"Monsanto Act" Places GMOs above the Law in the US

It is a discreet amendment placed in a budgetary law for the farming industry in the United States, but it stirs controversy and causes outrage with environmentalists and anti-genetically modified organism activists: The American justice system will no longer be able to oppose the use of genetically modified plants, even if their accreditation is challenged in a court of justice. Many perceived the decision to be a substantial favor to the food industry, especially to Monsanto.

It was dubbed the Monsanto Protection Act, Congress passed it and President Obama approved it, but what does Article 735 of that bill actually say? “Were a decision to allow such crops to be invalidated or annulled by a court of justice, the U.S. Department of Agriculture must … on request of a farmer or a producer, immediately grant an authorization or a temporary exemption.” It aims to ensure that farmers or other industry-related professionals are able to move, plant, cultivate and bring to the retail industry genetically modified organisms and the crops that they have produced.

According to Greenpeace Canada, “The signing of this legislation by President Obama will effectively bar US federal courts from being able to halt the sale or planting of genetically engineered crops even if they failed to be approved by the government’s own weak approval process and no matter what the health or environmental consequences might be.”

Nongovernmental organizations suspect Republican Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, described by the magazine Mother Jones on April 4 as “a Monsanto advocate in Washington,” to be the author of this amendment. Other congressmen tried to oppose the bill, such as Democratic Senator Jon Tester of Montana. According to him, with this law, the federal government constrains its own Department of Agriculture “ignore any judicial rulings that block the planting of crops that the court determines to be illegal.” Another Democratic senator, Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, has publicly apologized for the adoption of this law.

A Dangerous Precedent

The measure caused outrage in Democratic and environmentalist circles — a petition nicknamed “Food Democracy Now” has already collected 250,000 signatures. Even the very conservative tea party has harshly criticized what they describe as a lobbying operation disrupting free competition. Companies should “comply with the rules of the free market like everyone else, instead of hiring insider lobbyists to rewrite the rules for them in Washington,” according to the conservative think tank FreedomWorks.

The Monsanto Protection Act is supposed to be only temporary. The law it falls under theoretically expires in September. But environmentalists fear that the decision may create a dangerous precedent. This takes place as Monsanto, whose seeds make up 93 percent of soy, 88 percent of cotton and 86 percent of corn output in the United States, announced on Wednesday, April 3 a 22 percent hike in its profits in the second quarter. At the same time, the United States puts pressure on Europe as negotiations for a free trade agreement are underway. The 27 European nations are asked to simplify their regulations with regard to GMO imports — regulations viewed as “inapplicable” and “cumbersome” by the U.S. Department of Commerce in a report on health measures in the world published on Monday, April 1.