food agriculture Archives

December 3, 2024

Court rules USDA’s GE crop rules break law, must be reworked

By Douglas Main

US regulators made “significant” errors in adopting a new rule four years ago around the release of genetically modified crops, and must now strengthen oversight, a federal court ruled this week.

The US District Court for the Northern District of California sided with the National Family Farm Coalition and other plaintiffs in finding that a rule issued in 2020 by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) related to regulation of genetically engineered (GE) crops ran afoul of other federal laws.

Close to 100 new GE plants have been exempted from USDA oversight since the 2020 rule took effect. The court vacated the rule, effective Dec. 2, and sent it back to USDA for “reconsideration consistent with this order.”

“This is a critical victory on behalf of farmers, the planet, and scientific integrity,” George Kimbrell, legal director for the plaintiff Center for Food Safety, and counsel in the case, said in a statement. “USDA tried to hand over its job to [the] pesticide industry and the Court held that capitulation contrary to both law and science.”

Up until 2020, most GE crops were evaluated by the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) before they were allowed to be used commercially. But during the first Trump Administration, the agency took a deregulatory course, making it easier to bring new genetically altered plants to market.

Several environmental groups sued in 2021, arguing that these 2020 rules violated the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the Plant Protection Act.

In this week’s decision, US District Judge James Donato ruled that the USDA violated the Plant Protection Act, as well as the Administrative Procedure Act, by failing to account for harm caused by the 2020 rules. In re-writing these regulations, Donato wrote: “APHIS’s errors are significant.”

October 25, 2023

Glyphosate cancer findings of “extreme concern” as Europe weighs reauthorization of pesticide

By Carey Gillam

European researchers have found new evidence linking popular weed killing products to cancer at levels currently considered safe.

The study focused on glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup herbicide and other brands, and is the latest of a series of studies examining the safety of the world’s most widely used weed-killing chemical.

Notably, the work comes as the European Union is wrestling over whether or not to keep glyphosate products on the market after the current approval expires in December.

The research has not yet been peer reviewed, but was presented Wednesday at an international scientific conference.

“We felt an urgency to present this data, and provide it to policy makers and the public,” said Daniele Mandrioli, director of the Ramazzini Institute in Bologna, Italy, which is overseeing a multi-faceted research program investigating glyphosate impacts called the Global Glyphosate Study.

“This is of extreme concern. We couldn’t sit on this data,” Mandrioli said.

Glyphosate is so widely used that it is ubiquitous in the environment- commonly found in food, water and human urine samples.