By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal district judge has officially vacated the USDA’s deregulation of Roundup Ready sugar beets. The ruling doesn’t affect this year’s crop, however, which has already been planted. According to the opinion, signed by Judge Jeffrey White of the U.S. District Court of Northern California and filed Aug. 13, the “Court grants plaintiffs’ request to vacate APHIS’ (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) decision to deregulate genetically engineered sugar beets and remands this matter to APHIS. Based on this vacatur, genetically engineered sugar beets are once again regulated articles pursuant to the Plant Protection Act.

“This vacatur applies to all future plantings and does not apply to genetically engineered sugar beet root and seed crops that were planted before the date of this Order. Therefore, such crops may be harvested and processed. The genetically engineered sugar beet root crop that has already been planted may be processed and sold as sugar. The genetically engineered sugar beet seed crop that has already been planted may be harvested and stored.”
Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the Center for Food Safety – one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Monsanto and the USDA – hailed the judge’s ruling.

“This is a major victory for farmers, consumers and the rule of law,” he said. “USDA has once again acted illegally and had its approval of a biotech crop rescinded. Hopefully the agency will learn that their mandate is to protect farmers, consumers and the environment, and not the bottom line of corporations such as Monsanto.”

But the judge refused to grant a permanent injunction against the use of Roundup Ready sugar beets, acknowledging the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision regarding Roundup Ready alfalfa. This allows the USDA’s APHIS to take interim measures to comply with environmental standards, and lifted an injunction on the planting of the biotech crop.

The Center for Food Safety and the other plaintiffs in the case want APHIS to do an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) rather than an Environmental Assessment (EA), according to Luther Markwart, executive vice president of the American Sugar Beet Growers Assoc. An EIS is much more extensive than an EA, According to Markwart. The Roundup Ready alfalfa case is a precedent in that because of the Supreme Court’s ruling, the sugar beet case has to be handed back to APHIS.

“APHIS can come back and say, ‘We can do a partial deregulation,’” Markwart said. “In other words, it’s deregulated, with conditions. That’s where we are now.

“Technically, saying sugar beets could be banned, that could be true, but APHIS could come up with interim measures that would allow Roundup Ready sugar beets to be grown in the meantime.”

Markwart said the Center for Food Safety and other plaintiffs want all biotech crops to go through a more extensive environmental review. An EIS can take two years to complete. “They’re trying to make the process as complicated and expensive as they can so people don’t go into the business,” Markwart said. “It’s an attempt to slow down the process.”