A legal challenge to the national wildlife refuge system’s use of neonicotinoid insecticides and genetically modified crops has been dismissed.
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., says neither the Center for Food Safety nor the Center for Biological Diversity could demonstrate legal standing to proceed with a lawsuit against the Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the nation’s wildlife refuge system.
“Given the significant uncertainty surrounding whether the Service will eventually authorize neonic or (genetically modified crop) use in any refuge, let alone one visited by one of Plaintiffs’ declarants, the court may not assume the imminence of Plaintiffs’ members’ injuries,” Judge Amit Mehta wrote in his ruling.
The lawsuit challenged a 2018 Fish and Wildlife decision to reverse a 2014 commitment to phase out neonics and GMOs.
In a release when the case was originally filed, CBD criticized the practice of spraying neonics and using GMOs on national wildlife refuges, calling it a “a shameless giveaway to the pesticide industry with no regard for our nation’s most vulnerable wildlife.”
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