POLITICS: Sugar beets to go GMO

[Guest guest]

I have fed hydrated beet pulp for years to my goats and cows, but now

may have to re-evaluate at this juncture. Why? Because The US sugar

beet industry coordinated an industry-wide conversion to genetically

modified sugar beets, thus eliminating a non-GMO alternative for food

manufacturers and consumers. Meanwhile, production of GM sugar beet

seed is likely to contaminate organic and conventional vegetable seed

production in Oregon's Willamette Valley.

Read on!

Morton faces a major threat to his livelihood. Morton's

business, Wild Garden Seed, which sells organic vegetable and flower

seed in Philomath, Oregon, is threatened by the incursion of

genetically modified sugar beets in Oregon's Willamette Valley.

The Willamette Valley is known as a center of seed production. The

valley features fertile soil with ample water from irrigation.

Winters are mild and wet and summers are dry, and not too hot. Seeds

for specialty crops such as the Brassica family, which includes

cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower, mustard seed, and canola are grown

here, along with onions, spinach, beets, chicories, endives, chard,

and many flowers. " It's seed dreamland, " Morton says.

Unanimous decision to go GMO

The Willamette Valley is also home to all the sugar beet seed

production in the United States.

Two large companies, Beta Seed and West Coast Beet Seed, supply seed

to sugar beet farmers in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Minnesota, North

Dakota, and other states where the beets are grown. Harvested beets

are processed by seven processing companies, the biggest being

American Crystal Sugar Company, based in Moorhead, Minnesota. These

processors supply beet sugar, which accounts for one-half of the US

sugar production, to food and candy manufacturers, such as Mars and

Hershey's.

Three years ago, these processors decided to convert the entire US

sugar beet production to Roundup Ready genetically modified

varieties, developed by Monsanto Company. The industry said farmers

needed the GM beets for better weed control.

Unanimity was necessary, Morton says. " If any one of the beet

processors or a major candy company had rejected the idea of GM

beets, the introduction would not have gone ahead. "

Unlike corn and soybean production where non-GMO alternatives are

available, the sugar beet processors did not want that option.

" This was a coordinated effort to genetically modify an entire sector

of the processed food industry simultaneously and without holdouts

that might otherwise have provided a source of conventional beet

sugar to fulfill non-GMO consumer demand, " Morton says.

Stealth introduction in the Valley

Field trials of the GM beets began in the Willamette Valley in 2005—

quietly, Morton says. " The initial stages of GM beet seed production

were carried out in secrecy for at least two years without other

sugar beet seed growers having any knowledge or notification that

GMOs were in the air, literally, " he says.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) did not ask for public

comments nor notify anyone about the trials. " A farming technology

revolution went on silently for three years, and was definitely not

televised, or bragged about, " Morton says.

Restricted GM canola

The Willamette Valley specialty seed industry has a tradition of

ensuring seed purity. Seed producers adhere to requirements for

isolation distances between crops to prevent cross pollination.

Vegetable seed must be 100% pure.

" We take purity seriously, " Morton says.

When some farmers wanted to introduce GM canola for biofuel

production in the valley, the Willamette Valley Specialty Seed

Association (WVSSA) worked with the ODA to restrict plantings. The

Rapeseed Control Areas rules aim to protect specialty vegetable seed

production from cross pollination by GM canola.

At a hearing at the ODA, Morton pointed out a double standard with

the restriction of GM canola and the allowance of GM sugar beets. " I

remarked at the irony that one of our own (seed association) members

had just converted 95% of its 2008 crop to Roundup Ready technology,

but no one bothered to mention that as they bashed Roundup Ready

contamination by biofuel canola, " he says.

" Contamination is inevitable "

Cross pollination between GM sugar beets and related plants, such as

chard and table beets, is a major threat in the valley where sugar

beets are the predominant crop. Morton says there are many areas

where chard and sugar beet fields are " rubbing up against one

another. " The two plants cross pollinate because they are the same

species.

Sugar beet seed producers wanted to establish a six-mile isolation

distance between GM sugar beets and non-GM crops in the valley, based

on research showing such a distance was necessary to keep GMO

contamination down to .01%. They wanted the distance to protect

themselves from potential lawsuits in case of contamination problems.

Morton says such a distance would be impossible to achieve, given the

size of the Willamette Valley. " They would overlap existing farms. If

my closest sugar beet neighbor had six miles, it would take out all

my fields, " he says.

The WVSSA refused to approve the six-mile isolation, and instead

lowered it to three miles, and thus increased the risk of GMO

contamination to conventional and organic seed.

Morton is angry. " GMO contamination is inevitable under the current

situation. "

A sugar beet company representative even admitted this in a meeting

Morton attended.

" Organic seed growers in the Willamette Valley must now test their

chard and table beet seed for transgenic contamination, paying an

expense on account of a technology that will destroy the value of our

crop if we get positive results, " he says. " Nobody considered that

Roundup Ready sugar beet in one generation might turn up as Roundup

Ready salad greens in the next. "

" Last step " : Lawsuit

Seeing no other recourse, Morton joined a lawsuit organized by the

Center for Food Safety to sue the US Department of Agriculture for

failing to conduct an environmental impact statement (EIS). " USDA

didn't consider the impact on all these farms and markets to where we

sell seeds. My markets have zero tolerance to GMOs, " he says. " If

there is any GMO contamination, my customers won't buy the seed. Who

is going to pay for that? "

Morton and the other plaintiffs hope that a judge's ruling last year

requiring USDA to conduct an EIS for Roundup Ready alfalfa will set a

precedent for their case.

The suit was necessary to save precious seed resources. " This was a

last step to protect an industry and our businesses from

introgression of genetic pollution into the Willamette Valley, "

Morton says.