Agribiz: flying high ... or comiing down? If you run a globe-spanning, U.S.-centered agribusiness firm, you're probably not sure whether to cry in your Krug or toast with it this week.*

The bad news for the GMO/fertilizer/pesticide set: A federal court in San Francisco rebuked the USDA for greenlighting genetically modified sugar beets without rigorous testing of the novel crop's environmental impact. And that could have a major impact on the GMO seed industry, because there's never been a real reckoning among federal agencies about the impact of GMOs.

Want to know who came with the official rationale that GMOs are "substantially equivalent" to conventional crops--and this worthy of a regulatory free ride? It was that noted beautiful minder Dan Quayle, sitting on an Bush I's Council on Competitiveness in the early '90s.

The sugar beet ruling, coming on the heels of a similar one on GMO alfafa, may mark the beginning of the end of that free ride.

Fully 30 percent of the globe's refined sugar comes from beets--and the U.S. is a major producer. In 2005, the USDA ruled that the use of Monsanto's new line of Roundup Ready sugar beets--genetically rigged to withstand application of Monsanto's flagship herbicide--had "no significant impact" on the environment.

Trouble is, the agency did so without issuing a detailed "environmental impact statement," as it's arguably required to under the National Environmental Protection Act--and that's why the Center for Food Safety and other sustainable-food NGOs sued the USDA.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White ruled (PDF here) in favor of the Center for Food Safety argument.

The ruling hinged on the argument that GMO sugar beets can cross-pollinate with and genetically contaminate non-GMO beets--and even with related species like Swiss chard and table beets. (In Willamette County, Ore., epicenter of industrial sugar-beet production, these other beet types are grown commonly, too.)

"In light of the large distances pollen can travel by wind and the context that seed for sugar beets, Swiss chard, and table beets are primarily grown in one valley in Oregon, Plaintiffs have demonstrated that deregulation [of GMO sugar beets] may significantly effect the environment," the Judge White declared.

So now he's ordering a detailed environmental impact statement (EIS) from the USDA on GMO sugar beets. But any rigorous EIS will include not only the cross-contamination problem, but also the  growing specter of Roundup-tolerant "superweeds," which are already rampant in many parts of the country where Roundup Ready seeds are commonly used.

The agency might even have to reckon with the recent study that showed that so-called "inert" ingredients in Roundup quite actively damage human cells.

In other words, this ruling--if it stands up under an imminent round of appeals--could be a slippery slope for Monsanto. Investors, for their part, seem a bit concerned--since the ruling was announced Tuesday, the company's shares are down about 2 percent.

Now for the good news for the great masters of the corn field: President Obama has nominated one of their own as the chief agricultural negotiator at the U.S. Trade Office.

To take the post, Islam "Isi" Siddiqui will have to leave his current perch as vice president for agricultural biotechnology and trade at CropLife America, the trade group representing the U.S. agrichemical industry (member list here). Its mission: to hip the public (and the government)  to the ""benefits of pesticides and crop-protection chemicals."

This is the crew that chided Michelle Obama for daring to opt not to use "crop protection" (i.e., toxic pesticides) in the White House Garden.

Once the Senate's conservative stalwarts recover from the shock of supporting a man named Islam, they'll surely wave Siddiqui right through.

As the Doha round of global trade talks lurches on, Siddiqui's position will be an important one. Southerm-hemisphere nations like India and Brazil are pushing for lower U.S. crop subsidies, while the U.S. is demanding wide-open markets for U.S. goods--everything from foodstuffs like industrial corn to agrichemicals. Siddiqui can be counted on to push that agenda hard.

Another critical ag-related trade issue is GMOs. Many nations have opted to ban GMOs on the precautionary principle. The few companies who dominate the GMO seed market--Monsanto, Dupont, Syngenta, and BASF, all Croplife America--find that attitude abhorrent. Siddiqui can be expected to play hardball in using trade talks as a blunt instrument to knock those precautions down.

* Since I'm an acolyte of the wine writer Alice Feiring, you should read my casual assumption that agribiz execs quaff Krug, an insipid status-brand Champagne, as a stinging insult.

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What comes to mind when you think of royalty? Luxurious palaces, the Queen of England, and overused puns on Marie Antoinette's infamous one-liner?

How about chemical-free gardens, recycling, and sustainable seafood? Ruling families from around the globe are using their media magnetism and sovereign sway to draw attention to a variety of eco-causes, fighting climate change, greening their homelands, and making sure all that cake we're eating is organic too.

1. Prince Charles of England

An outspoken proponent of fighting climate change, Prince Charles has an across-the-board interest in environmental issues. He's advocated for tropical rainforest preservation through The Prince's Rainforests Project and brought attention to the rapid depletion of global fish stocks. After moving to the Highgrove country estate in Gloucestershire three decades ago, the prince took interest in back-to-basics farming and converted the Home Farm from conventional to organic food production. Deciding that this sustainable farming thing was a brilliant idea, he started Duchy Originals in 1992 to sell organic and sustainably produced goodies, from British tea classics to organic hair and body products.

2. Princess Basma bint Ali of Jordan

Princess Basma has earned a long list of awards and honors for her efforts to bring environmental issues into the limelight in Jordan. After becoming one of the first women in her country to earn navy diving certification, Princess Basma saw firsthand the damage that human waste and neglect have taken on the delicate coral reefs of Jordan's Red Sea coast. This inspired her to form the Jordan Royal Ecological Diving Society, which is focused on conserving Jordan's marine areas and educating citizens about the impacts of their activities on marine life. She also founded the Royal Botanic Garden, preserving the wide array of plants native to Jordan for generations to come. In recognition of these and many more initiatives, Princess Basma was honored with a spot on the U.N. Environment Program's Global 500 Roll of Honor.

3. Prince Albert II of Monaco

The website of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation declares that sustainability and protecting the environment are challenges that require "urgent and concrete action," and Prince Albert II tries to walk the talk, implementing sustainable practices in his own country and urging the world to do likewise. Monaco hosted the second international Ocean in a High-CO2 World symposium last October, during which the Monaco Declaration [PDF] on ocean acidification was drafted, calling for nations of the world to take immediate action to reduce CO2 emissions and thereby prevent damaging changes to ocean chemistry. Prince Albert wrote a foreword to the declaration, urging political leaders to get with the program. Recently, he called for removal of the over-fished bluefin tuna from the menus of all restaurants in the United Kingdom (it's already off all menus and shelves in Monaco). He has also promoted energy efficiency as a way to combat climate change. For efforts such as these, the U.N. named him a Champion of the Earth in 2008.

4. Princess Lalla Hasnaa of Morocco

As president of the Mohammed VI Foundation for the Protection of Environment, Princess Lalla Hasnaa has worked toward the revival of green spaces, better water management, and sweeping environmental education initiatives in Morocco. Cleaning up beaches, urging young people to report on environmental issues, and improving air quality are all in a day's work for this green princess. She says her "heart as a mother and as a Moroccan" is "worried when thinking that our sons and daughters do not have the right to live in a country respecting nature and its beauty." Thanks to her good work, all of Morocco's kids might inherit a greener nation.

Photo: Andrew Smith Lewis5. Princess Takamado of Japan

An avid bird enthusiast, Princess Takamado has championed the cause of avian conservation through her honorary presidency of BirdLife International, urging kids to get involved in the world of bird watching and establishing the Asia Bird Fund. In addition to her efforts on behalf of our feathered friends, she has spread the word about fragile ocean and Arctic environments through Lulie the Iceberg, a picture book for children about a breakaway iceberg's adventure from the Arctic to Antarctica--complete with a companion musical score featuring famed cellist Yo Yo Ma.

6. Princess Chulabhorn Walailak of Thailand

A chemist and medical researcher, Princess Chulabhorn has focused on genetic toxicology and the chemistry of natural products, studying, among other things, the health risks that air pollution poses to traffic police in Bangkok. She founded the International Center for Environmental and Industrial Toxicology, which was designated by the U.N. Environment Program as "a Center of Excellence," and the Chulabhorn Research Institute, which trains scientists and searches for solutions to problems related to the environment, agriculture, and health. In 2002, she was awarded the Environmental Mutagen Society Hollaender International Fellowship [PDF]. She has served as a special adviser to the U.N. Environment Program and was named by the U.N. to direct the Center of Excellence for Environmental and Industrial Toxicology.

7. Prince Hassan Bin Talal of Jordan

A supporter of the DESERTEC Foundation, which promotes massive solar power projects in North Africa, Prince Hassan (brother to Princess Basma) is a staunch advocate of clean, renewable energy. He delivered a swift kick (ahem) to fossil fuels by declaring that they are "a threat to our natural living conditions." Last year he gave a speech [PDF] before the United Nations General Assembly explaining how environmental issues relate to human security. For his efforts on behalf of the environment, this anti-petroleum prince was recognized as a 2007 Champion of the Earth by the U.N. Environment Program.

8. Queen Elizabeth II of England

Earlier this year, Queen Elizabeth (mother of Prince Charles) planted a chemical-free vegetable garden on a patch of the Buckingham Palace grounds--land that hasn't seen food production since the Victory Garden days of World War II. The queen has also expressed concerns about the effects of climate change on the poor and made the royal palaces more Earth-friendly by installing energy-efficient light bulbs and even a mini hydroelectric power plant for Windsor Castle.

Photo: Kanaka

9. Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand

Princess Sirindhorn (sister to Princess Chulabhorn) has been involved in projects ranging from preserving the biodiversity of plant life in her country to improving water management. In an address on World Food Day in 2004, she spoke of how "biodiversity plays a key role in sustainable development and poverty alleviation." Recently she visited the Heliocentris headquarters in Berlin to talk about the future of renewable energy.

Photo: Milton Correa 10. King Carl Gustaf of Sweden

What do you have in common with the King of Sweden? If you recycle, then you'd feel right at home in his private kitchen, separating your imperial plastics from your aristocratic cans. King Carl Gustaf attributes his love for the environment to time spent outdoors with his nature-loving mother, but was inspired to take action against climate change after a voyage on an icebreaker with international climate scientists in 2004. He has since installed a pellet-fired boiler at Drottningholm Palace and launched a campaign to raise global awareness about climate change, an effort that won him special recognition in the U.N.-HABITAT Scroll of Honor in 2006. The king reconciles his love for cars with his concern for the environment by advocating for alternative fuels.

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The big news of day one at the World Conference on Sport and the Environment in Vancouver, British Columbia, was the unveiling of a carbon neutrality plan for the 2010 Olympics. The rest of the day’s events were a lot like the offset plan: solid at their core and short on details.

During a keynote address, socially responsible investment executive Thomas Van Dyck managed to drop the lines, “The green tide must lift all ships,” “Green is the new green,” and “We must put the eco back in economy,” all within 30 seconds, all without a smile or a trace of irony. That’s got to be worth an award or something.

The crowd -- athletes, sports organizers, corporate sponsors, International Olympics Committee (IOC) officials and suitors from 2016 host city-finalists Chicago, Madrid, Tokyo, Rio -- seemed like they could handle a bit more than inspirational slogans. Not hating, just saying. But there was some good stuff along with the cheerleading.

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson

Introduced as a guy who bicycled to work to work this morning, the boyish, charismatic 43-year-old talked up Vancouver as a cosmopolitan, exercise-loving city, where it’s only natural to unite athletics and care for the earth via a global event such as the Olympics.

Robertson mentioned biking to work, which he said taught him that his city could provide more bike-friendly commuter routes. He offered something of a challenge to his municipal colleagues: “We want to be the greenest city in the world,” he said. “Not that it should always be a competition, because there are things we can learn from each other too. But we figure we’re leading North America, which isn’t all that hard to do in terms of the environment.” Booyah! Take that, Cleveland. Also, he biked to work this morning.

Prince Albert II of Monaco

No newbie to the climate action scene, His Serene Highness Prince Albert II has traveled to both poles to observe the effects of global warming and clamor for carbon regulation. In Vancouver he showed lots of love for the host city, province, and organizing committee, along with the IOC.

"What the IOC has done, what the IOC environmental commission has done and indeed what the Olympic movement has embraced is, for me, a return to the original Olympic spirit," he said. "A philosophy of life with the goal of placing sport at the service of the harmonious development of man."

Overall, it was an everybody-on-board sort of speech: “It is no longer possible to shirk the efforts necessary to save our environment,” he said. “This fight requires absolutely everyone’s attention.”

Premier of British Columbia Gordon Campbell

The province’s leader since 2001 spoke openly and passionately about his love for wood, saying “If you’re concerned about the climate, wood is the best building material there is.

Campbell said wood conserves carbon even in lumber form, is more resilient than steel, and has 400-times better insulation than steel. He said he’s helped rewrite building codes to allow wooden buildings up to six stories high. “It’s cheaper, it’s environmentally sensible, and we’ve got lots of it,” he said.

Mountain pine beetles have killed 80 percent of inland pine forests in B.C. -- the beetle population has exploded because winters are no longer cold enough to kill most of them. The new 350,000 square-foot Olympic speed skating rink in suburban Richmond has a wooden roof, made from beetle-killed B.C. pines. Campbell considers this the sort of lemons-from-lemonade solution B.C. needs to showcase when the Games begin next February.

“We have to be willing to start with ourselves and be an example,” he said. “If no one’s willing to lead, we won’t make any progress.

“I think one of the most important things we can do is tell stories of success. Too often we just hear about what isn’t working.”

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