Tag: Alfalfa
Organic Infighting over GE Alfalfa
The USDA announced recently that Roundup Ready® alfalfa is cleared to be planted anywhere in the US without restrictions. In contrast to previous GE crop approvals, this time the USDA listed three potential options, the first being no approval at all, the second, unrestricted approval, and the third, approval with certain geographic restrictions. (For some…
Biofortified on the Alfalfa EIS
Yesterday, the comment period for the Genetically Engineered Glyphosate-Tolerant Alfalfa Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) ended. Next to sugar beets, perhaps no other GE crop has received the kind of regulatory attention that this one has. Consequently, Anastasia and I decided to submit a joint comment to the USDA with Biofortified.org’s name attached to it. There…
What the heck is alfalfa, anyway?
Alfalfa by TwoWings via Wikimedia Commons. Alfalfa is an awesome plant that is quite unique among field crops. It’s a legume, which means it can fix nitrogen (meaning less nitrogen fertilizer needs to be added) as well as being one of very few perennial crops, which means it can be left in the field to grow year…
Vilsack looks for solution on coexistence
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has some pretty complicated problems facing his Department. On the one hand, he has biotech companies developing products that have been determined by science to be safe and many farmers who wish to use them. On the other hand, he has a small but growing group of organic farmers who…
Supreme Court decides on Alfalfa case
In what (for me) seemed like no time at all, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has issued its ruling on the Roundup Ready Alfalfa case. In a landslide 7:1 ruling (with one recusing), the high court has lifted the nationwide ban on planting genetically engineered herbicide-tolerant alfalfa. What does this mean for…
Supreme Court hearing on GMO Alfalfa
There is certainly a lot of commotion about the first ever US Supreme Court hearing involving genetically engineered crops, which is being held today. The case is Monsanto Company v. Geertson Seed Farms, (SCOTUS Wiki) and depending on how this turns out, it could mean the end of genetically engineered alfalfa forever or the eventual…