First harvest of genetically modified beets to market

WELLINGTON – Beet grower Richard Seaworth was more than pleasantly surprised when he watched his fall harvest come in.

For Seaworth and most of his fellow beet farmers across the nation, it was the first harvest of a crop of genetically modified beets and the result seems to have been everything that had been anticipated.

“This is the first year sugar cooperatives got together and said we’ll accept these types of beets,” he said. “And we were able to do it with less water, less fertilizer, no harmful chemicals, less diesel fuel and less carbon emissions.”

This year, beets grown for sugar production joined a list of genetically modified crops that have been showing up on grocery shelves, including corn, soybeans and canola. Other crops, including potatoes, wheat and rice are also being genetically modified to increase yield and decrease the inputs – fuel, fertilizer, herbicides – the grower has to buy to bring that crop to harvest.

In the case of sugar beets, the genetic modification is a beet seed that’s had a gene spliced into it that enables the plant to withstand Roundup, a popular herbicide from Monsanto used to kill weeds.

“The weeds don’t go in and steal the sugar beet crop,´ said Seaworth. “Spraying with Roundup kills virtually every other plant except the beets.”

Seaworth noted that before this year beet farmers would have to spray four or five times a growing season to keep weeds from crowding out the beets. That meant higher costs in herbicides, more diesel fuel for making additional passes through their fields and water that was wasted on weeds.

Mike Hofer, vice president of agriculture for Western Sugar Co-op in Denver, said the technology of genetically modified foods has been around since at least 1995 and the cooperative had no concerns about accepting the genetically modified beets from Seaworth and other Northern Colorado growers.

“There’s six (sugar) cooperatives in the United States and pretty much the entire industry has gone to genetically modified beets,” he said. “All of these technologies have been tested for years.”

Hofer noted that this year’s beet crop was a record, even with a poor spring planting season. “We had a 25-ton-per-acre crop with a 16.8 percent sugar content for a crop average,” he said. “That was quite an achievement.”

Hofer said 90 percent of the beets received by Western Sugar this year were genetically modified and he expects that will hit 100 percent next year.

GM worries

But there are those who worry that genetically modified foods may not be the wonder crops they appear to be. Even though some genetically modified crops – such as corn and soy – have been consumed for more than a decade, there are concerns about their long-term effects and cross-breeding with other crops.

Margaret Weber, coordinator of corporate responsibility for the Adrian Dominican Sisters and chair of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, said she’s concerned that, even though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the beets for human consumption, there may still be long-term effects not yet seen.

And given the fact that the genetically modified beets are mixed with non-GM beets, there’s no way to track a problem that may arise.

“Our greatest concern here is another (GM) commodity crop without segregation and doesn’t allow for tracking studies, which is key if there is a problem,” Weber said. “We know that when genetically modified wheat came along four or five years ago, the food industry said don’t do it until you have a system of segregation.”

Weber said concerned groups such as the Organic Seed Alliance and the Sierra Club fear Roundup Ready seeds may become resistant to higher and higher doses of Roundup herbicide. “Do I automatically assume as a consumer that additional amounts of Roundup do not affect me as a consumer?”

The Sugar Industry Biotech Council is assuring consumers on its Web site that sugar from GM beets, non-GM beets and sugar cane is all the same. “Sugar – whether from sugar beets or sugar cane or from sugar crops grown using conventional, biotech or organic methods – is the same pure and natural sugar that consumers have always enjoyed. It has the same nutritional value, composition and wholesomeness.”

For Seaworth, whose family has grown sugar beets in Northern Colorado for nearly 80 years, GM beets appear to be the path to continuing that tradition and reviving a flagging sugar beet industry in the region.

“I think it’s going to save us,” he said. “We can now do it cheaper and it makes it less expensive to grow than other crops.”

Steve Porter covers agribusiness for the Northern Colorado Business Report. He can be reached at 970-221-5400, ext. 225, or at sporter@ncbr.com.

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