Genetically Modified Alfalfa Dealt a Blow; Grass Fed Organic Beef Producer Relieved

The Capital Press today reported that a Federal District judge in California has ordered an impact study on Roundup Ready alfalfa, a genetically modified organism (GMO).

As producers of organic alfalfa pasture for our organic grass fed beef, we are relieved here at Alderspring Ranch.

This alfalfa, genetically modified to resist glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, has potential to contaminate our organic alfalfa, and jeopardize our organic certification.  In fact, Monsanto has. in an Orwellian twist of legal logic, successfully sued producers whose crops were contaminated with Monsanto’s patented plant genes for patent infringement.

The Center for Food Safety, the Western Organization of Resource Councils, the National Family Farm Coalition, The Sierra Club, Beyond Pesticides, Cornucopia Institute, The Dakota Resource Council, Trask Family Seeds, and Geertson Seed Farms initiated the legal action against the USDA in February 2006.  The lawsuit argued that the USDA’s approval of deregulating of “Roundup Ready Alfalfa” was illegal because a thorough environmental impact study wasn’t completed.  They successfully convinced Judge Breyer that the USDA had failed to completely assess the potential that GM alfalfa could harm the environment and contaminate organic and non-GMO alfalfa crops.

Anyone interested in pure food should be concerned about genetically modified crops.

Learn more:

NewScientist.com instant expert on Genetically Modified Organisms
Network of Concerned Farmers (in Australia) list of 10 reasons for concern about GMO crops.
U.S. Center for Food Safety’s 2005 report Monsanto vs. U.S. Farmers.  Some highlights:

• “To date, Monsanto has filed 90 lawsuits against American farmers. The lawsuits involve 147 farmers and 39 small businesses or farm companies, and have been directed at farmers residing in half of the states in the U.S.
• The odds are clearly stacked against the farmer: Monsanto has an annual budget of $10 million dollars and a staff of 75 devoted solely to investigating and prosecuting farmers.”
• Farmers have paid a mean of $412,259.54 for cases with recorded judgments.
• Farmers have been sued after their field was contaminated by pollen or seed from someone else’s genetically engineered crop; when genetically engineered seed from a previous year’s crop has sprouted, or “volunteered,” in fields planted with non-genetically engineered varieties the following year…”