Sierra Club is part of this!!
MANY thanks to Neil Carman, PhD, one of the  scientists who volunteers on 
Sierra Club's Genetic Engineering Action Team  (GEAT) - for all his 
relentless work on this!
laurel hopwood, GEAT Chair


For Immediate Release, July 1,  2010


Contacts:  
Marc Fink, Center for Biological Diversity,  (218) 525-3884
George Kimbrell, Int'l Center for Technology  Assessment/Center for Food 
Safety, (571) 527-8618
Anne Petermann, Global Justice Ecology  Project, (802) 578-0477


Lawsuit Filed to Halt Release of Genetically  Engineered Eucalyptus Trees 
Across the American South


Fort Pierce, Fla.- An alliance of conservation  organizations today sued 
the U.S. Department of Agriculture over its approval of  open-air field tests 
of a genetically engineered (GE) hybrid of eucalyptus tree  across the 
southern United States. The permit, issued to a company called  ArborGen, which 
is a joint initiative of International Paper, MeadWestvaco and  Rubicon, was 
approved May 12 with minimal environmental review. It authorizes  the 
experimental planting and flowering of a new, genetically engineered hybrid  on 28 
secret sites across seven southern states - Alabama, Florida, Georgia,  
Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas.


"In refusing to prepare a detailed  environmental review, the Department of 
Agriculture ignored serious risks before  permitting this action," said 
Marc Fink, an attorney with the Center for  Biological Diversity. "Federal 
agencies can't be allowed to neglect their duty  to the public trust. Once this 
genie is out of the bottle and escapes to  neighboring lands, it's 
irreversible."


ArborGen hopes its GE "cold-tolerant"  Eucalyptus will become widely 
planted for pulp and biomass. But eucalyptus trees  are not native to the United 
States and are known to become invasive, displacing  native wildlife and 
plants in various areas around the country and increasing  wildfire risk. 
"Releasing GE cold-tolerant Eucalyptus trees into the wild in  multiple states 
greatly increases the risk they will spread uncontrollably  throughout the 
region," said Dr. Neil Carman of the Sierra Club.


In approving the GE eucalyptus permits, the  Department of Agriculture 
ignored the concerns of numerous agencies and  scientists, including the Georgia 
Department of Natural Resources and the  Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council, 
which formally criticized the proposed open  field tests of these 
genetically engineered trees.


In addition to approving these test sites,  Agriculture is also considering 
a "deregulation" petition submitted by ArborGen  that would allow 
widespread commercial planting of GE Eucalyptus without any  limits or regulation. 
According to the U.S. Forest Service, GE Eucalyptus  plantations in the 
southern United States would use more than twice the water of  pine plantations in 
a region already suffering from a depleted water  supply.


"These tests include planting over a quarter  of a million genetically 
engineered eucalyptus trees along the Gulf Coast and  into South Carolina," said 
Anne Petermann of Global Justice Ecology Project and  the STOP GE Trees 
Campaign. "Ultimately they plan to produce up to half a  billion GE eucalyptus 
seedlings annually for planting across the U.S. South.  This would be 
another disaster for these beleaguered Gulf Coast states, leading  to a loss of 
native forests and biodiversity, depleting ground water and  worsening climate 
change."


The _Government Accountability Office_ 
(http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d0960.pdf)  and _USDA inspector general_ 
(http://www.usda.gov/oig/webdocs/50601-08-TE.pdf)  have both issued sharply critical reports on the USDA's  
management of genetically engineered organism (GMO) field tests. In 2006,  a _GE  
rice field test contaminated southern U.S.  long-grain rice fields, causing 
billions in losses to farmers; in 2007, a  federal court found that a_ 
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/21/AR2006112101265.html
)  _GE bentgrass field test had contaminated a protected  national 
grassland in Oregon. "The Department of Agriculture continues to tell  the public 
that no further restrictions are needed on these novel organisms,"  said 
George Kimbrell, an attorney for the plaintiffs. "In light of history,  their 
empty promises here ring hollow."_ 
(http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/21/business/21grass.html?_r=3&pagewanted=2) 


"Over the last generation the people of the  South have watched the forests 
of our region destroyed by industrial forestry,  impacting our water 
quality, wildlife habitat and quality of life," said Scot  Quaranda of Dogwood 
Alliance. "The federal government's decision to approve the  use of GE 
Eucalyptus trees in our region will open the door to further  exploitation of the 
people and forests of the South. This decision must be  overturned."

The organizations are represented by attorneys  Marc Fink of the Center for 
Biological Diversity, George Kimbrell of the  International Center for 
Technology Assessment and the Center for Food Safety,  and Jeanne Marie 
Zokovitch Paben, director of the Earth Advocacy Clinic at Barry  University School 
of Law.


To read comments submitted by Georgia  Department of Natural Resources, 
click _here._ 
(http://truefoodnow.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/georgia-wildlife-resources-div-comments.pdf) 
To read comments submitted by the Florida  Exotic Pest Plant Council, click 
_here._ 
(http://truefoodnow.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/fl-exotic-pest-plant-council-comments.pdf) 
For more info:  
http://truefoodnow.org/2010/07/01/lawsuit-filed-to-halt-release-of-genetically-engineered-eucalyptus-trees-across-the-american-south/


The organizations that filed suit today are  the _Center  for Biological 
Diversity,_ (http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/)  _Sierra  Club,_ 
(http://www.sierraclub.org/)  _Dogwood  Alliance,_ (http://www.dogwoodalliance.org/)  
_International Center for Technology  Assessment,_ 
(http://www.icta.org/template/index.cfm)  _Center  for Food Safety and_ 
(http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/)  _Global  Justice Ecology Project._ 
(http://globaljusticeecology.org/) 






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