how to grow beets

Tremendously important news for all home farmers: a federal court judge has just rescinded the USDA’s illegal approval of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready sugar beets. VeganReader congratulates Judge Jeffrey White, federal district judge for the Northern District of California, for finding that the USDA acted illegally in approving genetically modified sugar beets without requiring Monsanto to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by preparing an Environmental Impact Statement. This is the second time the courts have had to blow the whistle on the USDA for approving GMO crops without requiring Monsanto to first go through the NEPA process as required by law.

Why is this such big news? In our past coverage of the vital importance of beets and the threat of contamination and extinction posed to them by GMO sugar beets, we’ve discussed the anxiety felt by responsible farmers over this issue. GMO sugar beets not only contaminate non-GMO varieties, making them unfit for human consumption, but because of the huge amounts of chemical herbcides used to grow them, they are being cited as a cause of what are called ‘superweeds’. Just like overuse of antibiotics threatens that a time will come when diseases resist all of the medicines we have, the overuse of herbicides encourages stronger weeds to grow that are harder and harder for farmers to contend with. The end result of Monsanto’s biotech activities would mean a world without edible landrace beets but plenty of huge weeds. No wonder so many farmers have demanded that this issue be taken to court.

We at VeganReader are very eager to give congratulations and thanks to the major plaintiffs in the GMO sugar beet case, including Center for Food Safety, Organic Seed Alliance, High Mowing Organic Seeds and others. We are so grateful for the hours, money, time and exceptional effort you have all put into bringing this dire issue to court and we celebrate this ruling with you.

Yet, even as we celebrate, it’s extremely important for all U.S. farmers to understand that this ruling provides only a temporary ban on new crops of GMO beets. The USDA estimates that Monsanto will have its Environmental Impact Statement ready by 2012, and considering the track record of both entities, we would be foolhardy to predict anything other than claims of total harmlessness in this statement. Having watched the USDA/CDFA spray thousands of Central Coast Californians in 2007 with pesticides that were subsequently banned by the EPA for their toxicity, I am fully expecting USDA to continue to protect the profits of chemical corporations rather than doing their duty of protecting farmers, human health and the environment.

All the more reason why this court ruling on GMO beets is so important: Judge Jeffrey White has just sent both the USDA and Monsanto a declaration that neither party is above the law. Inherent in this ruling is also a vital message for all farmers, watchdogs, whistleblowers and U.S. citizens: we must be ever vigilant when it comes to law breaking agencies and profit hungry corporations and demand that existent U.S. laws be upheld by both, as we work to create new laws that, I sincerely hope, will place a permanent ban on all genetic modification.

This is a red letter day for food security and a temporary triumph of justice. May I live to see the day when I can report here at VeganReader that the specter of GMOs has been stamped out across our great nation and around the world.