In November 2010 a federal judge in California ordered that 256 acres of genetically engineered (GE) sugar beet seedlings be ripped from the ground. The first court-ordered destruction of GE crops in the United States, the ruling stemmed from concerns about the environmental effects of the genetically altered plants. Before any more GE sugar beets can be planted on US soil, the judge said, a comprehensive analysis of environmental risks must be completed by the USDA, an endeavor that may take until 2012.
Monsanto, a multinational agricultural biotechnology company, genetically engineered the sugar beets to be resistant to the company’s weed killer Roundup. Known as Roundup Ready beets, the variety accounts for some 95 percent of the sugar beet crop grown in the United States. If the regulations banning the GE beets don’t change by next spring, farmers will have to plant conventional seeds, which yield smaller harvests per acre ...
