DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit seeking to force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to stop planting genetically modified crops in wildlife refuges in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Missouri. The federal lawsuit was filed Tuesday in California by the Center for Food Safety, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, the Sierra Club, and Beyond Pesticides.

It alleges the Fish and Wildlife Service unlawfully entered into farming contracts on five refuges in the four states without an environmental analysis required by federal law. The lawsuit also seeks to have the service end blanket pesticide use in the national wildlife refuges until environmental impact studies are done.

A similar lawsuit halted the practice of planting GMOs in refuges in several states the northeast and in the southeast.