The Center for Food Safety this week filed a federal lawsuit challenging the 2020 decision by the Trump administration to eliminate most genetically engineered organism oversight. Previously nearly all GE plants had to go through formal Department of Agriculture approval before open-air experiments or prior to commercial use. However, the center claims the new Trump USDA regulations exempt broad categories of GE organisms from any pre-market approval. Center for Food Safety legal director George Kimbrell says, “The rules unlawfully eviscerate and abandon USDA’s responsibility to protect farmers and the environment.” Instead of strengthening rules, the lawsuit alleges the rule either exempts most GMOs from regulation or subjects them to cursory reviews that sidestep serious analysis of their actual harms. The Plaintiffs in the case are National Family Farm Coalition, Center for Food Safety, Pesticide Action Network North America, Center for Environmental Health, Friends of the Earth, and Center for Biological Diversity.
