56 Lawmakers Ask USDA to Deny GMO Alfalfa

[cali]

by Helena Bottemiller | Jun 24, 2010

Fifty-six lawmakers, including 50 representatives and six senators, sent a letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack yesterday asking that the agency retain the regulated status of genetically modified (GMO) alfalfa.

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT.) and Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-OR) led the effort, which comes just days after the U.S. Supreme Court rescinded a nationwide ban on Monsanto's Roundup Ready alfalfa, directly in response to a USDA Draft Environmental Impact Statement finding "No Significant Impact" from using the agrigiant's genetically engineered (GE), herbicide-resistant seeds.

gmo-alfalfa1-featured.jpgThe high court's ruling this week maintains that it is up to the USDA to complete a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on GMO alfalfa before fulling deregulating it. As a release from Sen. Leahy's office noted yesterday, genetically modified crops are subject to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, which requires federal agencies to review the environmental impacts of proposed actions. The agency did not conduct a full Environmental Impact Statement before deregulating Roundup Ready alfalfa in 2005.

In their letter yesterday, lawmakers sharply questioned the agency's current evaluation and preliminary finding. "We have concluded that USDA's preliminary finding of 'No Significant Impact' cannot be justified and we call on you to correct the serious deficiencies in the and to deny the request for deregulated GE alfalfa."

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http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/06/56-lawmakers-ask-usda-to-deny-gmo-alfalfa/

[SpiralHawk]

1. Americans do not want corporate (R) mutant facsimile 'food product'

We want clean food.

Stop the mutant perversion of the seed, food, and farm animal chain. It is, over time, creating Mutant Nature & Mutnt Humans: Generation M.

[cali]

3. I think you're wrong. Most Americans want their junk

[era veteran]

2. Monsanto=Evil

Monsanto will go down in history as the single worst company ever for the planet,,,,DDT, Agent Orange,Roundup, suicides of seed carders in India, and this genetically modified seed that will RUIN the seed base///// Monsanto is the Evil Empire