美國聯邦法官30日發出初步禁令，下令立即銷毀9月份種在俄勒岡州和亞利桑那州的256英畝基改甜菜幼苗。
8月份，法院以美國農業部未做好環境影響評估而撤銷它對基改甜菜的鬆寬管制命令，但美國農業部仍允許種植幼苗。9月9日，由包括食物安全中心、有機種子聯盟、高刈割有機種子及山巒協會(Sierra Club)組成的原告，立即提出告訴，要求遏阻種植。
美國有一半的糖是用甜菜煉製，其中95%都是孟山都的抗除草劑基改甜菜(Monsanto's Genuity® Roundup Ready® sugar beets)，這是經過基因改良可對抗除草劑嘉磷塞(glyphosate)，而嘉磷塞是孟山都一種農藥(Monsanto pesticide Roundup)的有效成分。(譯註：嘉磷塞是農委會的翻譯。)
懷特法官30日裁定，基改甜菜可能危害環境和消費者，並指出，過去的遏制行動不夠，而且過去的污染事件太多，不該再讓非法作物留在土地上。
9月28日懷特法官裁定，美國農業部動植物檢驗局(APHIS) 違反國家環境政策法案。因為APHIS沒有分析種植基改甜菜對於環境、健康、以及社會經濟的潛在危害影響，就容許種植基改甜菜。
2004年，孟山都公司和KWS SAAT AG育種公司要求APHIS放寬基改甜菜的管制。他們的請願書指出，基改甜菜不應該受到管制，因為他們是「並不太會造成植物害蟲風險。」
APHIS在完成環境評估後，依孟山都要求放寬管制，自2005年3月4日生效。
5年後，2010年全美95%甜菜都是基改甜菜，孟山都公司說。
但在2009年9月懷特法官發現，APHIS非法放寬基改甜菜的管制。
今年10月份，孟山都和KWS公司要求APHIS對基改甜菜採取「部分放寬管制」。
目前APHIS正在審查「部分放寬管制」，當他們完成法院規定的環境影響評估時，該局必須提出過渡時期種植基改甜菜的特殊指導書給政府當局，然後作出最後決定。
A federal judge today issued a preliminary injunction ordering the immediate destruction of 256 acres of genetically engineered sugar beet seedlings planted in Oregon and Arizona in September.
The lawsuit was filed on September 9, after the U.S. Department of Agriculture revealed it had permitted the seedlings to be planted although a court ruling in August vacated the USDA's deregulation of biotech sugar beets, based on the agency's failure to prepare an EIS.
The plaintiffs - The Center for Food Safety, Organic Seed Alliance, High Mowing Organic Seeds, and the Sierra Club - had immediately sought a court order to halt the planting.
Half of the nation's sugar comes from sugar beets, and 95 percent of them are grown using Monsanto's Genuity® Roundup Ready® sugar beets, which are genetically engineered for tolerance to the herbicide glyphosate, the active ingredient in the Monsanto pesticide Roundup.
Judge White ruled today that GE sugar beets could harm the environment and consumers, noting that containment efforts were insufficient and past contamination incidents were "too numerous" to allow the illegal crop to remain in the ground.
On September 28 Judge White ruled that USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, APHIS, had violated the National Environmental Policy Act by allowing the plantings without analyzing the potential environmental, health, and socioeconomic impacts of growing GE sugar beets.
In 2004, Monsanto Company and plantbreeding company KWS SAAT AG had requested that APHIS deregulate the biotech sugar beets. Their petition states that the GE beets should not be regulated because they are "unlikely to pose a plant pest risk."
After completing an Environmental Assessment, APHIS deregulated the GE sugar beets as requested, effective March 4, 2005.
Five years later, 95 percent of the 2010 U.S. sugar beet crop was genetically modified Genuity® Roundup Ready® sugar beets, Monsanto says.
But in September of 2009 Judge White found APHIS had unlawfully deregulated GE sugar beets.
In October, Monsanto and KWS submitted a request to APHIS for "partial deregulation" of Roundup Ready® sugar beets.
APHIS is now in the process of evaluating the partial deregulation request, and the agency would have to issue special guidelines to authorize any interim planting of the GE sugar beets while it completes the court-ordered environmental impact statement and then makes a final decision.
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