12-14 FB Stecklings Live
Steckling’s live to see another day.
Yesterday we did a story that quoted magicvalley.com reports, “This time the federal judge in California really means it. The stecklings must be destroyed. In his Nov. 30 decision, District Judge Jeffrey S. White ordered that genetically modified stecklings be “removed from the ground.” Of course, Mark Duffin of the Idaho Sugarbeet Growers Association had the following comment: “We appealed that and asked for a stay so last night the court granted a stay until December 23rd.”
So what happens now? A briefing schedule for the case has been set through February and Idaho growers are grateful for the reprieve and the chance to have the case heard by a three-judge panel. I can tell you that this is going to be a legal nightmare. On the one hand the beet sugar industry’s going to argue strongly that they had permission to plant steckling fields by the USDA among others. But the Center for Food Safety, Organic Seed Alliance, the Sierra Club and High Mowing Organic Seeds are going to claim that the plantings were just a way to get around an earlier ruling by Judge White. What we do know is that there are millions of dollars at stake and a lot of the profits will end up in lawyers pockets.
