Why Monsanto Always Wins

http://www.truth-out.org/why-monsanto-always-wins67976

Why Monsanto Always Wins

Tuesday 22 February 2011

by: Mike Ludwig, t r u t h o u t | Report

The recent approval of Monsanto's Roundup Ready alfalfa is one of
most divisive controversies in American agriculture, but in 2003, it
was simply the topic at hand in a string of emails between the US
Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Monsanto. In the emails, federal
regulators and Monsanto officials shared edits to a list of the
USDA's questions about Monsanto's original petition to fully legalize
the alfalfa. Later emails show a USDA regulator accepted Monsanto's
help with drafting the initial environmental assessment (EA) of the
alfalfa and planned to "cut and paste" parts of Monsanto's revised
petition right into the government's assessment.

The emails were uncovered during a lawsuit filed by the Center for
Food Safety (CFS) and concerned farmers that challenged the USDA's
decision to approve Roundup Ready alfalfa in 2005. The CFS views the
emails as prime evidence of "collusion" between the biotech industry
and public officials charged with regulating genetically engineered
(GE) crops. It's unclear if such internal cooperation continues under
the current administration, but regulators still openly rely on data
and research provided by the biotech industry when approving GE
technology.

? It's unclear if such internal cooperation continues under the
current administration, but regulators still openly rely on data and
research provided by the biotech industry when approving GE
technology.

A federal judge temporarily banned the alfalfa in 2007 as a result of
the CFS lawsuit, but last summer, the Supreme Court ruled that the
USDA could reconsider deregulating the GE alfalfa after completing an
environmental impact statement (EIS). The USDA fully deregulated the
alfalfa on January 27, 2011.

Like the GE corn and soybeans that now dominate agribusiness, Roundup
Ready alfalfa is genetically engineered to tolerate glyphosate-based
herbicides like Monsanto's Roundup. Farmers can plant Roundup Ready
crops and blanket their fields with the herbicide knowing that weeds
will be killed and the Roundup Ready crops will be spared.

Back in 2003, USDA officials were concerned about "deficiencies" in
Monsanto's original petition to deregulate the GE alfalfa seeds, so
they drafted a letter with about 90 questions for Monsanto. In
several emails, officials working with the USDA's Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service (APHIS) asked Monsanto officials to comment
and "suggest improvements" on at least three drafts of the
"deficiency letter." Monsanto was happy to redraft the letter point
by point.

Monsanto withdrew its original petition in February 2004 after two
undocumented conference calls with APHIS personnel. One month before
the final petition was submitted in April, Monsanto regulatory
officer Glen Rogan sent two emails to APHIS petition reviewer Virgil
Meier indicating that Monsanto was willing to help draft the USDA's
EA of Roundup Ready alfalfa. APHIS conducts EA's to assess the
potential environmental impacts of proposed agricultural products.

Rogan asked Meier to consult his boss and colleagues about the
possibility of Monsanto assisting in the assessment because it would
be "precedent setting." Meier, who was in charge of writing the EA,
accepted Monsanto's help and said he would "cut and paste"
information right from petition into the EA:

If you are willing to provide assistance with the EA, I would
appreciate it. At this time, no one has voiced concern with this so I
am assuming that there is no problem. In a related matter, because I
am supposed to write the EA, I would appreciate receiving an
electronic copy of the petition (Word?) so I can do cut and paste
which I think will speed up the completion of the EA.

Bill Freese, a policy analyst with CFS, said this kind of cooperation
between federal regulators and the biotech industry is unacceptable.
"It should go without saying that an applicant should play no role in
APHIS's regulatory review of an applicant's product, beyond supplying
requested information," Freese wrote in a 2009 letter to the
USDA. The USDA did not respond to Freese's letter, but a spokesperson
told Truthout that the USDA works closely with industry petitioners
and can include some information from a petition in the EA.

Freese told Truthout that the approval process for controversial GE
crops like Roundup Ready alfalfa is basically a "sham" designed to
increase consumer confidence in the controversial GE crops. Freese
has been fighting the battle against biotech for years, and he can't
remember a single case when regulators failed to eventually grant
approval of a GE crop.

Sham or not, the final EIS that led to the final approval of Roundup
Ready alfalfa is a massive document that dives deep into the
scientific debates over GE crops. Opponents argue that Roundup Ready
alfalfa will threaten organic crops with herbicide drifts, increase
the presence of an already growing list of herbicide-resistant weeds
and inevitably contaminate conventional and organic alfalfa with
transgenes through cross-pollination. The EIS contains evidence of
these risks, but the USDA considers them inherent to modern
agriculture and ruled that Roundup Ready alfalfa poses no more "plant
pest risks" than conventional or organic alfalfa varieties.

The humble alfalfa crop provides more to Americans than crunchy
sprouts for salads and sandwiches. Farmers plant millions of acres of
alfalfa to produce forage seed and hay to feed cows and other
livestock. The ever-growing organic dairy industry, for example,
depends on naturally grown alfalfa products to feed its livestock,
and in turn, the millions of Americans who eat organic food. The
possibility that Roundup Ready alfalfa could cross-pollinate and
infect non-GE organic alfalfa is a key issue for organic farmers. If
the Roundup Ready transgene spreads to non-GE alfalfa - which critics
like Freese claim is inevitable - then the industry may have to
change the standards for determining what can be labeled "organic"
and "natural," and the growing organic food industry could face
millions of dollars in losses if their alfalfa is contaminated with
Monsanto transgenes.

The USDA claims that the probability of gene flow between GE and
non-GE alfalfa is very low, but the EIS does document several
instances of transgenic contamination. About 200,000 acres of Roundup
Ready alfalfa in 48 states were planted and harvested in 2005 and
2006 before the CFS lawsuit forced a ban. During this time, two
alfalfa seed production firms, Dairyland and Cal/West Seeds, reported
transgenic contamination in non-GE alfalfa seeds in California,
Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. Dairyland reported contamination rates
hovering around 1 percent, but in 2009, Cal/West reported that 12
percent of more than 200 alfalfa seed lots were contaminated with
transgenes, and in 2008, all six of the firm's research lots tested
positive for GE contamination. Preliminary data from 2009 showed that
30 percent of seed stock lots were contaminated.

Forage Genetics International, the company that developed Roundup
Ready alfalfa for Monsanto, provides the largest data set on
cross-contamination in the USDA's final EIS. A report conducted by
Forage Genetics on the "best practices" established by the industry
for growing Roundup Ready alfalfa found cross-contamination rates
between 0 and .18 percent. Critics like Freese say data provided by
the industry doesn't belong in the USDA's assessments, but the USDA
claims the data shows "acceptable" rates of transgenic contamination.

Freese and the CFS are not the only advocates concerned about the
economic impacts of cross-contamination. In June 2010, 55 members of
Congress joined Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) in sending a letter to
the USDA requesting the department decide against deregulating
Roundup Ready alfalfa. Citing alfalfa seed markets in countries that
have banned GE seeds and data provided by Dairyland and Cal/West
Seeds, Leahy and his supporters claim the US could lose $197 million
annually in alfalfa seed and forage exports as a result of GE
contamination of organic and conventional seeds.

The letter also questions the need for Roundup Ready alfalfa when
only 7 percent of alfalfa hay is currently treated with herbicides.
Freese said alfalfa is often treated with chemicals sprayed by
airplanes, and the CFS is concerned that aerial sprays of Roundup
could drift onto conventional and organic alfalfa plots and damage
crops that are not resistant to Roundup. According to some estimates,
Roundup Ready alfalfa could increase herbicide use by up to 23
million pounds per year.

The increased reliance on glyphosate-based herbicides like Roundup
has caused weeds to develop their own tolerance to the chemical.
Herbicide-resistant weeds, sometimes called "superweeds," now infest
millions of acres of cropland. Farmers now combat the weeds with
cocktails of herbicides like 2,4 D - an ingredient in Agent Orange -
that are know to be more toxic than glyphosate. In all, farmers have
used at least 318 million more pounds of herbicides and pesticides in
the past 13 years as a result of planting GE crop seeds like Roundup
Ready corn and soy.

The USDA, however, concluded that new glyphosate-resistant weeds
would be slow to develop in Roundup Ready alfalfa stands.

Freese said the USDA chose to ignore important data in favor of
outdated research and information provided by firms with close
connections to the biotech industry. "APHIS cites studies on
herbicide use with Roundup Ready crops that were done in the late
1990s," Freese said. "That was before any glyphosate-resistant weeds
had evolved, and so before the time when their emergence began
driving the big increase in herbicide use we've been seeing since
2001."

Freese said that, like the data provided on cross-contamination
provided by Forage Genetics, the USDA relies on data from
industry-funded groups like the National Center for Food and
Agriculture Policy (NCFAP) and PG Economics.

The biotech industry plays hardball in Congress as well. One week
before Roundup Ready alfalfa was deregulated, USDA Secretary Tom
Vilsack testified before the House Committee on Agriculture, where
Chairmen Frank Lucas (R-Oklahoma) led a charge to press the USDA to
fully deregulate the alfalfa. A political action committee and
individuals associated with Monsanto donated $11,000 to Lucas'
campaign last year, and Lucas has received $1,247,844 from the
agribusiness industry during his political career, according to
watchdog site www.opensecrets.org. Since 1999, the top 50 companies
holding agricultural or food patents have spent more than $572
million in campaign contributions and lobbying efforts, according to
a report released last year.

The USDA does invite the American public to weigh in on controversial
issues like GE crops, and the CFS reports that, last spring, 200,000
people submitted letters "highly critical" of the department's draft
conclusions on Roundup Ready alfalfa. "Clearly the USDA was not
listening to the public or farmers but rather to just a handful of
corporations," CFS Director Anthony Kimbrell said after Roundup Ready
alfalfa was fully legalized. The public comments may have fallen on
deaf ears, or perhaps they were just drowned out by the booming voice
of a biotech industry that refuses to take no for an answer.