Judge sets hearing on beet stecklings

Federal Judge Jeffrey White has scheduled a three-day hearing next week for litigants to argue whether this year's root stock for biotech sugar beets should be plowed under.

White laid out a schedule by which plaintiffs, led by the Center for Food Safety, defendant USDA and the intervening seed companies will call witnesses and lay out arguments.

Plaintiffs say USDA's permitting of seed stecklings in September violated White's August ruling revoking the crop's federal deregulation.

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