Anti-biotech activists have made an impact in their calls to avoid genetically-modified crops. Some food companies are removing ingredients derived from biotech seeds, which includes beet sugar, as a result.
Hershey Co., Chipotle Mexican Grill, Ben & Jerry’s and General Mills have pledged to cut GMO ingredients in some products. Beginning this year, for example, Hershey no longer uses beet sugar in its Kisses and Milk Chocolate bars.
There is only one type of genetically-engineered sugarbeet seed: herbicide tolerant. This sugarbeet was genetically engineered by introducing a slightly modified version of a gene (based on a bacterial sequence) that naturally occurs in all plants. That precise, minor genetic change has manifested into large environmental benefit for beet growers.
Since 2009, glyphosate-tolerant sugarbeets have made up more than 95 percent of the commercial sugarbeet production in the United States. Over that time, inputs and productivity data gathered from grower-owned cooperatives show 25 environmental benefits to using GE sugarbeets, ranging from 20 percent higher yields and reduced chemical input, to implementation of conservation tillage and reduced fossil fuel consumption. The findings highlight the importance of genetic engineering in the long-term sustainability of the grower-owned industry.
Making the campaign against beet sugar ironic is the fact that boycotting GMO sugar makes no scientific sense.
Sugar obtained from conventional and transgenic beets is indistinguishable or substantially equivalent with respect to purity after the refining process. This has been proven. Every sugarbeet processing plant in the U.S. and Canada has been screened by an independent testing organization, and all the sugar was found to be GMO-free. Other countries freely accept and understand this unique quality of sugar and some, like Australia, allow sugar derived from GE sugarbeets to be labeled as GMO-free since the final product contains no GE trait.
Yet anti-biotech activists and anti-GMO organizations continue in their attempts to scare people about the source of beet sugar.
In response to these attacks, the beet sugar industry created the Spokeswomen Project to address the use of biotechnology in food.
ASGA Bio-Spokeswoman Stephanie Rovey, of La Grande, Ore., spoke to attendees at the Snake River Sugarbeet Conference on Dec. 9 in Boise, Idaho.
“We’re sharing our stories to secure the future,” Rovey said of the Spokeswomen Project. Rovey is a mother of five sons and grows beets Rovey Farms with her husband, Byron.
“More than 70 percent of food fear is driven by Facebook,” Rovey said. “It threatens our ability to use technology.”
Other GMO crops in the U.S. are alfalfa, corn, cotton, soybeans, canola, papaya and squash.
Rovey said a number of factors have helped anti-biotech activists gain the upper hand over growers thus far.
“Most of us are introverts,” she said. “We are isolated, self-employed and most of us do not sell directly or interact at all with end-users. We are busy farming.”
According to Rovey, only 1 in 49 U.S. consumers understand how food is produced.
Rovey said the goal of the spokeswomen is to draw people in on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites and give them the facts.
She mentioned Dr. Vandana Shiva, Vani Hari, also known on her blog as the Food Babe, and Dr. Mehmet Oz, as some of the leaders in the battle against GMOs.
“They are on the extreme,” Rovey said. “It’s good to monitor what they are doing. The people we have to go for are in the middle.
“We have to tell our story, acknowledge concern, find common ground and eliminate arrogance,” she said. “Over 3,000 studies show no harm from GMOs.”
Rovey said the goal is to have conversations with consumers, rather than conversions, and highlight the advantages of GMOs.
“This conversation is easier for women to start up,” Rovey said.
She urged growers to join social media, make farm page blogs and follow the spokeswomen.
“We’re focusing on getting the message out to growers,” Rovey said.
The Sugar Industry Spokeswomen will be speaking at the ASGA Annual Meeting Feb. 8 in Scottsdale, Ariz.
New Beet
German plant breeding company KWS Saat signed a commercial agreement with Monsanto last year to develop a new sugarbeet variety that’s resistant to three different herbicides: glyphosate, glufosinate and dicamba. It will represent the next generation of weed control technology.
The two companies also worked together to develop the Roundup Ready sugarbeets.
Trials and development for the new variety will occur over the next three years. It’s expected to be commercially available in eight to 10 years.
The combination of the three traits stacked into one variety should prevent the proliferation of herbicide-resistant weeds, said Aaron Hummel, research scientist at KWS Saat. Any weed resistant to one mode of action should be killed by the others.