Sustainable Agriculture Literature Review - Boulder County

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has flowered. However, there are conditions that increase the chance of gene transfer,
such as excess heat and late harvests where seed is allowed to mature. 511
Opponents, many of them organic farmers, believe that GE alfalfa will cross-pollinate
and contaminate organic and other non-GE crops, which would destroy the value of
these crops. For more information on cross-pollination, see section 6.4 Seeds.
Consumer opponents are concerned with GE alfalfa being transferred up the food chain
into foods for human consumption such as beef and dairy products. The Secretary of
Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, stated that the USDA would take steps to ensure that GE
alfalfa would not cross-pollinate. Jeff Wolt, an agronomist at the Iowa State University
Seed Science Center, does not believe that this is possible, stating, “some degree of
cross-pollination will occur regardless of what mechanism is going to be put in place.” 512
The UDSA states that it will commit one million dollars to the Biotechnology Risk
Assessment Grants program to restrict pollen flow and to promote co-existence of alfalfa
production. 513 This initiative will be implemented after deregulation. 514 As it stands now,
creating a barrier to minimize risk of contamination is the responsibility of the non-GE
farmers, because there is no regulation stating that GE alfalfa has to be planted at a
certain distance from non-GE crops.
GE crop contamination has been a problem in the past, with over 200 episodes reported,
costing farmers hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue. 515 The Center for Food
Safety has already filed a lawsuit against the USDA because the organization believes
that the Final Environmental Impact Statement was rushed, and believes that several
factors were not properly assessed. 516
Regulation of GE Sugar Beet Planting
On February 4, 2011, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service released the following statement, “APHIS has determined that the
Roundup Ready (RR) sugar beet root crop, when grown under APHIS imposed
conditions, can be partially deregulated without posing a plant pest risk or having a
significant effect on the environment.” 517 The Monsanto Company (Monsanto) and the
seed company KWS issued the request for partial deregulation of RR sugar beets. 518
Some of these mandatory conditions for the partial deregulation of RR sugar beet root
crop production activities and seed production activities include: 519
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! Planting of H7‐1 sugar beets is not allowed in the state of California, and the
following counties in Washington State: Clallam, Clark, Cowlitz, Grays
Harbor, Island, Jefferson, King, Kitsap, Lewis, Mason, Pacific, Pierce, San
Juan, Skagit, Skamania, Snohomish, Thurston, Wahkiakum, and Whatcom.
! Root growers shall ensure that root crop fields are surveyed to identify and
eliminate any bolters before they produce pollen. Root growers shall maintain
all records of inspection and bolter removal and records must be made
available to APHIS/BRS and/or to authorized third party inspectors upon
request.
! Third party inspectors procured by beet processors (usually a cooperative)
shall randomly choose a statistically representative sample of fields and
conduct inspection for bolters. If bolters are identified, field personnel shall be
notified immediately and those bolters must be removed.
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