Gene-Altered Crops Denounced

Fears of admixture gained credence in 2002 when a Texas company was found to have broken rules in its cultivation of corn plants engineered to make a pig diarrhea vaccine. The error necessitated the destruction of 500,000 bushels of potentially contaminated soybeans, and left the now defunct company, ProdiGene, stuck with millions of dollars in cleanup costs.

"The use of food crops to produce materials not intended to be in the food supply must only proceed under systems proven to prevent any contamination or adulteration of the food supply," said Jeffrey Barach of the Food Products Association in Washington. "To date, effective control programs have not been demonstrated to our satisfaction."

The federal court decision responds to a 2003 lawsuit filed by several public interest groups. Taking a novel tack, the groups charged that APHIS failed to consider the potential impacts on endangered species when it approved four Hawaii field studies in the previous three years. The plants were produced by ProdiGene, Monsanto, the Hawaii Agriculture Research Center and Garst Seed of Slater, Iowa.

The plaintiffs -- including Friends of the Earth, Pesticide Action Network North America and Kahea, a Hawaiian environmental alliance -- noted that Hawaii is home to 329 endangered or threatened species, more than any other state, including many birds with easy access to test plots.

Seabright agreed with the groups that, although proof of harm is lacking, APHIS's issuance of the permits for 800 acres on four Hawaiian islands without consideration of those potential impacts was "arbitrary and capricious."

"This is probably the strongest message yet to USDA that they need to do a much better job at regulating all genetically engineered crop field trials," said Bill Freese of the Center for Food Safety, noting that about a dozen pharma permits are approved in a typical year. "They've been rubber-stamping for too long, and they need to get serious about these crops."

But the judge rejected the groups' broader claim that APHIS had broken its promise to improve its overall system of oversight.

"Although the Plaintiffs are understandably upset by the fact that this process has taken over three years, the court accepts APHIS's representations" that the delay is justified and progress is under way.

Stephanie A. Whalen, president of the Hawaii Agriculture Research Center, which ran the studies involving sugar cane engineered to make a human blood protein, said the ruling "looks backward" at problems already corrected.

"The idea that this has got the potential for harm has been all blown out of proportion," she said. "We're really proud of the work we do, and we know how important it is to safeguard the environment."