Agricultural Agency Sued For Routinely Withholding Information On GMO Crops

The Center for Food Safety, a food safety advocacy group, has brought a lawsuit against the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), an agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture, for routinely ignoring requests for records on genetically modified crops.

The lawsuit accuses the federal regulator group of withholding GMO information for more than 13 years, in direct violation of the Freedom of Information Act.

Among the complaints brought against the agency, the lawsuit pointed to unanswered requests regarding GMO regulations proposed by APHIS in 2008, but withdrawn in 2015.

The organization is also accused of ignoring requests for records on the handling of certain experimental crops and the unchecked growth of GMO wheat in an Oregon field in 2013, which threatened international "trade with countries that have concerns about genetically modified foods," The Associated Press reported at the time.

The lawsuit, filed in a federal court, asks that APHIS' actions be ruled unlawful and for the agency to produce the documents requested over the last 13 years.