Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Court Backs Monsanto on Biotech Seed Sales
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that a federal judge had erred in prohibiting the planting of Monsanto’s genetically modified alfalfa seed until a federal government agency completed a detailed environmental review.
By a 7-to-1 vote, the justices reversed the lower-court ruling in their first decision involving genetically modified crops. At issue in the case was an environmental impact study on how the Roundup Ready seed could affect nearby crops.
Environmental groups and conventional seed companies, led by Geertson Seed Farms, had sued the Agriculture Department in 2006 to force it to rescind its approval of the Monsanto alfalfa seed until it did a full environmental study.
Monsanto, based in St. Louis, intervened on the government’s side in the case, and had appealed to the Supreme Court.
Alfalfa is the fourth-largest crop grown in the United States, covering about 23 million acres annually, Monsanto has said.
United States District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco issued the injunction barring the nationwide planting of the alfalfa seeds pending the environmental review. His decision was upheld by a federal appeals court.
In the Supreme Court’s main ruling, Justice Samuel Alito said the district court had abused its discretion in barring the Agriculture Department agency from carrying out a partial deregulation and in prohibiting the planting of the seeds, pending the completion of the environmental review.
Judge Alito also said in the opinion that the federal judge had erred in entering the nationwide injunction against planting the seeds.
Shares of Monsanto were up 0.4 percent at $50.57 in morning trading.
- Posted in
40 Comments so far
Show AllWho's the one judge who dissented?
Monsanto is to agriculture what BP is to oil exploitation. The environmental catastrophe that could occur by GMOs may make the oil disaster seem benign in my opinion. Just shows to go ya, we have the best court system that money CAN buy.
BTW, there were three questions before the Court. Monsanto won on only one. Don't get discouraged, yet. Monsatan, as I like to call them, are not where they want to be, yet.
Justice Clarence Thomas, himself a rapist, was a former employee of Monsanto. I wouldn't be surprised that he sided with the corporate rapists. Alito, Roberts, and Scalia I understand. The rest of the 7 can go to hell.
P.S.: Aquifier, the only Justice to dissent was John Paul Stevens
http://blog.taragana.com/politics
/2010/06/21
/supreme-court-lifts-ban-on-biotech
-alfalfa-paving-way-for-monsanto-to-sell-the-crop-44268/
Don't worry though. I believe Kagan is coming to keep future rulings unanimous for GMO !
If farmers had any brains, they'd BOYCOTT MONSANTO!
Now we need a law outlawing Round-up. It's evil stuff. MOST chemical substances are evil.
When farmers try boycotting Monsanto, the company sends goons into those farmers' fields to find stray plants sprouting from Monsanto seeds blown in by the wind.
Mosanto proceeds to sue those farmers for patent infringement and other charges, thereby putting those farmers out of business.
Monsanto is organized crime operating at a level of success that Don Corleone and his ilk could only dream of.
Monsanto owns the white house, US capitol and SCOTUS as much as the banksters do.
Get a clue, farmers are completely free to boycott. All they need do is to not buy from Monsanto. While Monsanto has a very large presence in the seed industry, they are not a complete monopoly. Yes, it's quite true that large corporations basically own our government, but anyone who wishes is free to start their own seed company. If you develop your own non-gmo seeds, all the profit will accrue to you.
Please re-read the post to which you replied. The question of whether someone owns another seed company is irrelevant.
q
Well, here I go again. I don't have a clue what you mean.
I agree with you. You don't have a clue. Like I said, do some research.
"If you develop your own non-gmo seeds, all the profit will accrue to you."
That's a bald-faced lie. Farmers who do non-gmo are not profit pigs. If what you said were true, then why did both parties see to it that farmers not be able to profit unless they went GMO? Do you work for Monsanto? If you do, I hope God punishes you and your satanic GMO farm.
Start your own company unless a gang of thugs (overseas) or lawyers (here at home) doesn't descend on you to stop you. Good of you to note that large corporations basically own our government.
The concept of just starting up your alternate seed business is so pathetically naive it is frightening. Corporations don't mind much given that they have their way most of the time. The one thing they do dislike intensely is competition. And if you think it is a free market out there well you are either in the pay of corporations or your brain has been colonized. Even libertarians recognize that the markets are not free and that the owned-by-corporations government constantly intercedes to protect their basic monopolies.
Great way to put it Joel. Some people act so arrogantly smug and selfish with their "do it yourself" talk that they won't see the forest from the trees. They give libertarians a bad rap.
It's not that simple. The info given above about Monsanto suing farmers because their crops are polluted by Monsanto's pollen are all true and accurate. Monsanto's goal is to own patents on all seeds and to make them sterile after the initial growth. Thus, every time you want to grow something, you have to buy new seeds from them. But don't take my word for it--do some research and see for yourself.
Prog Pat, I think you're right. Humans are made of chemical substances. Well, by golly, I believe everything is... therefore everything is evil. Satan is everywhere!
LOL!
Do you actually know anything about agriculture other than just driving to a local farmer's market? We are not in 1930 anymore.
"We are not in 1930 anymore."
No but we're getting closer thanks to the same rightwing policies that made 1930.
If left wingers had any brains they'd try to start making arguments about biotech using data and science rather than just using the same old fear-based propaganda.
Hey doofus, explain why your right wing judges are shilling for Monsanto? The left wing has already brought up cases of biotech on privacy issues but you were too busy kissing the rightwing turds. Name one thing the right wing scumbags did for the small farmers. Betchya can't even come close.
Yeah, those damn left wingers with all their alarmist propaganda about the dangers of off shore drilling, global warming and that silly fear of Chernobyl.
There is already a great deal of evidence about the risks involved in all of the above AND genetically engineered seed. If it weren't for the troops of paid lackeys manufacturing doubt and their camp-following biostitutes and such like there would not be near the debate there is on these subjects.
The epidemiological evidence is already out there in countless forms but is routinely dismissed and undermined by poison producing industries and their paid liars.
Back in the late 1980's even US News and World report recognized that the nuclear power option was idiocy. Long term idiocy that would make a number of rich people richer. There was an editorial "Let's Face it We Goofed". Which was the sanest thing I had seen in their pages.
Alarmist propaganda my ass. The f'ing canary is dying all around us and to speak up about it is alarmist. What nonsense.
Just for clarification, WHICH science are you referring to? The peer review type that tells us that GMOs are indeed cross pollinating with weeds and giving us poison resistant weeds (and eventually insects)and that global warming is a real event, or the "fuzzy" science AKA BUSH ERA? You know, the type science where the park rangers at the Grand Canyon were forbidden to give an age estimate as to how long it took to create the canyon and had to tell folks that it was the result of "the GREAT FLOOD".
Say, isn't it time for you to tune in to el-RUSBO to learn what's happening at the tea-baggers reunion? "fear-based propaganda"..... sometimes the truth is scary.
They can't boycott Monsanto.
The Monsanto seeds cross pollinate and imprint the regular crops and then those farmers get charged for
using Monsanto seeds.
Sinister huh?
Monsanto is poison. Their seeds are designed not to resist disease but to tolerate large quantiies of pesticides and herbicides which make their way into our food supply. These crops contaminate organic crops are an environmental disaster. They are implicated in the crash of bee populations and threat to other wildlife.
Monsanto monitors the farmers in ways which are gross violations of their civil rights and drags them into court if they seek a new supply or, God forbid, save seed. Monsanto always wins.
This Supreme Court are no less toxic and dangerous than Monsanto. They curtail rather than protect our civil rights, sell out our democracy to the highest bidder and are a substantial threat to the health of the planet. They can be impeached but our conflict averse, timid little president will just appoint more of the same.
We need a new process for appointing judges that falls outside the political arena. We need more checks and balances on this branch of government to avoid a repeat of the grossly corrupt and anti-democratic mob that dominate the courts today.
Obama's latest SCOTUS nominee Elena Kagan will move SCTUS further right.
That may be true, but for my money I'd take her any day over, Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, or Alito. Those Republican nominees are the pits.
The Supreme Court has been bunk in my book since they ruled against Gore in that shady election.
GMO seeds and crops are number one in my book on danger to life as we know it.
They will allow masses of people to be fed but there will be no more bees or butterflies left or anything is else that connected to plant and insect cycles.
Add to that the increase in toxic chemicals and there goes our water supply.
Basically these meglomaniacs want to own the world's food supply.
They should be put in prison where they can't hurt anyone.
Without bees to pollinate the crops, there won't be any. All Monsanto seeds are resistant to "Round-Up," which is owned and manufactured by Monsanto. So not only are they sinister, they made their own sweet business deal. Score--twice.
There's that nasty word 'deregulate' again.
I am in the chemical industry. Monsanto is monopolistic with their tactics and their chemistry is pretty nasty as well.
On a different note, plant genetics should not be allowed to have patents on them. Its ok if they want to engineer their plants, people have been doing it for centuries to create different varieties for heat tolerance and thousands of other things. I wonder, do golf grasses have patents? They are super engineered grasses....
There is another court battle going on with Monsanto that could shut down the plant patenting b.s.
hopefully, this will happen....
Look at the history of Monsanto...It is not good at all. And who would doubt this court's decision in a case involving a giant like Monsanto?
I wish I could vote to invalidate Monsanto's alien existence. They're not persons and should be disincorporated by whatever state allowed its incorporation, effective immediately.
There is no need for "Roundup Ready" alfalfa. Alfalfa grows quite well without added toxins. Besides, mother nature seems to be providing new strains of Roundup resistant weeds, so our land is once again being poisoned for profit.
This is an environmental disaster in the making.
Never Give Up.
Human beings' health and welfare be damned.
This is what I read about the ruling from The Center on Food Safety.
High Court Delivers Ruling that Leaves Ban on Planting of Roundup Ready Alfalfa in Place in First-Ever Case on a Genetically-Engineered Crop
The United States Supreme Court announced its decision today in Monsanto v. Geerston Farms, the first genetically modified crop case ever brought before the Supreme Court. Although the High Court decision reverses parts of the lower courts’ rulings, the judgment holds that the ban on planting Roundup Ready Alfalfa still stands until and unless future deregulation by the Agency occurs. This is a major victory for the Center for Food Safety and the Farmers and Consumers it represents!
In the majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito, the Court held: “In sum…the vacatur of APHIS’s deregulation decision means that virtually no RRA (Roundup Ready Alfalfa) can be grown or sold until such time as a new deregulation decision is in place, and we also know that any party aggrieved by a hypothetical future deregulation decision will have ample opportunity to challenge it, and to seek appropriate preliminary relief, if and when such a decision is made.” (Opinion at p. 22).
The Court also held that:
* Any further attempt to commercialize RRA even in part may require an EIS subject to legal challenge.
* The Court further recognized that the threat of transgenic contamination is harmful and onerous to organic and conventional farmers and that the injury allows them to challenge future biotech crop commercializations in court.
USDA indicated at the Supreme Court argument that full deregulation is about a year away and that they will not pursue a partial deregulation in the interim. Any new attempt at deregulation in full or part will still be subject to legal challenge.
Many of you may have read press this morning reporting that the 7-1 decision announced by the Supreme Court today went entirely in Monsanto's favor. Not to our surprise, Monsanto’s PR machine is working hard to overpower the truth in today's decision in the first-ever Supreme Court case on genetically engineered crops (Monsanto Co. v. Geertson Seed Farms). While the decision is complicated, this Court opinion is in many ways a victory for CFS and a defeat against Monsanto—especially given that it is still illegal to sell or plant GMO alfalfa.
CFS’s Executive Director, Andrew Kimbrell authored an article in today's Huffington Post to help clarify the legal ramifications of the decision. Grist also has a good piece outlining the decision, as does Eco Centric.
Despite what Monsanto is claiming—and what many mainstream media outlets reported earlier this morning—today’s ruling isn’t even close to the victory they were hoping for. Generally speaking, Monsanto asked the Supreme Court to rule on three main issues: (1) to lift the injunction on GMO alfalfa; (2) to allow the planting and sale of GMO alfalfa; (3) to rule that contamination from GMO crops not be considered irreparable harm.
In fact, the court only ruled on the first request which it did affirm by stating that the injunction was overly broad and should be overturned. However, the Court ruled in CFS's favor on the other two issues, which in many ways are more important as the fact remains that the planting and sale of GMO alfalfa remains illegal. The Supreme Court ruled that an injunction against planting was simply unnecessary since, under lower courts’ rulings, Roundup Ready Alfalfa became a regulated item and illegal to plant. In other words, the injunction was “overkill’ because our victory in lower federal court determined that USDA violated the National Environmental Protection Act and other environmental laws when it approved Roundup Ready alfalfa. The court felt that voiding the USDA’s decision to make the crop legally available for sale was enough.
The Center is victorious in this case in several other ways: most importantly, the High Court did not rule on several arguments presented by Monsanto about the application of federal environmental law. As a result, the Court did not make any ruling that could have been hurtful to National Environmental Policy Act or any other environmental laws. In addition, the Court opinion supported the Center’s argument that gene flow is a serious environmental and economic threat. This means that genetic contamination from GMOs can still be considered harm under the law, both from an environmental and economic perspective, another huge victory for CFS.
We could not have gone all the way to the Supreme Court without your support—thank you! Your letters, phone calls and donations have been invaluable in the efforts to ban GE alfalfa. We will keep you updated on any Agency attempts to deregulate GE alfalfa and on the ongoing EIS process. In the meantime, if you have not already done so, please take a moment to contact your Congressional representatives and ask them to sign the “Dear Colleague” letter circulating in the U.S. House and Senate urging USDA to ban GE alfalfa.
Further background information on the history of this case and scientific studies are available at http://truefoodnow.org/publications/supreme-court-briefs/. Today’s press release can be found here: http://truefoodnow.org/2010/06/21/supreme-court-ruling-in-monsanto-case-is-victory-for-center-for-food-safety-farmers/#more-1217, and The Supreme Court decision can be viewed here: http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/09pdf/09-475.pdf
If you think that "deregulation" is not underway, you got some history lessons to catch up to.
Monsanto is the BP of the food industry.
And how many judges got 'paid under the table'???
Wanna be REALLY scared?
http://www.freespeech.org/video/silent-forest