If the demonization of sugar is not bad enough, America’s sugarbeet growers face additional woe on its doorstep—increasing consumer backlash as number of US food companies jump on the bandwagon to move away from ingredients from genetically modified (GMO) crops.
Practically all of the beet sugar produced in USA comes from GMO Roundup Ready sugarbeet. Food manufacturers are particularly responsive to social media-savvy Millennials, the generation of people now in their 20s and 30s, who are perceived to care more about the ingredients on their plates. The growing list of companies pledging to ditch GMO ingredients include Hershey Co, Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc, Unilever Plc subsidiary Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc, General Mills Inc, and Dannon, a subsidiary of Danone SA. Whereas misuse of science has prevailed in demonization of sugar, with GMO beet, it seems that wilful ignorance has swayed over compelling economic and environmental benefits that the technology confers.
Beet growers in the USA rapidly adopted GMO Roundup Ready sugarbeet developed by Monsanto when seeds became widely available in 2008 because of its convenience and the technology allowed effective control of weeds using glyphosate. Growers typically use two applications of glyphosate and have excellent weed control. However, with conventional non-GMO beet, it would mean going back to spraying the crop “every 10 days or so with a “witches brew” of five or six different weedkillers”, according to the beet grower Andrew Beyer supplying to American Crystal.
Source: www.internationalsugarjournal.com