The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Federal Judge Jeffrey White has ruled that the USDA illegally approved Monsanto’s “Roundup-Ready” GMO sugar beets in 2005. Today’s ruling in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco does not ban sale of the crops currently being harvested in Oregon’s Wilmette Valley, but plaintiffs in the case expect to file an injunction soon to stop their sale.

The judge found that USDA ignored scientific evidence that pollen from the GMO could drift as much as 2-1/2 miles, far outside the required buffer zones, potentially contaminating other susceptible sugar beet and Swiss chard plantings. In addition to underestimating the scale of problems with drift, White also said USDA did not sufficiently research the environmental impact and must do so before any approval could be given.

The judge also ruled that USDA ignored the GMO crop’s significant impact on the environment, including “the potential elimination of a farmer’s choice to grow non-genetically engineered crops, or a consumer’s choice to eat non-genetically engineered food.”

In 2007, another federal judge halted the planting of GMO alfalfa.