“Court decisions that have suspended the planting of genetically modified sugar beets could result in a sharp decline in American sugar production in the next two years, leading to possible price increases for consumers and food processors, according to experts and farmers.” A judge recently ordered crops uprooted after finding that the planting of genetically altered seed stock had not been accompanied by a proper environmental impact statement. [N.Y. Times, The Recorder, earlier]
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Dismantle the EPA and the environmental impact statements and start over. Sugar Beets aren’t DDT but then neither was DDT.
EPA delenda est
I think I hear the Fanjul Brothers dancing in the streets, just about now.
High(er) sugar prices now might be a lever to get rid of sugar subsidies, though… [Yes, wishful thinking.]
I live in a community that is a large sugar beet producing area. Farmers profits have been higher over the past few years because they used this seed.
The migrant workers who used to weed the beets have moved on to other jobs now.
My farmer friends are very upset because, not only do they have to go back to lower income producing processes, but the labor they would need is also gone.
Reality is that cross-pollination of beet seed is very unlikely. Mostly because unlike grain crops, like corn, beets are a biannual. They take two years to produce seed. Because they produce so much seed from an individual plant, there land devoted to producing seed is extremely small, so seed fields are far apart.
Sugar beets being planted for seed this fall, won’t produce any seed until 2012.
This is just another example of the anti-science of the left. Some African countries would rather let their people starve than have them eat GM food.
“Southern African governments find themselves in a dilemma: they have to choose between letting their citizens starve to death or giving them genetically modified food aid that many believe may be harmful to health.
Several governments in the region objected to the GM grain, especially Zambia and Zimbabwe, the countries hardest hit by the drought. Citing health and environmental concerns, Zimbabwe blocked the GM food aid from entering the country. In Zambia, where some GM grain had already arrived, the government placed it under lock and key, banned its distribution and then blocked another 40,000 tonnes that were in the pipeline.”
http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol16no4/164food2.htm
However it is not solely the fault of the African governments. It is the EU that is in the forefront of the anti-GM hysteria.
“Southern African governments find themselves in a dilemma: they have to choose between letting their citizens starve to death or giving them genetically modified food aid that many believe may be harmful to health.
I thought that starving to death was, you know, kinda harmful to your health.
Does the Obama Regime ever stop coming up with new ways to destroy the United States?
That’s good news. I have no sympathy for Monsanto or the American sugar industry. The American sugar industry for far too long has been being subsidized by the American taxpayer and receiving well above world market rates for their sugar for too long. Ditch the subsidies to American producers and if they can’t survive at prevailing market prices, then let them go under. We can get the product cheaper elsewhere, we don’t need them.
Smart Dude (talk about an inappropriate moniker), the Obama Administration was the defendant in this case. The judge was appointed by President Bush in 2002.
The solution to bad law is not to encourage judges to ignore the law when it produces bad results. The solution is to get rid of the bad law.
Why is there no discussion as to why an Environmental Impact Statement is even required in this case?
The following story may be apocryphal: Supposedly someone tried to sue NASA over the Space Station because they didn’t file an Environmental Impact statement first. So they filed a statement consisting of one line “No environment, no impact.”