Monsanto Beets Down Opposition

Environmental and public health groups are suing the USDA to stop the planting of Roundup Ready-proof GMO sugar beets

By Kari Lydersen

WILLAMETTE VALLEY, Ore.—The sugar beets growing in farmer Tim Winn’s fields do not look menacing. But other farmers in Oregon’s fertile Willamette Valley fear the beets could devastate their crops.

Winn’s sugar beets have been genetically modified to allow them to survive application of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready herbicide. The modification allows Winn to kill weeds in his field with two sprayings of Roundup, rather than the multiple applications of various herbicides he used to use.

Winn and other sugar beet farmers across the country say Roundup Ready sugar beet—which are being grown on a commercial scale for the first time this year—make farmers’ work easier and more profitable. And, they claim, there will be environmental benefits because farmers will make fewer passes through fields with a tractor—a point that was made in a 2003 British study published in New Scientist magazine.

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(Monsanto's power scares the hell out of me...more fiddling while Rome burns! K)