Federal judge orders destruction of sugar beet stecklings

A federal judge has ordered the destruction of the current root stock for producing biotech sugar beet seeds.

In a ruling issued late Tuesday, Judge Jeffrey White ordered that the root stock, also known as stecklings, be "removed from the ground." The order doesn't take effect until Dec. 7, according to White's ruling.

The stecklings would have been replanted in early 2011, to eventually produce seed for the 2012 beet crop.

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