Supreme Court to Consider Biotech Issue

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The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether a lower court acted hastily and incorrectly by banning the cultivation of biotech alfalfa despite extensive scientific evidence documenting the safety of the crop. This will be the first time the high court has weighed in on the risks of genetically engineered crops.

Monday, a coalition of agricultural organizations filed a joint friend-of-the-court brief to the Supreme Court in support of the petitioners in “Monsanto Company. vs. Geertson Seed Farms.” The groups urge that the lower courts’ decision to approve an injunction without adequately hearing the key evidence must be reversed - to protect the farmers who choose to grow genetically-engineered crops, as well as the public benefits that agricultural biotechnology brings to producers and consumers around the world.

In the lower court case, environmental groups and individual organic alfalfa farmers sued USDA, claiming that USDA’s decision to grant deregulated status to glyphosate-tolerant alfalfa violated the National Environmental Policy Act. The courts in the Ninth Circuit determined that USDA should have done an environmental impact statement before it decided to deregulate, and the court ultimately enjoined almost all planting and sale of Roundup Ready® alfalfa pending the issuance of the EIS.