Partial Deregulation of GM Sugar Beets Appealed

By Dan Flynn

When you've been running the board in a San Francisco courtroom and you are on the verge of having genetically modified (GM) sugar beets torn up by their roots, do you care if USDA tries to do a little something on its own?

Probably not all that much.

USDA on Feb. 4 said that it was partially deregulating GM sugar beets, allowing plantings in 2011, under certain conditions.

"After conducting an environmental assessment, accepting and reviewing public comments and conducting a plant pest risk assessment, APHIS has determined that the Roundup Ready sugar beet root crop, when grown under APHIS imposed conditions, can be partially deregulated without posing a plant pest risk or having a significant effect on the environment," a top USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) official said.

But that decision is just one more item for Earthjustice and the Center for Food Safety to appeal, probably in U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White's courtroom. That is the same venue where the challengers have been racking up wins.

It is White who has ordered those GM sugar beets pulled out by the roots, an action now on its own appeal. Those plantings would provide seed for the 2012 growing season.

Challengers to the Round-Up Ready sugar beets fear their pollen might contaminate organic and other non-GM crops.  Monsanto's GM sugar beets are resistant to its own Round-Up brand of herbicide.

Before White ordered USDA to do a full-blown environmental impact statement on Monsanto's Round-Up Ready GM sugar beets, 95 percent of the growers in the dozen states where they are planted had adopted them.

The final EIS is not due until May 2012.  USDA issued the draft last November and it included at option, requested by Monsanto, for a planting option in the interim under certain conditions.

USDA Issues Draft Environmental Assessment of GM Sugar Beets

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has prepared a draft environmental assessment (EA) of genetically modified sugar beets, including an option to permit planting of the beets under certain conditions.

A federal district judge ruled in August that the planting of GM sugar beets should be halted until the USDA completes an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), expected to be completed by the end of May 2012. However, the USDA said that it would allow limited planting of the sugar beets while the EIS was prepared and issued permits to four companies, which are understood to have already planted seedlings to produce seed for the 2012 crop - a move that the court ruled was illegal last month.

The USDA said its EA has been drafted in response to a request from KWS SAAT AG and Monsanto - currently the only supplier of GM sugar beets - for administrative action to allow continued cultivation of Roundup Ready sugar beets under certain conditions.

Deputy administrator for the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service APHIS biotechnology regulatory services Michael Gregoire said in a statement: "APHIS takes its role in protecting plant health very seriously and is well aware of the importance of this decision for sugar beet growers and processors. We are issuing this environmental assessment to share our decision-making process as transparently as possible and allow for public comment."

Three alternatives

The draft EA puts forward three alternatives: Deny the request for partial deregulation or similar action, halting production until the EIS is completed; authorize production under APHIS-imposed conditions to limit potential plant pest risks; or allow partial deregulation "under conditions imposed by Monsanto/KWS through technology stewardship agreements, contracts or other legal instruments."

Under this third alternative, APHIS would no longer regulate Roundup Ready sugar beets. 

Monsanto's Losing Bet on GM Sugar Beets Has Bitter Repercussions

In 2008, the USDA approved planting of Monsanto's Roundup Ready sugar beet, equipped with a gene that allows them to withstand unlimited doses of Monsanto's Roundup herbicide.

The sugar trade promised to be a big money maker for genetically modified (GM) seed giant Monsanto, as these beets -- a special super-sweet variety, not the kind you find at the farmers market -- account for 44 percent of U.S. sugar production.

Sure enough, Monsanto rapidly conquered the market. By this year's spring planting, Monsanto's patented GM seeds covered a jaw-dropping 95 percent of sugar beet fields. (Monsanto has managed to quietly turn the American sweet tooth into a gold mine -- it also dominates the seed market for corn, the source of the number-one U.S. sweetener, high-fructose corn syrup.)

But back in August, Monsanto suffered yet another of a continuing line of setbacks, when a federal judge effectively nixed the USDA's approval of GM sugar beets. The agency had failed to adequately assess the environmental impact of planting the high-tech seeds, the judge ruled.

On Monday, a USDA economist released a report (via Bloomberg) estimating that the ban on GM sugar beet seeds would cut U.S. total sugar production by 20 percent in 2011, due to the the "limited availability of conventional seed."