Earlier today the Supreme Court began hearings on Monsanto Co. v. Geerston Seed Farms, a court case centered on the legality of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready alfalfa seeds. What’s so illicit about alfalfa seeds you might ask? Well, cue scary music, these particular seeds have been genetically modified. Which is problematic. Or could be, at least. As this is the first case involving genetically modified plantlife to reach the Supreme Court, no one is really sure.

Modified to resist the weed-killer Roundup — another Monsanto product, interestingly enough — the genetically modified seeds did manage to successfully pass through USDA regulators last year. However, it soon after met a brick wall in the San Francisco’s Ninth Circuit, who prohibited further sales of the seed due to the possibility of environmental harm and/or cross contamination. The threat being that the modified seeds might mix with natural seeds, thus cross contaminating all alfalfa. And, as we don’t really know much about the long-term effects of genetically modified seeds, this could be bad. It’s also problematic in that Europe doesn’t currently accept any genetically modified agriculture. And, as such, if the U.S. crops get contaminated, that would make trade with our friends across the pond much more difficult.

While the main focus of the Supreme Court hearings will be to decide if the Ninth Circuit had the authority to make such a ruling in the first place, it still is interesting to think about the implications of genetically modified plantlife, more generally. Morally and ethically, it wouldn’t seem as perilous as the gymnasium of dilemmas found in animal or human modification, but environmentally it could be even worse. Or maybe not. Conservative Justice Antonin Scalia remarked today, “This isn’t the contamination of the New York City water supply. This isn’t the end of the world, it really isn’t.”

What do you think?