Judge Jeffrey S. White, of Federal District Court in San Francisco, has ruled that the U.S. government failed to adequately assess the environmental impacts of genetically engineered sugar beets before approving the crop for cultivation. The decision could lead to a ban on the planting of the beets, which have been widely adopted by farmers.
Judge White said that the Agriculture Department should have done an environmental impact statement. He said it should have assessed the consequences from the likely spread of the genetically engineered trait to other sugar beets, or to the related crops of Swiss chard and red table beets.
The decision echoes another ruling two years ago, when a different judge in the same court ruled that U.S. farmers could no longer plant genetically modified alfalfa until the Agriculture Department wrote the environmental impact statement. Two years later, there is still no such assessment and the alfalfa, with rare exceptions, is not being grown.