| In the next year, a new food will enter the food supply. You may even eat it. Sugar from GM sugar beets. About half of our sugar comes from sugar beets (as opposed to sugar cane), and of that, 60% of the current crop is genetically-modified. That means 30% of our sugar will be GM. It will not be kept separate from non-GM sugar, and it will not be labeled. You won't even know you're eating it.
Fortunately, four wonderful groups - The Center for Food Safety, Sierra Club, The Organic Seed Alliance, and High Mowing Organic Seeds - have filed a lawsuit in opposition to the introduction of GM sugar beets.
The basis of the lawsuit is that the GM sugar beets could contaminate beets and chard all over the country. They seek to stop the planting, sale, and use of GM sugar beet seeds until the USDA studies the risks of the GM seeds.
The likelihood of genetically engineered DNA from Roundup Ready sugar beets migrating into chard and beet seed packets is high. Sugar beets, chard and table beets are all members of the beta genus and sexually compatible. These kissing cousins are wind-pollinated, and the overwhelming majority - 90 percent or more - of the nation's sugar beet and chard seed, along with some of its table beet seed, is grown in a single location, Oregon's Willamette Valley. |
