On September 21, 2009, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White, US District Court for the Northern District of California, ruled that USDA-APHIS had violated federal law in deregulating glyphosate-resistant sugar beets without adequately evaluating the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of allowing commercial production.[1] The USDA estimated a sugar shortage would cost consumers $2.972 billion in 2011.[13]