Sweet and sour: a scientific and legal look at herbicide-tolerant sugar beet.

American sugar beet farmers produce half of our domestic refined sugar valued at over $3 billion per year (APHIS, 2010). The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (CA District Court) will soon determine whether U.S. farmers can continue to grow genetically modified (GM) sugar beet (Beta vulgaris ssp vulgaris var altissima) in the case of Center for Food Safety v. Vilsack (CFS v. Vilsack). The CA District Court is grappling with imposing an ambiguous and evolving legal standard on a scientific question of gene flow risks. It will analyze the likelihood of crosspollination between genetically modified sugar beet and organic Swiss chard or table beet seed crops and determine whether this constitutes irreparable harm. The U.S. Supreme Court is also interested in biotechnology law this term and may overturn precedent that would normally guide the CA District Court. Here, we review the legal and scientific background of this issue and argue that the CA District Court should consider the scientific as well as the legal factors of this case and impose sensible geographic restrictions that will preserve coexistence among production methods.