Judge Jeffrey S. White of Federal District Court in San Francisco revoked the 5 year old USDA approved beets, which carry an Round-up resistance gene, until the Department of Agriculture finishes a environmental impact assessment. According to the Center for Food Safety, one of the groups that filed the lawsuit the USDA claims this could take until April 2012. After this years harvest no GMO Sugar Beets are allowed to be planted until this impact assessment is completed, effectively banning the planting of the genetically modified sugar beets which already make up about 95 percent of the yearly Sugar Beet crop and about half the produced sugar in the United States, the other half coming from Sugar Cane.
In September 2009, Judge Jeffrey White determined that the USDA had not adequately considered the Genetically Modified Beets potential effects on the environment, including the danger of the genetically engineered traits spreading to other sugar beets or to related crops of table beets and Swiss chard
On Friday he then followed through with a ban on the crop for the time being, a move which comes on the heels of a Supreme Court decision earlier this year concerning GMO-Alfalfa.
Even the Judge granted the plaintiffs request to formally vacate the approval of the beets, which now disallows farmers growing them outside of field trials, he denied the plaintiffs request for a permanent injunction which also would have banned the growing of this crop saying it was not necessary as long it wasn't approved for commercial plantings.
That's why this makes it only a small victory. It is not a total ban, we still will have GMO sugar in our sugar supply for now.
Some of the Agricultural Departments and GMO industry promoters arguments give me the creeps.
They argued in the hearing which was held in Judge White's courtroom earlier Friday that the "approval should not be revoked because their department's mistakes were not all that serious" and hey! "that crop will be approved down the line anyway" and they asked the judge to at least give them a 9 month delay to give them time to put temporary measures in place. Luckily the Judge disagreed with them saying in his opinion their errors "were not minor or insignificant and they had already more then enough time to put interim measures into place" since his first ruling in September. He also said that no matter if he could legally consider the economic consequences of revoking the approval the USDA had not adequately demonstrated a severe economic impact.
Some Sugar Beet farmers said they are not sure how much conventional seed is still available these days for next years planting. According to Monsanto, who developed the crop, revoking approval of the seed could cost them and their customers $ 2 Billion in 2011 and 2012.
They 'Monsanto' did not talk about the economic impact their GMO Sugar Beets would have on Organic Seed growers like Frank Morton who grows organic Beet and Chard seeds or others like him or the impact this GMO crop would have on the potential crippling loss of genetic diversity, which goes above and beyond the damage that simple monoculture has already inflicted on the US agriculture.
With the lack of conventional seeds for Sugar Beets it just proves the point, doesn't it?
They also did not talk about the impact it could have on us, humans. Health wise. Because they don't know the impact it might have on humans, they don't know it won't have an impact on our health either.
We are just a bunch of large guinea pigs!
We are in danger of loosing our seed heritage, our food to provide for us.
We need diversity not mono culture. Just think about the impact if we loose the diversity of seeds, all it takes is that the one seed left, the GMO seed, fails to provide for us, what are we going to do then?
Once it is in the environment there is no going back.
Once our seeds are gone, they are gone.
I don't know about you, but to me it is a scary thought having to rely on only one variety of seed to feed me and not knowing what is in my food.
But this is were we are headed.
Now is the time to stop it, we still have a chance to reverse this dangerous trend.
Shop consciously, don't buy knowingly or unknowingly GMO products.
Vote with your cash! Vote the Politicians in Bed with Monsanto and Co out of Office.
Don't sit back and watch it unfold, help unfold!
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