Vt. company scores legal victory in organic seed lawsuit

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(Host) An organic seed company in Wolcott has won a legal victory that requires the government to conduct more studies of a genetically engineered crop.

VPR’s John Dillon reports:

(Dillon) High Mowing Seeds and several environmental groups challenged the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s decision to de-regulate the sale of genetically modified sugar beets.

Tom Stearns is president of High Mowing Seeds in Wolcott. Stearns said he was concerned that the beet variety sold by the Monsanto Corporation would contaminate fields of organic beets raised by one of High Mowing’s seed suppliers.

(Stearns) We had an organic chard and beet farmer in the same region that the GM sugar beets were being produced for seeds. The beet pollen can blow up to several miles, so the concern was that we really needed to make sure that these were sufficient distances separated between them to make sure there were contamination problems, because then my organic seed would have GMO genes in it.

(Host) Stearns and the environmental groups sued in January 2008. This week, a U.S. District Judge in California ruled that the government failed to follow federal law that required a full environmental impact study.

(Stearns) He ruled that there are major chances of negative environmental impact and that they need to do this whole study before the GMO sugar beets are allowed to be planted anymore.

(Host) U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White also found that the USDA should have considered the potential economic impact on organic and conventional producers.  

The Monsanto beets were altered to contain a gene from a common soil bacteria. The modification makes the plants resistant to an herbicide that’s also sold by Monsanto.

The judge has scheduled a hearing in the case for the end of October.

For VPR News, I’m John Dillon in Montpelier.

 

 

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