APHIS Prepares Draft EIS on GE Alfalfa, Public Comments Solicited

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), responding to a directive issued by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, has prepared a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) on genetically engineered (GE) alfalfa. The agency has preliminarily determined that granting GE alfalfa nonregulated status will have “no significant impact on the human environment.” The draft, which runs more than 1,400 pages, will be available for a 60-day public comment period once it is published in the Federal Register.

The agency will conduct four public meetings on the proposed EIS; they will take place in January and February 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada; Kearney, Nebraska; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Washington, D.C. The GE crop at issue is referred to as Roundup Ready® alfalfa, engineered to be resistant to the herbicide glyphosate. The Ninth Circuit enjoined Monsanto from selling the GE seed and farmers from planting it until APHIS finalizes an EIS, having found that the agency did not adequately document “potential, or lack of potential, environmental impacts.” The successful litigants convinced the court that potential harm to conventional and organic crops from seed drift were concerns that had to be accounted for under the National Environmental Protection Act. See USDA News Release, December 14, 2009.