Would you like some GMOs in your coffee? (F**king Monsanto)

[marmar]

from Grist:



Would you like some GMOs in your coffee?

Posted 12:59 PM on 1 Jun 2009
by Tom Laskawy


One cube or two? Jill Richardson made a good catch on the GMO crop front the other day. She dug up an article from a Boulder, CO newspaper that detailed the debate over local sugarbeet farmers’ request to plant GM seeds within the city limits. The farmers claim that without GM sugar beets, they’ll be unable to meet their Western Sugar Cooperative quota. But that’s not the reason I’m telling you all this (nor is it for the useful fact that sugarbeets have been a staple crop in Boulder for a century). I’m telling you all this because the article contained this revelation:

Since it was approved a year ago, more than 90 percent of the nation’s sugarbeet crop has been converted to Roundup Ready, according to a Boulder County staff report.

“Roundup Ready,” of course, refers to Monsanto’s group of genetically engineered corn, soy, canola, cotton and now sugarbeet seeds that can withstand the direct application of the potent pesticide glyphosate (aka Roundup). In the course of a year, Monsanto’s Frankensugar has taken over the national sugarbeet crop. Yeesh.

As Jill observes, something like half of the refined sugar available in the US comes from sugar beets. That, of course, means that no small amount of the sugar that you cook with or put in your coffee is genetically modified—and suggests that pretty much 100% of conventional processed foods now contain GMOs. Whatever our expectation of processed foods, few of us, I think, would have considered plain, old table sugar a potential GMO product. I know I found this unsettling.

This wouldn’t be quite the same problem, of course, in Europe, which has mandatory GMO labeling laws. You wouldn’t need crack bloggers digging around in local Boulder, CO newspapers to learn the truth. It’s enough to make you think that the big food companies just don’t want you to know. Nah. I must just be getting paranoid. Anyway, I think I’ll take up Jill’s suggestion and stick to organic sugar. For better or for worse, the organic label, with its restrictions on the use of GMO ingredients, is the closest we’ve got to GMO-labeling in this country.

....

UPDATE: Stephanie Ogburn in comments below flagged another sugarbeet battle going on in Oregon. Turns out an organic farmer found viable GMO sugarbeet roots in a commercial soil mix. His fear is that it could contanimate huge swathes of land with Roundup Ready sugarbeets when the roots sprout and then flower. The farmer involved also has a “lawsuit, now before a federal judge in California contends that USDA officials violated federal law when they deregulated the genetically modified sugarbeets in 2005 and asks for an injunction to halt their planting, sale or distribution.” I doubt the suit will succeed but one can only hope. This kind of unpredictable cross-contamination does make you feel like Monsanto has no real understanding of exactly what they’ve unleashed on us.


http://www.grist.org/article/would-you-like-some-gmos-in-your-coffee/

[Sebastian Doyle]

1. Well that fucking figures

They know they're about to lose the ability to poison America with High Fructose Corn Poison, so that means they have to get control of sugar and make that toxic too.

Mothefuckers need to be forced out of business even more than the health insurance corporations. Shit, getting rid of Monsanto and ADM would probably ease the burden of the health care industry in and of itself.

[Hanse]

2. A couple of things.

1. Sugar doesn't have genes. There's no such thing as genetically altered sugar. The sugar that's refined using various harsh chemicals from GM sugar beets is absolutely identical from sugar that's refined using various harsh chemicals from wild type sugar beets.

2. Am I fine with GM sugar beets? Sure, why wouldn't I be. Beats the hell out of wild type sugar beets grown with a lot more pesticide.

[kestrel91316]

3. That does it for me. Organic sugar ONLY from now on.

I know it's a lot more expensive. So what? I already could stand to lose weight, and eat less sugar in my diet. So this will just make it easier.

Fucking Monsanto.

[GKirk]

4. Other than the word 'Monsanto'

what bothers you about Roundup Ready sugarbeets? Are there any proven problems with them?

[kestrel91316]

6. Oh, just the usual: designed to be sprayed with LOTS AND LOTS

of Roundup, seed can't be saved by farmers for future crops, Monsanto has a near-monopoly on crop seeds in the US which endangers our food supply and holds us hostage........

How long did you say you had been working for them?

[GKirk]

7. Other crops are sprayed with

lots and lots of other pesticides. WHY does Roundup bother you so much?

[Creena]

5. I wonder if this will hurt non-GMO sugar beets.

Isn't there some danger of pollen cross-contamination?

Also, I recall reading somewhere Monsanto lobbying the EPA to allow an increase of glyphosate (Round-Up) residue by 5000%, leaving a higher residue of toxins when the sugar is extracted. Yucky.