A federal district court judge late Friday revoked the government’s approval of genetically engineered sugar beets, saying that the United States Department of Agriculture had not adequately assessed the environmental consequences before approving them for commercial cultivation.
The decision by Judge Jeffrey S. White of Federal District Court in San Francisco appears to effectively ban the planting of the genetically modified sugar beets — which this year make up about 95 percent of the crop — until the Agriculture Department prepares an environmental impact statement and reconsiders approval of the crop, a process that might take a couple of years.
The decision could cause major problems for sugar beet farmers and sugar processors because nearly all sugar beets planted in the United States contain a bacterial gene that makes the plants resistant to the herbicide Roundup, or glyphosate. It is not clear there would be enough unmodified seed available for next spring’s planting.
Crops currently in the ground are unaffected by the ruling, which came in a lawsuit organized by the Center for Food Safety, a Washington advocacy group that opposes biotech crops.
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