The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires federal agencies to prepare a detailed environmental impact statement (EIS) for all "major Federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment." Based on the conclusions of that review, the agency can decide an EIS is needed because of the impacts found, or it may issue a "finding of no significant impact," known as a FONSI. Monsanto Corporation, the developer of herbicide-tolerant varieties of GE alfalfa and sugar beet (marketed under the name of Roundup Ready alfalfa and Roundup Ready sugar beet), petitioned APHIS for deregulation of these items in 2004 (for GE alfalfa) and 2005 (for GE sugar beets). APHIS conducted EAs of the GE plants to assess the impacts of growing them on a commercial scale. APHIS issued EA-FONSIs for GE alfalfa in June 2005 and for GE sugar beets in March 2005. This challenge (litigation discussed below) resulted in a court directing APHIS to prepare an EIS. The final EIS, which addresses the 244,000 comments received on the draft EIS, was published on December 16, 2010. On January 27, 2011, Secretary Vilsack announced that APHIS was granting GE alfalfa full deregulation. Separate judges found that the environmental reviews were inadequate. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court determination that the injunction was appropriate under the circumstances. The Supreme Court disagreed, holding that the scope of the injunction was too broad—the district court had overstepped its authority in preventing APHIS from designing a different way of regulating GE alfalfa and from preventing any planting or harvesting of the product. Essentially, the Supreme Court holding contemplates the possibility that instead of preparing (or in addition to preparing) an EIS for full deregulation of GE alfalfa, as required by the district court, APHIS could conduct a separate, partial deregulation process. The district court held that APHIS had complied with the law. GE Sugar Beet Litigation

The district court that reviewed GE sugar beets used the same reasoning as the district court in the GE alfalfa case and reached the same conclusion: APHIS should have prepared an EIS for its deregulation determination. However, the GE sugar beet court did not examine whether deregulation would lead to herbicide-resistant weeds, stating that APHIS's failure to consider gene transmission was enough to find that the EA violated NEPA. According to the court, in the five years between when GE sugar beets were deregulated and an injunction was sought, GE sugar beets became the industry standard, with over 95% of all sugar beets planted being GE. While the court did not issue an injunction, it vacated the deregulation decision of APHIS. APHIS announced on September 1, 2010, that it was issuing permits to sugar beet seed producers to authorize seedling production in fall 2010. The permits would prohibit seedling flowering or transplanting without additional approval. In December, the court ordered the seedlings uprooted. A final EA-FONSI was issued on February 4, 2011, when the agency announced that it would partially deregulate GE sugar beet root crop production, but not seed crop production. Provisions to amend APHIS's regulatory procedures under the Plant Protection Act were introduced in the 112 th Congress in the House farm bill ( H.R. 6083 ) and in the House Agriculture appropriations bill ( H.R. 5973 ). The latter provision would have required the Secretary to grant producers permits to continue planting a GE crop if a regulatory decision was vacated by the court, as happened with GE alfalfa and sugar beets. The permits would permit growers to continue planting, under conditions set by the Secretary, until a final determination on deregulation was made. No further legislative action was taken on these two bills in the 112 th Congress. In the 113 th Congress, the House farm bill ( H.R. 1947 ) omitted the proposed revisions to APHIS's deregulation process. The provision requiring the Secretary to grant permits in the event of a vacated regulatory decision was passed as Section 735 in H.R. 933 , the FY2013 appropriations bill. The provision will expire at the end of FY2013.
Monsanto Corporation, the developer of herbicide-tolerant varieties of genetically engineered (GE) alfalfa and sugar beet (called Roundup Ready alfalfa and Roundup Ready sugar beet), petitioned USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) for deregulation of the items. Deregulation of GE plants is the final step in the commercialization process. Monsanto filed a petition for deregulation of its GE alfalfa in 2004, and for GE sugar beets in 2005.
As part of the deregulation process, APHIS conducts an environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to determine whether any significant environmental impacts would result from deregulation. APHIS conducted a limited review, known as an environmental assessment (EA), of the GE plants to assess the impacts of growing them on a commercial scale. APHIS issued a "finding of no significant impact" (FONSI) for GE alfalfa and GE sugar beets.
Lawsuits subsequently challenged the adequacy of the EAs in separate actions. Both courts held that APHIS should have prepared a more analytically thorough environmental impact statement (EIS) for the deregulation decisions. Separately, the courts directed APHIS to complete an EIS on the effects of deregulating GE alfalfa and GE sugar beets.
The court in the GE alfalfa case halted planting of the genetically modified seed, and nullified the deregulation. The injunction was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which held that the injunction was too broad and that the court should have considered partial deregulation. The Supreme Court did not discuss the appropriateness of the environmental review. In the meantime, APHIS completed the environmental review directed by the lower court, releasing a final EIS for GE alfalfa on December 16, 2010. On January 27, 2011, Secretary Vilsack announced that APHIS was granting GE alfalfa full deregulation. On January 5, 2012, a federal district court rejected claims that the deregulation violated the law, and the Ninth Circuit Court affirmed this decision on May 17, 2013.
The court in the GE sugar beet case did not formally prohibit planting sugar beets, but it voided APHIS's deregulation decision in August 2010, undoing the five-year-old approval of GE sugar beets, from which nearly half of U.S. sugar is derived. APHIS issued four permits authorizing seedling production that would not allow flowering or transplanting without additional authorization. In November 2010, a judge ordered those seedlings pulled from the ground, holding that APHIS had violated NEPA in issuing the permits. The Ninth Circuit temporarily halted that decision in December 2010, ultimately holding in February 2011 that the seedlings did not have to be removed.
APHIS announced on February 4, 2011, that the agency would partially deregulate GE sugar beet root crop production, but would continue full regulation for sugar beet seed crop production while the EIS was prepared. The final EIS for GE sugar beets was published June 1, 2012. On July 20, 2012, APHIS issued its determination of non-regulated status for GE sugar beets.
Provisions to amend APHIS's regulatory procedures under the Plant Protection Act were introduced in the 112th Congress in the House farm bill (H.R. 6083) and in the House Agriculture appropriations bill (H.R. 5973). The latter provision would have required the Secretary to grant producers permits to continue planting a GE crop if a regulatory decision was vacated by the court, as happened with GE alfalfa and sugar beets. Such permits would permit growers to continue planting, under conditions imposed by the Secretary, until a final determination on deregulation was made. No further legislative action was taken on these two bills in the 112th Congress.
In the 113th Congress, the House farm bill (H.R. 1947) omitted the proposed revisions to APHIS's deregulation process. The provision requiring the Secretary to grant permits in the event of a vacated regulatory decision was passed as Section 735 of H.R. 933, the FY2013 appropriations bill. The provision will expire at the end of FY2013.