Philip Brasher of the Des Moines Register reports that the Department of Agriculture is considering limiting the areas on which biologically engineered alfalfa seeds can be grown.
The Agriculture Department is releasing an environmental impact statement that will give Vilsack two options for the alfalfa – either deregulate it completely so that it can be grown anywhere or impose geographic restrictions and isolation requirements for the crop. In states such as Iowa with a small amount of alfalfa seed production, biotech alfalfa fields that are near seed crops would have to be harvested at or before 10-percent bloom. Restrictions would be tighter in the western states that are the biggest seed producers. Growers of the biotech seed would be required to keep fields five miles away from conventional alfalfa. Locations of biotech seed fields would be reported to the USDA.
-- Monica Potts
