In a message dated 1/11/2011 7:02:34 P.M. Central Standard Time,  
[log in to unmask] writes:

In one  federal court district, a victory (many years after the problem  
surfaced).  Banning GE in wildlife refuges located in other federal court  
districts will take more time and effort.  

-=-=-=-=-   

Fish & Wildlife Drops GM Crops in 12 States
by Dan  Flynn
Food Safety News
Jan 11, 2011
_http://bit.ly/e4tDKy_ (http://bit.ly/e4tDKy) 

In  the ongoing, confusing court battles over process involving genetically 
 engineered (GE) or genetically modified (GM) crops, the U.S. Fish &  
Wildlife Service has run up one white flag.

A unit of the U.S.  Department of the Interior, Fish & Wildlife has agreed 
to stop planting GE  crops on its refuges in a dozen northeastern states.

That ends a  federal lawsuit brought against the agency by activist groups 
that oppose  genetically altered crops. The federal government will continue 
to use GM  crops on as many as 75 refuges in other areas the country. More 
lawsuits are  possible.

The settled lawsuit was in the U.S. District Court for  Delaware, filed 
against the federal government by the Widener Environmental  and Natural 
Resources Law Clinic on behalf of Delaware Audubon Society, Public  Employees for 
Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and the Center for Food  Safety.

It claimed the Fish & Wildlife Service had illegally  entered into 
Cooperative Farming Agreements with private parties, allowing  hundreds of acres on 
its Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware to  be planted with GM 
crops without the environmental review required by the  National 
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

In settling the suit, the  U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service promised to revoke 
any authorization for  further GE agriculture at Bombay Hook and four other 
refuges with GE  crops--the Rappahannock River Valley Refuge and the Eastern 
Shore of Virginia  Refuge, Montezuma Refuge in New York and Blackwater 
Refuge of Maryland--unless  and until an appropriate NEPA analysis is completed, 
a condition that has yet  to be met for GE agriculture on a National 
Wildlife Refuge.

"For  Delawareans, this is a victory for the protection of vital public 
resources in  our state," said Mark Martell, president of the Delaware Audubon 
Society.  "Our aim was to end illegal and destructive agriculture on the 
Delaware  refuges but we are delighted to have this victory extended to other 
refuges  along the Great Eastern Flyway."

In March 2009, the same groups won a  similar lawsuit against GE plantings 
on Delaware's Prime Hook National  Wildlife Refuge.  In August 2009, several 
environmental groups led by the  Center for Food Safety and PEER wrote to 
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to  alert him to the implications of the Prime 
Hook ruling, asking him to issue a  moratorium on all GE crop cultivation 
in National Wildlife Refuges.   But  Secretary Salazar never responded to the 
letter and his agency, which oversees  the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, 
was unwilling to extend the Bombay Hook  settlement beyond the Northeast 
region.

"Planting genetically  engineered crops on wildlife refuges is resource 
management malpractice,"  stated PEER Senior Counsel Paula Dinerstein, noting 
that Fish & Wildlife  Service policy explicitly forbids "genetically modified 
agricultural crops in  refuge management unless [they] determine their use 
is essential to  accomplishing refuge purpose(s)."  "GE crops serve no 
legitimate refuge  purpose, thus refuge officials must resort to outright 
fictions to claim these  crops benefit wildlife."

PEER and the Center for Food Safety are pursue  litigation in the 
Southeast, where many refuges still grow GE crops.  National wildlife refuges have 
allowed farming for decades, but in  recent years refuge farming has been 
converted to GE crops because that is  only seed farmers can obtain.  Today, the 
majority of crops grown on  refuges are genetically engineered.  Some 
scientists warn that GE crops  can lead to increased pesticide use on refuges, 
which they say can harm birds,  aquatic animals, and other wildlife.  

"GE crops have no place in  National Wildlife Refuges," said Paige 
Tomaselli, staff attorney with the  Center for Food Safety.  "These 
pesticide-resistant crops pose  significant risks to the very wildlife those refuges serve 
to protect,  including massively increasing pesticide use and creating of  
pesticide-resistant super weeds.  This Northeast region-wide ban is an  
important step in the right direction, but the Fish & Wildlife Service  must stop 
planting these crops in other regions as well."

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