Ruling may impact local sugar industry

ONTARIO — A federal judge’s ruling to overturn the use of sugar beets genetically engineered to resist the Roundup weed killer could be a major blow to the sugar industry in the Treasure Valley if the decision stands.

Producers involved in the sugar beet industry said the decision may force farmers to rethink the feasibility of growing beets if they have to return to conventional seed.

For now, though, it is too early in the legal process to know the final outcome.

At least one local farmer said a program to embrace conventional techniques for sugar beets is problematic.

“It would be difficult to go back to conventional beets,” Reid Saito, Nyssa farmer said. “It would require growers to use a lot more chemicals. Some weeds we never could get a handle on.”

The genetically-engineered seed produces beets that are not affected when growers use Roundup to kill weeds. With the Roundup Ready beets, farmers are able to keep their fields cleaner, Saito said.

“It has been a real boon for growers,” Lynn Jensen, Malheur County Extension agent, said. “Weed control is a tough issue in sugar beets.”

The new technology reduced the amount of chemicals used on beets and eliminated most hand labor, Jensen said.

U.S. District Judge Jeffery White, San Francisco, ruled that allowing the use of Roundup Ready beets violated environmental law by failing to take a “hard look” at whether those beets would share their genes with other crops. He ordered the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to write an environmental impact statement, he said.

Saito and Jensen said if they have to go back to conventional beet seed, farmers may seriously ponder whether they can continue to grow beets.

A sugar industry spokesperson agreed and did not want to speculate about what the judge may decide.

“First of all, it does not have any effect on the crop now being harvested,” Luther Markwart, American Sugar Beet Growers Association, who is the designated spokesperson for the sugar beet processors, said.

The next action is Oct. 30, which will be the scheduling session for the remedy phase of the litigation, during which the parties involved will learn what the judge decides needs to be done.

“We don’t know what that is,” Markwart said “Or how long it will take.” Markwart said the decision impacts most of the sugar beet trade.

“We have an industry that is 95 percent planting Roundup Ready beets,” he said, and by 2010 there was expected to be a full conversion.

In some growing areas there are still some disease issues, Markwart said.

One major question is whether there will be enough conventional beet seed, if the genetically engineered beets are not allowed.

“That is the big question,” Markwart said. “I don’t have the answer. They don’t share that information,” he said, referring to the seed companies, adding that is proprietary information.

“Probably only the government could obtain it,’ he said. “Nobody in the industry can do that.”

The judge’s ruling came about 20 months into the case, Markwart said and that it was a disappointment rather than a surprise. The beet growers association is putting together its case in defending the growers’ right to have the opportunity to use the new technology, he said.

Whether there is an appeal will be up to the government. The industry was not a party to the case.

source: argusobserver