End around

There appears to be chicanery afoot in Washington that is being widely reported in the progressive blogosphere. There is much talk of a "Monsanto Rider" being inserted into the mammoth new FY 2013 Agricultural Appropriations bill which will require the Secretary of Agriculture to grant a temporary permit for the planting or cultivation of a genetically engineered crop, even if a federal court has ordered the planting be halted until an Environmental Impact Statement is completed. The farmer asks, permission granted, regardless of the effect.

The Center for Food Safety issued a statement recently:

Ceding broad and unprecedented powers to industry, the rider poses a direct threat to the authority of U.S. courts, jettisons the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) established oversight powers on key agriculture issues and puts the nation’s farmers and food supply at risk.

Basically if this bill passes a farmer will be able to plant a genetically modified plant without restriction and regardless of its affect on the environment. I have written extensively on this subject before and we are already facing a catastrophe regarding roundup™resistant crops failure and the real possibility of environmental harm with the continued use of GMO's. The producers have yet to show that they can keep their altered gene seeds out of the nation's pastures and remaining clean seed stock.

Producers have explained that this will give them more regulatory certainty. The reality is that American's don't want GMO, we want GMO food labelled and we should have something to say about what gets shoved down our throats. Anti GMO groups have been cleaning Monsanto's clock with regularity in the courts and this is an obvious end around by big campaign contributors.

You can read more about this at Mother Jones. Tom Philpott's Congress' big gift to Monsanto.