Judge puts a dent in GMO machine

A federal district court judge revoked the government’s approval of genetically engineered sugar beets, saying that the Agriculture Department 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 make up about 95 percent of the crop, until the Agriculture Department prepares an environmental impact statement and approves the crop again, a process that might take a couple of years. The decision came in a lawsuit organized by the Center for Food Safety, a Washington advocacy group that opposes biotech crops. Judge White ruled last September that the Agriculture Department’s approval of the beets violated the National Environmental Policy Act, but he did not specify a remedy.

Steve - finally, someone with some semblance of environmental sensibility. Hopefully, this will serve as a detractor to Monsanto and the USDA to assess the environmental impact of a brand new, artificially created plant species, before exposing it to the environment and food supply.