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Judge Rejects Approval of Engineered Sugar Beets
countertrolling writes "A federal judge has ruled that the government failed to adequately assess the environmental impacts of genetically engineered sugar beets before approving the crop for cultivation in the United States. The decision could lead to a ban on the planting of the beets, which have been widely adopted by farmers. Beets supply about half the nation's sugar, with the rest coming from sugar cane. The Agriculture Department did conduct an environmental assessment before approving the genetically engineered beets in 2005 for widespread planting. But the department concluded there would be no significant impact, so a fuller environmental impact statement was not needed. But Judge White said that the pollen from the genetically engineered crops might spread to non-engineered beets. He said that the 'potential elimination of farmer's choice to grow non-genetically engineered crops, or a consumer's choice to eat non-genetically engineered food' constituted a significant effect on the environment that necessitated an environmental impact statement. There's still hope, isn't there? That we can at least get this stuff labeled properly?"
No one has been sued for genetic drift.
The farmer that was sued lost the case because he isolated the plants that were pollinated by his neighbours crop, and specifically selected for the GM trait.
You might have a point if he hadn't known his neighbours were using GM rapeseed, or if he didn't know what it did.
He lost the case because he knowingly derived the GM trait from plants he knew had it. The court found that this was no different from seed saving.
Now, you could argue that we shouldn't allow Monsanto to charge an ongoing license, or that they shouldn't be able to prevent what the farmer did and I'd agree with you, but that has nothing to do with GM crops. You can get a patent on a plant strain developed the slow way, too.
I'm just not frothing at the mouth over them.
He didn't lose the case due to cross pollination. He lost the case because he specifically sought out the plants that had been cross pollinated, and used Roundup overdoses to kill any that *hadn't* been cross pollinated.
No one has been successfully sued due to natural cross pollination.