OMAHA (DTN) -- Responding to a federal court decision last month rejecting the deregulation of Roundup Ready sugar beets, USDA announced some steps to comply with the court, including continued work on an environmental impact statement for the genetically engineered crop.

USDA said it intends to "expedite" that EIS, but that it could take at least two years to do so.

A federal judge ruled in mid-August that USDA had improperly deregulated Roundup Ready sugar beets by not properly conducting an environmental impact statement before approving the crop, a violation of the National Environmental Policy Act. Nonetheless, while a lawsuit ...