Advocacy groups and farmers file legal challenge to canola rule in Oregon

摘要

Sustainable agriculture advocates and farmers have filed a second lawsuit to halt the Oregon Department of Agriculture's (ODA) controversial new rule (http://Lusa.gov/ YhpxXH) that would open the Willamette Valley to biotech canola cultivation. Filed April 5 as a two-page petition to the Oregon Court of Appeals, the suit challenges ODA's decision, on Feb. 7, to make available about 2,500 acres in the valley for canola cultivation. Led by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Food Safety (CFS), the plaintiffs in the new lawsuit include Molalla, Ore.-based Friends of Family Farmers (FFF) and specialty seed producers Universal Seed and Wild Garden Seed. They are represented by legal counsel from CFS and Field Jerger LLP.