Biotech Firms Slip in Amendment Allowing USDA to Overrule Courts on Genetically Engineered Crops

Food safety advocates and environmentalists have cried foul over Congress adopting a little-known provision that gives the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) the power to overrule the courts in cases involving genetically engineered (GE) crops.

While lawmakers worked on legislation to keep the federal government from running out of money, Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, allowed a “biotech rider” to slip into the funding plan, known as a continuing resolution, presumably at the behest of biotechnology companies.

That rider (referred to by some opponents as the “Monsanto Protection Act”) authorizes the USDA to nullify any federal court decision that bans the use of GE crops.

The Center for Food Safety, a consumer organization, said on its website that the rider could undermine the courts’ “ability to safeguard farmers and the environment from potentially hazardous genetically engineered (GE) crops.”

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