Fighting Roundup Ready Bentgrass
Center for Food Safety challenged USDA’s oversight of Monsanto and Scotts’ genetically engineered Roundup Ready bentgrass for years, from unlawful field trials to the grass’s escape, spread, and final deregulation.
Case Overview
Center for Food Safety and our allies challenged USDA’s handling of genetically engineered Roundup Ready bentgrass for more than a decade, beginning with fighting open-air field trials approved without adequate environmental review.
The bentgrass, developed by Scotts and Monsanto to tolerate glyphosate, escaped from experimental plots and spread through pollen and seed into irrigation ditches, riverbanks, and natural areas in Oregon and Idaho.
CFS and allies argued that USDA failed to adequately assess the risks of gene flow, contamination of wild relatives, invasive spread, harm to farmers and landowners, impacts to endangered species, and increased herbicide dependence.
Case Timeline and Significance
In 2003, CFS and our sister organization the International Center for Technology Assessment sued USDA for allowing open-air field tests of genetically engineered bentgrass without adequate environmental review.
In 2004, EPA research found evidence that engineered bentgrass pollen had moved miles away from test plots, demonstrating that the crop could not be contained through USDA’s existing safeguards.
In 2007, CFS won a legal victory declaring the GE creeping bentgrass field trials unlawful. A federal court ruled that USDA improperly exempted GE bentgrass field trials from environmental review requirements and ordered the agency to halt approval of new field trials until more rigorous reviews were completed.
Despite years of attempted control, escaped Roundup Ready bentgrass continued spreading in Oregon and Idaho. In 2016, Malheur County declared the GE bentgrass a noxious weed, and USDA later granted final approval for deregulation despite ongoing contamination concerns.
Key Issues in the Case
Escaped GE bentgrass has the potential to harm native plants, endangered species, public lands, irrigation systems, and farmers and landowners left to manage contamination.
We first challenged USDA’s approval of outdoor field tests of genetically engineered bentgrass due to a lack of adequate environmental review under federal law. EPA research showed that engineered traits from bentgrass field trials moved far beyond test sites, confirming our major concerns about gene flow, wild relatives, and persistent contamination.
Because creeping bentgrass is a weedy perennial grass, engineering it to tolerate glyphosate raised concerns that escaped plants would become harder to control in farms, waterways, and natural areas.
