Halting GE Crops and Toxic Pesticide Use on National Wildlife Refuges
Center for Food Safety successfully challenged the planting of genetically engineered crops and use of harmful pesticides on National Wildlife Refuges, protecting vulnerable wildlife habitat, biodiversity, and public lands.
Background
National Wildlife Refuges are protected public lands established to conserve wildlife, habitat, and biodiversity. Despite this mission, genetically engineered (GE) crops and associated pesticide-intensive farming practices have been permitted on some refuges through “cooperative farming agreements,” allowing hundreds of acres to be plowed over without required environmental review.
Many GE crops are designed to withstand herbicides, encouraging increased pesticide use and creating risks for wildlife, pollinators, native plants, and surrounding ecosystems in these vital protected habitats.
Wildlife Refuge Litigation
Center for Food Safety has led multiple legal challenges to the use of genetically engineered crops and harmful pesticides on National Wildlife Refuges across the United States.
Over a decade of work from Center for Food Safety and our allies resulted in prohibiting the planting of GMO crops and the use of neonicotinoid pesticides on wildlife refuges. Beginning in 2005, CFS and its partners successfully challenged federal approvals allowing GE crop cultivation on refuge lands without adequate environmental review. Multiple judicial decisions concluded that the allowance of GE crops on refuges violated environmental law. These victories helped end GE crop planting across multiple refuge regions and established important protections for wildlife habitat.
CFS later challenged the use of neonicotinoid insecticides on refuges nationwide, arguing that federal agencies failed to comply with environmental laws and ignored risks to pollinators, birds, aquatic species, and other wildlife. In 2014, we filed the first legal petition asking the Fish and Wildlife Service to ban the use of neonics on wildlife refuges. They agreed, but in 2018 the Trump administration reversed the ban. This prompted CFS and allies to sue again in 2019 to reinstate the ban. In 2022, we petition the Biden administration to end the use of other dangerous pesticide products on wildlife refuges, but this petition was sadly denied.
We continue to monitor the use of toxic pesticides on wildlife sanctuaries across the nation.
Wildlife Refuges and Our Work
National Wildlife Refuges provide critical habitat for birds, pollinators, fish, mammals, and other species. These protected lands were established to conserve wildlife and maintain healthy ecosystems for future generations.
At CFS, we continue to advocate for refuge management policies that prioritize wildlife conservation, ecological integrity, and science-based decision-making.
Many GE crops are engineered to tolerate herbicides, leading to increased pesticide use and associated environmental harms. Scientists have raised concerns about impacts on wildlife, pollinators, biodiversity, water quality, and native vegetation resulting from overuse of pesticides.
The National Wildlife Refuge System is a vital conservation tool, and all steps must be taken to ensure the health of the ecosystem and the wildlife that inhabit it are not compromised by these external factors.
