Monsanto Wins Again
Last Friday a federal judge imposed a
nationwide ban on GMO sugar beets and it was
overturned the next business day. Sugar beets
comprise 50% of the sugar used in US food, and
95% of the sugar beets grown in the US are GMO.
It is the jurisdiction of the US Department of
Agriculture to determine whether plants are
environmentally safe; this case is about
whether the plants can cross pollinate (by
wind, insects, etc) and contaminate other
plants. This could have cost Monsanto billions
of dollars. Less than 2 weeks ago, wild
growing canola in North Dakota was discovered
to be 86% GMO. Because GMO crops are crossed
with herbicide resistant plants (usually
weeds), they grow like weeds and contaminate
natural plants. Alarmingly, two of the canola
samples collected by scientists showed that
multiple genes from different species of GMO
canola plants cross pollinated without
cultivation, and probably for several
generations. The implication of this is that
GMO seeds can readily contaminate natural
seeds and become out of control.