Editorial

We await today two decisions that could have major consequences for agriculture in the West.

In California, a federal judge is hearing arguments from plaintiffs who want a temporary order barring farmers from planting Roundup Ready sugar beet seeds and sugar companies from processing sugar from beets produced from the seeds.

Judge Jeffery White ruled in September that the USDA had failed to produce a required environmental impact statement when it deregulated Monsanto's genetically modified beet seeds. White ordered the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to complete the study, and set a hearing in June to determine permanent steps to remedy the USDA's failure.

Noting that the 2010 beet crop will already be in the ground by June, the plaintiffs -- the Center for Food Safety, the Organic Seed Alliance, the Sierra Club and High Mowing Organic Seeds -- filed for the temporary order.

They contend there is enough conventional seed available that farmers don't have to plant the Roundup Ready variety. It's unclear if that's true. The Roundup Ready seeds have been so widely adopted -- they account for 95 percent of the U.S. crop -- that it seems unlikely that enough conventional seeds appropriate for the various growing conditions exist. We are told that the workers who once tended the conventional crops, and whose effort was made unnecessary once herbicide could be applied, have moved on to other areas. The labor infrastructure does not exist.

Judge White will decide the fate of thousands of growers, the employees of beet processing plants in 10 states, and 50 percent of the domestic sugar supply. We continue to urge White to take steps to address the plaintiffs' concerns that fall short of banning the entire crop. We think it wise, however, for growers to have an alternative crop in mind.

In Washington, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will announce today the status of the sage grouse.

In 2005 a federal court ruled that the service was unduly influenced by political considerations when it previously decided not to put the bird on the endangered species list. The service is under court order to revisit that decision.

The sage grouse is an iconic part of the Western landscape. It is vulnerable, some say, to all manner of human activities -- oil and gas drilling in Wyoming, construction of wind turbines in Oregon, and cattle grazing across the entire West -- that have reduced its habitat. They have also fallen prey to increased numbers of coyotes and to disease.

The service has three options: It can put the bird on either the threatened or endangered species list; it can maintain its previous position; or it can put the grouse on a list of candidate species, postponing any concrete steps to a later date. No matter what is decided, lawsuits are sure to follow.

The grouse has accurately been described as the "spotted owl of the range." When the northern spotted owl was added to the threatened species list, the timber harvest on federal lands in the Northwest all but ceased. Many rural towns fell on hard times when the mills shut down. A lot of those towns will have the last prop kicked out if grazing on federal lands is severely limited.

As fond as we are of the sage grouse, the last thing the Northwest needs is another spotted owl.