After genetically modified (GM) sugar beets are first harvested this fall in Alberta, Rogers Sugar/Lantic will be selling Canadians GM sugar. Lantic Inc. is the only company in Canada that processes sugar beet. You may recognize the white packaging from Rogers/Lantic-you likely have some of their sugar in your kitchen cupboard.

This sugar beet is genetically ­engineered to be resistant to Monsanto's herbicide Roundup and is currently applied to sugar beet used for processing into sugar (not red table beets). ­However, GM ­sugar beets are wind pollinated, and there is a strong possibility that pollen from GM sugar beets could contaminate non-GM sugar beets as well as chard, and red and yellow beets (table beets). ­Approximately 10 percent of Lantic ­sugar comes from sugar beet and the rest from ­imported cane sugar.

In the US, the Center for Food ­Safety, the Sierra Club US, Organic Seed ­Alliance and High Mowing Seeds have filed a lawsuit to challenge the US Department of Agriculture's approval of Monsanto's GM sugar beet. The groups have stated concerns about contamination of conventional sugar beets, organic chard and table beet crops as well as increased development of herbicide-resistant weeds, now a major problem in the US and, to a lesser degree, in Canada.

In Canada, sugar beet is grown in Alberta (for Rogers Sugar/Lantic Inc.) and Ontario (sent directly to the US for processing by Michigan Sugar). ­Ontario farmers (in Lambton ­County and Chatham-Kent) planted GM ­sugar beet in 2008 and Alberta farmers ­planted it this year. The Ontario farmers grow on contract to the US sugar company Michigan Sugar and the sugar beet is sent straight there.

Denied entry into Prince Edward ­Island where public protest forced the provincial government to announce ­public consultations, the company Atlantec BioEnergy now plans to open a sugar beet biofuels plant on the TrentonWorks site in Pictou County, Nova Scotia. The ­company wants to convince Nova Scotia farmers to produce 6,070 hectares of sugar-­likely Monsanto's GM sugar beets. Monsanto is the largest seed company in the world and owns approximately 90 per cent of all the GM seed sown across the world.

Internationally, one of the most ­destructive developments in agriculture over the past two decades has been the boom in soya production in the southern cone of Latin America. The corporations that led that boom are now moving aggressively into sugar cane, focusing on large tracts of land in southern countries where sugar can be produced cheaply. If these developments are not resisted, the impacts are likely to be severe: local food production will be overrun, workers and communities will face displacement and exposure to increased levels of pesticides, and foreign agribusiness will tighten its grip on sugar production.

Want to search for other articles that may interest you?

Readers of this article also enjoyed...