The USDA “unconstitutionally delegated its own duties to protect farmers and the environment to GE crop developers” when it exempted most genetically engineered plants from pre-market reviews in 2020, said a coalition of farm, environment, and consumer groups in a lawsuit filed on Monday. In it, they asked the U.S. district court in San Francisco to overturn the Trump-era revisions.
 
Dubbed SECURE, the new regulation said GE plants needed review by USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, whose duties include regulation of agricultural biotechnology, only if developers believed they might pose an environmental risk. SECURE reflected the biotechnology industry’s argument that gene editing is an inherently safe way to produce new plant varieties with traits that could be achieved through traditional breeding methods.
 
“The rules unlawfully eviscerate and abandon USDA’s responsibility to protect farmers and the environment,” said George Kimbrell of the Center for Food Safety, one of the plaintiffs. Jim Goodman of the National Family Farm Coalition, another plaintiff, said SECURE “will only exacerbate the rampant consolidation in the agricultural seed and pesticide industry.”
 
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