Producers move ahead with modified sugar beets

Minnesota's sugar beet producers are planning to plant genetically modified seed this growing season, despite concerns that a continuing challenge by environmentalists could leave their crops in a legal limbo.

Last August, a federal judge in San Francisco sided with environmentalists in a lawsuit and rescinded the U.S. Department of Agriculture's approval of genetically modified seed, which is used by about 95 percent of beet growers.

The judge put the seeds back into "regulated" status, something that can't be totally removed until the USDA completes an environmental impact statement, a two-year process.

The USDA came up with a stopgap solution in February: partial deregulation of sugar beets that have been engineered to be resistant to Monsanto's Roundup herbicide. In other words, beet growers could plant Roundup Ready seeds under certain conditions, including closely monitoring their crops.

But Earthjustice and the Center for Food Safety, groups opposing genetically modified seed, are continuing their court battle, trying to overturn the USDA's partial deregulation.

That's left a cloud over beet growers, who have been debating whether to go ahead with genetically modified seed or use conventional seed, which they say is inferior and in shorter supply.

With the planting season just a few weeks away, the board of Moorhead-based American Crystal Sugar on Wednesday decided to go with genetically modified seeds. Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative in Wahpeton, N.D., and Renville-based Southern Minnesota Sugar Beet Cooperative, had already reached that conclusion.

Still, he and executives at the other co-ops acknowledged some trepidation in going forward with genetically modified seeds. "We've had a lot of worries and fears," Roche said.

If a court ruling that favors environmentalists comes down between now and planting, beet farmers may suddenly have to switch to conventional seed, which could delay planting.

In a worst-case scenario, a court ruling against the USDA after planting could force the destruction of crops already in the ground. "There's a very remote likelihood of that, though it is possible," Roche said.

Beets are the nation's main source of sugar, and Minnesota and North Dakota are the top sugar beet-producing states. Farmers prefer Roundup Ready beets because they reduce costs and labor related to weed eradication.

Environmental groups say genetically engineered seed could lead to the development of herbicide resistant weeds -- superweeds -- and cause contamination of non-genetically engineered crops through inadvertent pollination.