HALLOCK, Minn.—Duck Younggren seems to be in the right line of business for someone with a sweet tooth. He grows sugarbeets in northern Minnesota. He's been known to gnaw on a beet to get his sugar fix.
“Core out a piece. Put it in your mouth,” he said. “It's like candy!”
Younggren, who’s real first name is Dan, grows sugarbeets in the Red River Valley, the largest area of sugarbeet production in the U.S. About 60 percent of domestic sugar production comes from sugarbeets—a fact that has started to attract attention due to consumers' worries about GMO crops.
Nearly a decade ago, Younggren and virtually all other sugarbeet producers started growing crops that were genetically modified to resist the herbicide glyphosate, also known as Roundup.
It was stronger than the old herbicides. And Roundup doesn't beat up the sugarbeets, so their leaves grow a canopy faster, which prevents further weed growth and means fewer herbicide applications.
“We are down to two passes over the field. It used to be five or six,” Younggren said. “We're saving fuel, we're saving trips over the field, wear and tear on our machinery, the fatigue of the person doing it. Not to mention the carbon footprint we used to have, is not there anymore.”
Source: www.marketplace.org