General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: When Obama signs a law into effect, he is not responsible... [View all]quaker bill
(8,224 posts)But the bottom line is this, the "Monsanto Protection Act" does not protect Monsanto at all.
What is actually does is prevent farmers from being forced to destroy crops that were planted in full compliance with the law on the day they were planted between now and September 2013.
Being an environmental scientist who has prepared Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) in compliance the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) I was interested enough to read deeper. In fact an EIS was prepared. A judge ruled that the EIS did not adequately address the economic (not environmental) impact on organic growers that may arise from the general knowledge that a GMO crop is grown in the same general area. Now the potential for genetic drift which might contaminate the organic growers crop was addressed adequately by both buffering and harvest before flowering. There are still arguments about this but the judge did not find a problem with the EIS in this regard.
The judge found a problem in that the fear of contamination, even if unsubstantiated scientifically, might cause the organic growers to suffer in the marketplace for their produce.
In that it is hard to prove that something which is very unlikely to happen may cause fear and market impacts, or assess the potential impacts of this fear, the USDA moved to deregulate. Once deregulated an EIS will no longer be required. The current challenge is over deregulation.
The farmers planted a legal crop. It is in the ground. The law only provides a stay against their having to plow it under. Monsanto and the USDA can still be sued, and I believe are being sued just fine.