Lawsuit Accuses Federal Government of Withholding Info on GMO Crops for 10 Years [View all]
Derrick Broze August 31, 2015
On August 25th, the Center for Food Safety (CFS) filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) for failure to adequately respond to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests related to genetically engineered (GE) crops. This marks the fourth time the CFS has sued APHIS to force the release of records.
The CFS accuses APHIS of failing to respond within a timely manner to at least 29 of their FOIA requests or appeals. The lawsuit is the center’s latest attempt to force APHIS to respond to FOIA requests and to order the agency to “stop its practice of failing to respond to FOIA requests related to GE crops.”
Cristina Stella, staff attorney for the Center for Food Safety, says that APHIS has a history of inadequate regulation of GMO crops. “In the absence of thorough government oversight, public access to information about these crops becomes all the more critical,” Stella said. “This lawsuit is necessary to stop APHIS from continuing to ignore its duty to provide the public with information that affects farmers, communities, and the environment.”
Stella also says that the longer APHIS fails to regulate the GMO crops, the more the environment will face damage, including transgenic contamination of nearby crops, pesticide drift, and endangerment of protected species. “CFS has been seeking information about these harms for over ten years—and for over ten years, APHIS has continually ignored our requests. It cannot continue to do so,” she noted...snip
MORE: http://theantimedia.org/lawsuit-accuses-federal-government-of-withholding-info-on-gmo-crops-for-10-years/
The Center for Food Safety (CFS)
is a 501c3, U.S. environmental, non-profit organization, based in Washington, D.C. It maintains an office in San Francisco, California. The executive director is Andrew Kimbrell, an attorney. Its stated mission is to protect human health and the environment, focusing on artificial food production technologies such as genetically modified plants and organisms (GMOs).
Executive director Andrew Kimbrell
The center's executive director is Andrew Kimbrell, a public interest attorney, environmental activist, and author. He is the founder of the International Center for Technology Assessment.
As Senior Attorney and Policy Director for the Foundation for Economic Trends, Kimbrell initiated several federal court cases. Many of these were against governmental agencies. He was able to successfully appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court as part of a coalition of organisations, resulting in the regulation of motor vehicles carbon dioxide pollution under the Clean Air Act.
Kimbrell appears on Utne Reader’s list of the world's leading 100 visionaries, and The Guardian recognized him in 2008 as one of the 50 people who could save the planet. He is also frequent contributor to documentaries, including the 2004 film, The Future of Food
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Food_Safety
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/
Center for Food Safety Lawsuit (PDF)
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/files/aphis-foia-complaint_36583.pdf
COMPLAINT
Plaintiff Center for Food Safety alleges as follows:
I. NATURE OF ACTION
1. Plaintiff Center for Food Safety (CFS) brings this action under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. § 552. Through a FOIA request, CFS sought records from Defendant United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS or “the Agency”) related to APHIS’s proposed update to its genetically engineered (GE) crop regulations under the Plant Protection Act (PPA).
APHIS has violated FOIA by failing to respond to Plaintiff’s request within the statutorily prescribed time limit, failing to disclose the requested documents, and unlawfully withholding the requested information. CFS now asks the Court to order APHIS to respond to the request and produce all
responsive agency records improperly withheld from CFS...MORE
(PDF) http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/files/aphis-foia-complaint_36583.pdf
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