F***ed Up: USDA Lets GMO Companies (e.g. Monsanto) Perform Own Environmental Impact Studies

Warning: this one is a downer.

Let me start with a little history:

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White ruled that, in 2005, USDA illegally approved Monsanto’s sugar beets in September 2009.
That ruling was upheld in August 2010 and future plantings of GM sugar beets were banned. In this second ruling, “Federal Judge Jeffrey White issued a stinging rebuke to the USDA for its process on approving new genetically modified seeds. He ruled that the agency’s practice of “deregulating” novel seed varieties without first performing an environmental impact study violated the National Environmental Policy Act,” Tom Philpott of Grist writes.
Despite this, the USDA went ahead an issued permits for GM sugar beet planting after the ruling. As a result, another judge ordered those plants be dug up and destroyed.
The USDA ignored the court order again earlier this year and deregulated Monsanto’s GM sugar beets (under pressure from the Obama administration, which is keen on making the regulatory process easier for industry to sail through, and industry itself of course).
And that brings us to the most recent news….

Well-performed environmental assessments of Monsanto’s GM sugar beets would very obviously put them in bad light and hinder their approval. But the USDA (or somebody with strong influence on it) has come up with a good solution — let Monsanto perform the environmental impact study!

Yes, as indicated in the title, the USDA is letting GMO companies “check themselves” and make sure their products don’t have too much negative environmental impact. Well, I wonder what they will come up with….

Seriously, with the history of misrepresentation, suppression of data, and disregard for human or environmental health in this industry, the conclusions are pretty clear to me: 1) this is f***ed up and 2) the Obama administration’s USDA is bought (and skirting the law).

My suggestion? Take action against GMOs now.

The USDA announcement regarding this new policy is here in the Federal Register for April 7, 2011 [PDF].

More on this story is available on Grist: USDA moves to let Monsanto perform its own environmental impact studies on GMOs.

Photos via David Blackwell.; elycefeliz

By Zach | April 26, 2011 | Farming, Food & Water, GMO | 16 Comments |

http://www.lavishrose.com Elana

its a sad day when corporations have more power than governments and we are left with the wreckage. buy local and organic and kiss your farmers for all the hard work they do.
- Matt
  
  Too bad your local farmers are more than likely buying seeds from this company seeing as how they control 90% of that market!
- http://Web Maria
  
  Elana,
  I’m looking forward to going to the Santa Monica Farmers Market tomorrow morning. I wish I lived closer…I would be there every Wednesday and Saturday! And yeah….I do thank the farmers that grow organic fruits and vegetables AND drive from Ventura County and Central California!
  
  We need to support these small farmers and NOT the large agriculture corporations who are just interested in taking our money in exchange for disease, illness and medical conditions.
http://Web Evz

What could POSSIBLY go wrong??!!

I do *not* understand how this issue isn’t national news, like, every night… SURE SEEMS LIKE IT MIGHT BE IMPORTANT! egads, how did we let it get like this?! sigh… I want to kick Monsanto right in the balls; if a corporation is a “person,” I should be able to do that, right?!
- http://www.cleantechnica.com Zach
  
  haha, & AGREED!
  
  yes, i think you should totally be allowed & able to kick Monsanto in the balls 😀
- http://importantmedia.org/members/beckyanne/ Becky Striepe
  
  Yes. Yes you should.
  - http://Web Evs
    
    Right then! off i go!
    
    CCCHHHHAAAAARRRRRGGGGGE!!!! 😉
nason

I too had hope. That hope has been replaced by reality. Obama has sold you a lemon that cannot be returned. He is no different than W. Big business has and is running the show. You cast your vote in everything you purchase. Vote wisely.
- http://importantmedia.org/members/beckyanne/ Becky Striepe
  
  Amen to voting with our wallets! Now if we could just get GM food labeled here in the U.S. so we could actually make informed purchasing decisions!
http://Web tony

This is not news – the FDA, EPA have always had companies do their own research. Thy have to follow GLP standards for the testing and the data is reviewed by government scientists – this is how our medications and pesticides are approved for the last 50 years +. So get an education. And we have had GM foods for 13 years with ZERO problems
- http://www.cleantechnica.com Zach
  
  Tony, clearly you’re not actually a regular reader of our site or of GMO topics at all. we have written about dozens of documented problems with GMOs.
  
  many of them are longer-term, so while the U.S. may be suffering from them already and may suffer from them much more so in the future, the GMO industry and those bought by it will certainly claim they are not responsible.
  
  if you want to learn more about some of the problems associated with GMOs, i’ll direct you to these two links to start:
  
  http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2011/04/11/gmos-linked-to-organ-disruption-in-13-scientific-studies/
  
  http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2010/10/11/the-gmo-video/
- http://Web Evz
  
  Zero problems? Really?!! Naivete gone to seed, is what that is… do you have any idea how often Monsanto has done scientifically meaningless studies on populations like ’30 mice for 2 weeks’, then pronounced some new GMO s**t safe for humans to eat? or sued to prevent independent (read: real, meaningful) testing for safety, by actual scientists? or bribed government officials to overlook data it didn’t like? or got journalists fired for even *questioning* farmers using Monsanto products, about the problems they were causing?
  
  If you think putting the fox in charge of the hen-house is a good idea, i encourage you to give it a try… please report back afterwards, and let’s discuss.
  
  (hint: it isn’t!)
  - http://importantmedia.org/members/beckyanne/ Becky Striepe
    
    Thanks for sharing this video, Evz! I’d been wanting to watch this documentary and didn’t realize it was on YouTube! Bookmarked.
nason

Having an education does not imply that you are intelligent. GMO is not sustainable. Your logic is flawed. So if I hold my hand in the fire for 100 ms and nothing happens, surly I can hold my hand in the fire indefinitely. How many shares of MON do you own?
http://www.vegonline.org Evan

Geez, if Obama is going to actively encourage this type of regulation on industry, what president down the road is going to enact real change, providing real standards?
- http://www.cleantechnica.com zach
  
  = sad question of the day

ZacharyShahan.com

Tryin' to help the world, one letter at a time.

F***ed Up: USDA Lets GMO Companies (e.g. Monsanto) Perform Own Environmental Impact Studies