Monsanto's (NYSE:MON) troubles continue to mount, as their latest setback is the banning of their genetically modified sugar beets by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White.
The same judge ruled in 2009 that the U.S. Department of Agriculture hadn't done a sufficient environmental study concerning the sugar beets.
On a temporary and short term basis, the ban won't have an impact on the availability of sugar, as it doesn't apply to sugar beets already harvested or planted.
Sugar beets account for over half of the sugar crop in the U.S., and a whopping 95 percent of that is from sugar beets from Roundup ready seed, which is the subject of the ban.
One of the radical environmental groups suing, the Center for Food Safety, asserts all farmers have to do is go back to planting regular sugar beets seeds, as if they have the knowledge farmers do in knowing what's best.
Since sugar beets are planted in the spring months, this shouldn't have an impact until 2011. The farmers are now looking at what planting options are available next spring, assuming their isn't an appeal and the situation changes.
It could result in much higher sugar prices in the future for consumers, although we won't know until the process plays itself out. We won't find out what the unintended consequences may be until then.
One attorney called it a "victory for farmers, for the environment and for the public," but it was really only a victory for them. With 95 percent of the sugar beet production in the U.S. coming from farmers freely choosing to use genetically modified sugar beets, they've had that freedom now taken away from them, however you want to describe it.
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