On the Heels of GE Alfalfa's Approval, USDA Deregulates Genetically Modified Sugar Beets

Late last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it would fully deregulate Monsanto's Roundup Ready alfalfa. Environmentalists and sustainable foodies everywhere decried the decision, which allows U.S. farmers to begin planting the genetically engineered (GE) crop this spring. Adding insult to injury, the USDA deregulated another GE crop a mere one week later — Roundup Ready sugar beets.

This latest USDA decision doesn't just hurt foodies' feelings though — it actually breaks the law. The USDA first gave Monsanto's GE sugar beets the go-ahead back in 2005. As is the case with most Roundup Ready crops, GE sugar beets quickly dominated the market, with Monsanto now controlling 95 percent of the sugar beet seed market, according to Grist. But in August of 2010, a federal judge ruled that the USDA had acted illegally in pushing GE sugar beets into the marketplace, claiming that the agency had an obligation to conduct a thorough environmental impact study before greenlighting any GE crop. Judge Jeffrey S. White even went so far as to order the immediate destruction of hundreds of acres of the Frankencrop in Oregon and Arizona.

It's been six short months since Judge White threw the book at the USDA, and the agency is already going rogue again. The USDA announced on Friday, February 4, that it would "partially deregulate" Roundup Ready sugar beets, allowing farmers to begin planting the GE crop this spring. This is the first time that the USDA has ever issued a partial deregulation for a GE crop. The ruling means that farmers will be allowed to plant Roundup Ready sugar beets, but only if they adhere to a USDA-designed plan to prevent contamination of organic sugar beet fields.

The USDA claims that this complete and utter flouting of Judge White's ruling is "necessary" because half of America's sugar supply comes from sugar beets. Because the sugar beet market is dominated by Monsanto's GE sugar beets, the USDA says, continuing to plant the crop before an environmental impact study is finished is the only way to prevent sugar scarcity. So even though Monsanto and the USDA created this unfair and dangerous monopoly of the sugar beet market, Monsanto still reaps all kinds of benefits.

The USDA may justify its actions with its feeble "sugar scarcity" argument, but let's be real: The agency and Monsanto really want to get this crop back into the ground before an environmental impact study is finished because the results of said sugar beet study won't likely be so sweet. As we've seen with Roundup Ready corn, cotton, and soy, GE crops frequently cross-pollinate with organic and non-GE crops, ruining these varieties and their farmers' livelihoods. Roundup Ready crops — which have been modified to withstand the spraying of Monsanto's Roundup herbicide — also typically result in the use of more pesticides. Weeds quickly evolve a resistance to Roundup, forcing farmers to shell out their hard-earned money to use a wider variety of chemical herbicides, a situation that poisons wildlife and pollutes waterways and soil.

The USDA's decisions on both GE alfalfa and sugar beets clearly put Monsanto's profits above the well-being of consumers and organic farmers. This situation is exactly why the sustainable food community is coming together to tell the Obama Administration that consumers will no longer stand for the government's blatant pandering to Big Ag. You can make your voice heard by signing the Organic Trade Association's petition telling President Obama that he has an obligation to look out for the interests of consumers and the organic food industry.

Photo credit: mindy.kotaska via Flickr