GMO Ban Threatens Sugar Beets

Attorneys warn of beet seed shortages, ‘billions of dollars in damages,’ reports the Capital Press.

The U.S. sugar beet industry could suffer billions of dollars in losses if Roundup Ready varieties are banned next year, according to attorneys representing growers and processors.

“At this point, a halt on planting Roundup Ready sugar beet seed for the 2010 root crop in 10 states would create severe seed shortages in many areas of the country and pose other very significant problems potentially resulting in billions of dollars in damages to thousands of sugar beet farmers, to cooperatives and processors and to communities across the country… ” attorneys Gilbert S. Keteltas, John F. Bruce, Christopher H. Marroro of Washington, D.C., and Joanne Lichtman of Los Angeles, said in court documents filed Wednesday, Nov. 25, in federal court in San Francisco.

The attorneys represent the American Sugarbeet Growers Association, U.S. Beet Sugar Association, American Crystal Sugar Co., The Amalgamated Sugar Co., Western Sugar Cooperative, Wyoming Sugar Co. and individual leaders of four growers’ co-ops, all of whom are intervenors in the case.

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