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Sent: 9/3/2013 2:30:30 P.M. Central Daylight Time
Subj: Lawsuit Filed to Protect Midwest Wildlife Refuges
Sierra Club is involved in this lawsuit.
Laurel Hopwood, Chair, Sierra Club Genetic Engineering Action Team
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/press-releases/2478/lawsuit-filed-to-prot
ect-midwest-wildlife-refuges
Lawsuit Filed to Protect Midwest Wildlife Refuges
August 27th, 2013
(edited for length)
Pesticides and Genetically Engineered Crops on Refuge Lands Are Illegal
and Damaging to the Environment
A federal lawsuit filed today seeks to halt the planting of genetically
engineered (GE) crops and end blanket pesticide use in national wildlife
refuges in the Midwest region. The suit demands that the Fish & Wildlife
Service (FWS), which operates the refuges, stop these practices until it
undertakes rigorous analyses of their environmental impacts.
The lawsuit was filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Northern
District of California by the Center for Food Safety, Public Employees for
Environmental Responsibility, Sierra Club, and Beyond Pesticides. It charges
that FWS unlawfully entered into farming contracts on five refuges in four
Midwestern states (IL, IA, MN and MO) without the environmental analysis
required by the National Environmental Policy Act and the Refuge Improvement
Act.
Besides GE crops, this suit also challenges the use of highly potent
pesticides linked to -
* Devastating declines in bee populations and elimination of other
beneficial insects;
* Chemical contamination of streams running through refuges; and
* Damage to already imperiled amphibian populations.
FWS has allowed farming on refuge lands for decades despite its harmful
effects on wildlife, native grasses, and biodiversity. In recent years,
refuges have converted to GE crops, which are engineered to be resistant to
herbicides, principally Monsanto's ubiquitous Roundup. Their planting leads
to more frequent applications of increased toxicity. This suit is the next
step in the drive by PEER and CFS to ban GE crop cultivation from all
refuges across the country. Halting GE crop cultivation throughout the Midwest
Region would dramatically cut pesticide use until the agency completes a
rigorous review of all potential impacts and consistency with the refuges'
purposes.
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