text: The USDA announced one week later that the genetically engineered sugar beets would be "partially deregulated" even though the EIS had not yet been completed. In an attempt to comply with the court order barring complete re-approval, the USDA issued four pages of mandatory, quite draconian limitations and conditions that will at least make it possible for some growers to plant the variety in 2011. Nevertheless, as a result of all this dithering, the uncertainty in the entire regulatory process will discourage breeders from developing and farmers from cultivating not only genetically engineered sugar beets, but other genetically engineered crops as well.