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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday said farmers could harvest their genetically engineered sugar beets this year, ruling that the economic impact would be too great if the crop were to be destroyed.

The judge, Jeffrey White of the United States District Court in San Francisco, also ruled that the environmental groups, including the Center for Food Safety, waited too long to request that the crop be yanked from the ground and barred from the market.

Nearly all sugar beets planted are genetically engineered and the crop accounts for half the nation’s sugar supply.

Judge White sided with the groups last year when he ruled that federal regulators improperly approved the genetically engineered crop for market five years ago. Judge White said in September that further environmental studies were required before the Agriculture Department could decide the issue.

In January, the Center for Food Safety, Earthjustice and several other groups and organic farmers asked Judge White to immediately halt the planting and harvesting of all genetically engineered beets while determining how to resolve the lawsuit, which was filed in 2007.

The groups and organic farmers fear the biotech beets will cross-pollinate with conventional beets, as well as Swiss chard, and upset some consumers.

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Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys has become the 22nd person, three of whom have gone on to become Nobel Peace Prize winners, to receive the award.
He will receive the accolade on 14 April during the Edinburgh International Science Festival.
DNA profiling is now a major tool in solving crime, and the standard method of resolving paternity disputes.
The professor’s “eureka” moment came on the morning of 10 September 1984, when he went into his darkroom to develop an X-ray film from an experiment looking at highly variable bits of DNA.

The film threw up an unexpected result - every individual in the sample had a different bar code and could be identified with precision.
More than 30 million people worldwide have had a DNA profile.
Sir Alec, however, has said in the past that the practice of retaining DNA taken from innocent people in the UK raises serious issues.
While having no regrets over the development of the DNA profiling, Sir Alec does have strong reservations as to how authorities are using the information, particularly the long term storage of information on the English National DNA Database.
Speaking at a House of Commons home affairs select committee meeting earlier this year, Sir Alec said England and Wales should follow Scotland’s lead, where police only retain the DNA profiles of innocent people under specific circumstances, with those accused of sexual assaults having their profiles held for a maximum of five years.