A federal court is being asked to ban genetically modified sugar beets from being planted or processed, effectively halting nearly half the nation’s sugar production until the crop’s safety is determined.
The injunction sought against sugar beets genetically altered to resist the powerful herbicide Roundup could force farmers to do an about-face. Roughly 95 percent of the nation’s sugar beet acres were planted with Monsanto-created Roundup Ready beets last year, including 68,000 acres in Montana and Wyoming.
Sugar beets were a $45 million crop for Montana farmers in 2007, according to the most recent data available from the National Agricultural Statistics Service. Values weren’t available for Wyoming. Western Sugar Cooperative, which refines sugar in Billings, did not respond to requests for comment. Cal Jones, president of Wyoming Sugar, said that for legal reasons he couldn’t discuss the matter.
Luther Markwart of the American Sugar Beet Growers Association said no public statements would be made until the association’s attorneys reviewed the 122-page motion.
Wyoming was a test ground for Roundup Ready beets before commercialization and one of the first areas to use the new technology.
Half the sugar produced in the United States comes from sugar beets.
At issue is whether the genetically altered beets can corrupt natural varieties of beets and Swiss chard through cross pollination. The nation’s seed supply for both types of plants, altered and natural, is based in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Organic seed producers there fear that once cross pollination takes place, farmers will have nothing but genetically modified seeds and consumers will have no choice but to eat crops with genetically modified origins.
The Organic Seed Alliance, Center for Food Safety, High Mowing Organic Seeds and the Sierra Club filed a motion for injunction late Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The court has already agreed on most of the grounds stated for banning the Roundup Ready seed.
Last September, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White found that the U.S. Department of Agriculture broke the law when it failed to take a “hard look” at the potential damage genetically altered beets posed to crops that were related but natural, like table beets, chard and sugar beets that weren’t genetically modified.
White ordered the USDA to go back and conduct a full environmental impact statement on the consequences of deregulating Roundup Ready beets. The USDA deregulated the beets in 2005. They were planted commercially in 2008 and quickly became the seed of choice among sugar beet farmers, who saw cost benefits to planting a crop resistant to the powerful plant killer glyphosate, marketed as Roundup. Weed control is costly with sugar beets and non-Roundup Ready beets varieties required a cocktail of different herbicides for weed control. The promise of Roundup Ready crops was that using a single chemical would be cheaper and that less spraying would be required because of Roundup’s potency.
But the genetically altered plant’s effects on its natural cousins weren’t vetted.
“Monsanto’s gene-altered sugar beets were illegally approved by the (George W.) Bush administration’s USDA. The profound economic impacts on organic and conventional farmers, as well as the environment, were not assessed. As a result, the planting of these crops should be halted to avoid further harm,” said Andrew Kimbrell, Center for Food Safety’s executive director, in a written statement.
The plaintiffs in the case are arguing that the beets shouldn’t be planted or processed unless they are found safe through the court’s mandated environmental study. The Center for Food Safety has a winning record in lawsuits concerning genetically modified crops.
Working with others, the center successfully halted the planting of Roundup Ready alfalfa in 2007. In that case also, arguments centered on the USDA not using due diligence on the effects of Roundup Ready hay on natural varieties of the crop. Three courts ruled in the center’s favor, and Monsanto last week was granted a hearing on the matter before the U.S. Supreme Court. The USDA is now completing the environmental impact statement for Roundup Ready hay.
Although sugar beet producers declined to make public statements about the injunction or the lawsuit, some acknowledged they were concerned about the availability of non-Roundup Ready beet seed should the court agree with a seed ban.
It has been two years since Roundup Ready seeds became the industry’s seed of choice. There may be enough old seed available, but there could be germination issues because of age, and there may be shortages of particular varieties of seed. Not every region grows the same variety of sugar beet. If the best varieties aren’t available, 2010 yields could be down.
© Copyright 2010, The Billings Gazette, Billings, MT
