Beet-down in NoDak
I grew up downwind from a sugar beet plant. The stink was enough to rouse the gorge of a slaughterhouse worker. It was a grand day when the wind shifted and we got the scent of the sewage plant. In the interests of educating the young into local industry, every class took a tour of the plant in grade school, perhaps to inure our noses to the sickly aroma. The teachers probably laid money on which kid would lose lunch first.
I’m sure they’re all scrubbed and minty-fresh now, clean and shiny examples of modern industry, turning crops into money and jobs. Too bad they’ll all have to shut down:
A federal district court judge revoked the government’s approval of genetically engineered sugar beets Friday, 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.
But don’t worry:
(T)he judge ruled that crops currently in the ground can be harvested and made into sugar, so the effects will not be felt until next spring’s planting season. Whew! The judge will allow farmers to harvest the crops they own.
But the farmers can’t say they weren’t warned:
Earlier this year, he denied a request by the plaintiffs to prohibit the planting of the engineered seeds this year, saying that would be too disruptive. But he warned farmers to move toward using conventional seeds. What are we coming to when farmers in North Dakota do not listen to the advice of a judge in San Francisco? Is there no respect for any of our betters any more?
If you’re wondering what the problem was:
In his previous ruling, Judge White said the department had not adequately 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.
And he ought to know.
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Comments :
Jul '10
Re: Beet-down in NoDak
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? A federal judge undoes an Ag Dept. regulation on sugar beets? Is this due to the Honorable Jeffrey S. White's previous career as a molecular biologist?
May '10
Re: Beet-down in NoDak
Appalling as this is, you have to laugh at the spectacle of these judges who regard Monsanto and friends as being on the same moral plane as, say, the Medillin Cartel.
Jul '10
Re: Beet-down in NoDak
Gadzooks! Are you sure you didn't link to The Onion by mistake? Everytime I think we may be going a bit overboard in deriding the arrogance of the elites/ruling class they one-up us. There is nothing one could make up in the way of parody that they won;t at some point actually do.
Jul '10
Re: Beet-down in NoDak
I wonder who the plaintiffs were? A bunch of disgruntled chard growers?
Jun '10
Re: Beet-down in NoDak
In these part Masters and Ph.D. level aggies have been genetically modifying marijuana for years, but it's OK with judges because it's for the glaucoma sufferers. Now, if only judges took the same position when it came to Crystal Meth, which any good judge knows is nowhere near as harmful to the kiddies as sugar, then we'd really have a good deal going. Just yesterday the Hell's Angels in this berg killed a rogue biker, so who says that self-regulation can't work when it comes to the trade in white granular powders such as sugar? Besides, the Angels have a bunch of legitimate business interests around here that keep large swaths of their customer base in the income they need to buy their genetically modified crops, so it's a win-win for all concerned, especially when you factor in the devastating effects of sugar on school kids.
May '10
Re: Beet-down in NoDak
I'm rounding third about to slide into home with Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged (which means I still have about ~200 pages to go).
She (protagonist Dagny Taggart), born of the Industrial Revolution, had not held as conceivable, had forgotten along with the tales of astrology and alchemy, what these men (antagonist government cabal Lawson, Mouch, Ferris, Meigs, Holloway, her brother Jim Taggart) knew in their secret, furtive souls, knew not by means of thought, but by means of that nameless muck which they called their instincts and emotions (sound familiar judge?): that so long as men struggle to stay alive, they'll never produce so little but that the man with the club won't be able to seize it and leave them still less, provided millions of them are willing to submit--that the harder they work and the less their gain, the more submissive the fiber of their spirit--that men who live by pulling levers at an electric switchboard, are not easily ruled, but men who live by digging the soil with their naked fingers are... (Page 868)
The judge isn't "seizing" but boy does his reasoning sound like the dictatorial Unification Board. Creepy.
May '10
Re: Beet-down in NoDak
Well, I guess this means business will be good at the farm of Dwight Schrute....
Jun '10
Re: Beet-down in NoDak
Are there a lot of wild sugar beets out there, that might have their genes molested by super-beets that can run across the road at night, looking for some exotic sugar?