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Genetically engineered sugar to hit U.S. in 2008

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Background Information: American Crystal, a large Wyoming-based sugar company and several other leading U.S. sugar providers have announced they will be sourcing their sugar from genetically engineered (GE) sugar beets beginning this year and arriving in stores in 2008. Like GE corn and GE soy, products containing GE sugar will not be labeled as such.
Since half of the granulated sugar in the U.S. comes from sugar beets, a move towards biotech beets marks a dramatic alteration of the U.S. food supply. These sugars, along with GE corn and soy, are found in many conventional food products, so consumers will be exposed to genetically engineered ingredients in just about every non-organic multiple-ingredient product they purchase.

The GE sugar beet is designed to withstand strong doses of Monsanto's controversial broad spectrum Roundup herbicide. Studies indicate farmers planting "Roundup Ready" corn and soy spray large amounts of the herbicide, contaminating both soil and water. Farmers planting GE sugar beets are told they may be able to apply the herbicide up to five times per year. Sugar beets are grown on 1.4 million acres by 12,000 farmers in the U.S. from Oregon to Minnesota.

Meanwhile candy companies like Hershey's are urging farmers not to plant GE sugar beets, noting that consumer surveys suggest resistance to the product. In addition the European Union has not approved GE sugar beets for human consumption.

Click on link for full article from the Organic Consumers Organisation
cubbingabout

78 responses // Genetically engineered sugar to hit U.S. in 2008

  • The response to GE plants is so much more promising in Europe than it is here. There is hardly even a debate here over it at all, and when there is, it's proponents go to such extents to marginalize those against it, its ridiculous.
    cwc_agent
  • now granulated sugar is going GE??? =( ...thanks for the heads up, cubbing'! they're pushing this Monsanto crap on us everywhere we turn =(
    echoz
  • Yeah echoz its not just the fact that it is genetically engineered its the fact that it has been engineered to take the huge doses of Monsantos Round up which not only get into the water table and pollute the soil but large traces stay in the food!
    They get you both ways
    cubbingabout
  • it's freakn insane! it's encroaching without any debate is what I see happening here in the states; our FDA has been so overtly infiltrated that there is no more real concern for public safety where Monsanto has any interest to benefit from.

    Maybe Europe is more careful about testing anything GE for safety? (where the hell is phillyphil...he knows a lot about this crap)
    echoz
  • Interesting. If I keel over and die from this I'll let you know. I'm getting tired of technophobic organic only people (BTW organic is bad for the environment) getting in the way of biotech, an extremely beneficial and optional field of science. You want to cure world hunger? Vat grown beef and ultra-hardy wheat is the way to go.
    (Vat grown meat is also completely cruelty free)
    Dmitri_Molotov
  • The FDA sucks.
    jefftego
  • Dmitri, Organic is bad for the environment? What a tosser!
    cubbingabout
  • I am so ready for some genetically engineered sugar highs.
    75thDeadMan
  • http://www.organicconsumers.org/monlink.cfm
    European governments are not stacked with Monsanto lawyers and lobbyists (yet). Justice Clarence Thomas was once a Monsanto lawyer, for example.

    Check out Millions against Monsanto for more information about this corporate "terrorist."

    I also attached a video called "The World According to Monsanto." Scary!
    uroborus8
  • No do you want to know whats bad for the environment? Genetic monocultures. I don't know about any of you but I'll choose organic sugar over sugar from beats sprayed five times yearly with roundup any day.

    Or since we're modifying plants to withstand pesticides, maybe we should genetically modify humans to withstand plants with a high residual pesticide content. Hell, why stop there?
    cwc_agent
  • its getting harder and harder each and every day to find food that isn't filled with chemical garbage. Big business is willing to poison the American people in order to make a few extra bucks.
    diabolical44
  • freakn disgusting. I was just discussing this shit with a friend and I recall telling him I didn't wanna be anybody's freakn lab rat for GMO foods...scientists have already found it wanting!

    Those extra proteins they know are not good. And Canada wasn't complimentary or apologetic about rejecting that shit either...
    echoz
  • This makes me sick! I think we should change the FDA acronym from Food and Drug Administration to Foundation for Destroying America. Here's to government market manipulation! :-)

    And since we're on the topic of sugar, here's a nice little tidbit from Ron Paul's "The Revolution: A Manifesto" (pg. 72):
    "Consider a single, almost trivial example of government favoritism: sugar quotas. The United States government limits the amount of sugar that can be imported from around the world. These quotas make sugar more expensive for all Americans, since they now have fewer choices as a result of diminished competition. The quotas also put at a competitive disadvantage all those businesses that use sugar to produce their own products. That's one reason that American colas use corn syrup instead of sugar: American sugar, thanks to the quotas, is simply too expensive (And it's also a reason that colas in other countries taste so much better.)"
    Hawkmang
  • And the comment about curing world hunger is laughable, the way to solve world hunger is not to encourage GM foods but to encourage eating lower on the food chain and reducing waste.

    The world right now is producing enough food to feed us all, the problem is the food is being wasted, used as livestock feed, turned into biofuel and other ridiculous things.
    cwc_agent
  • There's already so many harmful sugar substitutes on the market (backed by the evil FDA). This doesn't shock me in the least. People are becoming more aware of what they're putting into their bodies, but ironically, thanks to the economy, cannot afford what they know they should consume.
    hahaheather
  • A little late - everything we eat is already full of chemicals and drugs. We could grow our own food, but I'm pretty sure the soil we purchase is also "enhanced".
    ipodrulz
  • Why do human feel the need to mess with the perfection of nature?
    KosterK7
  • Feel free to not eat it. It's that simple. I don't eat cows. I wouldn't dream of telling someone who was very hungry not to eat a cow.

    I can understand the positives to organic food, but I am with Dmitri on this one.
    AceHardchester
    2 responses to this
  • Nature is not perfect. There are lovely bugs that infiltrate our food and unless you want to bite into dead bodies of bugs I think it's good that farmers protect the food from such insects.

    I think the worry over the chemicals and the engineering of food is way overprotective. It's like a parent trying to keep their child from being sick by cleaning their hands every five seconds. What happens? The child is the sickest child in the class.

    I abide by the five second rule and eat food that has fallen on the ground. I would eat engineered food, that' fine. I'm not going to pay more for 'organic' as if it's going to keep me living 2 years longer...wow. I rarely get sick. I'm not going to alter my way of living to keep me from getting what I don't get with the life style I have now.
    J_Jammer
    2 responses to this
  • Monsanto is the devil. They’re using old world ideas coupled with new age technology. We don’t need crops that are resistant to herbicides. To depend on chemicals that harm our body/world is an outdated approach. What we need are smarter farming practices that take in account their effect on the world at large. Once again NASA is the only government agency that seems to get this point.

    http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/PrecisionFarming...
    Ricky84
    2 responses to this
  • This makes me want to SCREAM!!! As long as there's more money to be made off a product, companies will find a way to make it, even at the expense of consumers. And like U.S. milk, this sugar doesn't have the OK in the EU. Does that not tell us something? PROTEST!
    AnemicElitist
  • There's nothing wrong with genetically engineered foods, study genetics before you make silly assumptions.

    But this pesticide shit is worrying.
    Saladin
  • Monsanto is evil. I urge everyone to do their best and avoid products like roundup or anything else from monsanto!!! Philip Morris is in bed with them. My smoking was putting $$$ in their pockets that knowledge helped me quit. Hemp is about the only thing they haven't ruined.
    nmsamanda
  • Most everything we've been eating for years now have been Genetically engineered in one way or another. Thats why i use plant sweetener in my coffee. But after all i am just a crazy vegetarian.
    LukesAlive
  • I’m guessing you don’t know about Monsanto Sal. In that case you should watch this video or do some research because nothing that comes from that corporation is safe. Our government denies that genetically modified food is different from natural food. However this is wrong. Scientific studies have already proven that there is a difference yet the FDA ignores the truth.

    You know what? I just tried to find the link to “The World According to Monsanto – A documentary that Americans won’t ever see.” Apparently it’s been pulled from google video and youtube, go figure. I guess the only way you can watch it now is by torrent file.

    What I think is silly is that you are either ignoring the scientific data or have no idea such damning information exists. If you don’t understand the danger of Monsanto then you probably shouldn't be talking about it.

    I did happen to stumble across this article further explains why GE sugar beets will be a problem for the US.

    http://www.familyfarmdefenders.org/pmwiki.php/GeneticEn...
    Ricky84
    3 responses to this
  • I'm sorry but its not just GE by itself--GE always comes paired with industrial practices that are destroying our soils. This kind of technology only produces more for a short period of time, then it craps out and we're left with less than we had before due to salinization and desertification, among other water and soil related issues.

    The genetic monocultures cwc mentioned are the big danger of our time. Genetic diversity is paramount to a species ability to survive. We seriously need to get off the boat of "we can control nature" and start trying to work within her rules, because all our tampering is going to come around and bite us in the ass much sooner than we think.

    Read the Botany of Desire and watch Harvest of Fear and The Future of Food, then tell me genetic engineering will save us. Its not the technology I'm afraid of, its the short-sighted humans involved with the technology that have me worried.
    Kati_kat
  • Ok I found the video. Thankfully someone found it on live video and posted it on current

    http://www.livevideo.com/video/embedLink/1C4FB64D50354B...
    Ricky84
  • FUCK!
    adam_romano
  • Thats very interesting. I did not know that. It makes one wonder how the religious community would react to this.
    sammunster
  • As well as many of our food products, much of our medicine is genetically engineered. Rather than boycott, or fight against the trend, it is our duty to understand the knowledge that seeds such technology. Artificial life is coming whether we agree with it or not. It takes individuals, with good intentions, to study and aspire to join the ranks of decision makers. We live amidst a battleground so enormous that, unless you’re willing to confront the truth, it is invisible to common people. We must breach the ranks, this means much sacrifice, years of study, but in the end, we are the future, and the information we have gathered, and the credentials we have earned, will allow us to steer the current, back to the way of nature and the natural genetic code that unfolded over billions of years of change. We are the change! What I do know, is that love and good intention will prevail. In the end, we all have to deal with our own selves, our own conscious.
    featherly
  • None of this will matter once the Codex Alimentarus is implemented. We will not have a choice, genetically modified foods will become mandatory.
    jubal
    1 response to this
  • so what... if it looks like sugar, tastes like sugar, it must be sugar.
    BetterWatching
  • http://www.thebetterhealthstore.com/ItemDetail.asp?ovch...
    Switch to agave, its so much sweeter and good for you too. It tastes delicious in coffee or tea. Its organic!!
    jubal
  • Stevia is another somewhat popular natural sugar substitute. I don't really like the aftertaste but it is sweet. I ususally use Sugar in the Raw or just stay away from sugar as much as possible. I certainly do not eat processed sugar whenever possible. The white powder that makes it's way to your tables is processed to the point of being a drug.
    lmahan
  • I still can't believe that the FDA isn't forcing companies to label their products as GMO. What's even more unbelievable is that the majority of Americans don't even know/care that they're consuming chemicals that have been proven to cause cancer.

    The only chance we have of stopping this is to spread awareness and resistance.
    SpookyFish
  • I believe true freedom lies in agriculture.
    recommended by  jubal
    Angry_Patriot89
    1 response to this
  • Not so cubbingabout, organic foods have to travel from farms that are farther away, and these days to travel you've got to put out an awful lot of carbon. Unless you know that you're buying local, screw organic.
    Dmitri_Molotov
  • Well Dmitri hope you like the mutating effect
    debbieclarke
  • http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-52668849124952...