Federal Law Suit Filed Seeking to Uproot Genetically Engineered Crops from Southeastern National Wildlife Refuges

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On August 11, 2011, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), the Center for Food Safety (CFS), and Beyond Pesticides, filed suit (see complaint here) against the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The plaintiffs are claiming that FWS unlawfully entered into cooperative farming agreements, approving cultivation of genetically engineered crops in eight states, without the environmental review necessary under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and in violation of FWS policy. The lawsuit is aimed at 25 specific refuges throughout eight states (list of states and refuges here). PEER and CFS already succeeded in challenging biotech plantings in Deleware in 2009 and 2010, forcing FWS to terminate all such plantings throughout the entire 12-state Northeast (view the settlement agreement here). Success in this current suit would enjoin planting of genetically engineered crops in the Southeast region until the rigorous requirements of NEPA are met. Read the PEER Press Release here.

Written/Posted by Tanya J. Cramoy, Research Assistant