp
