The sugar trade promised to be a big money maker for genetically
modified (GM) seed giant Monsanto, as these beets — a special
super-sweet variety, not the kind you find at the farmers market
— account for 44 percent of U.S. sugar production. Sure enough,
Monsanto rapidly conquered the market. By this year’s spring
planting, Monsanto’s patented GM seeds covered a jaw-dropping 95
percent of sugar beet fields. (Monsanto has managed to quietly
turn the American sweet tooth into a gold mine — it also
dominates the seed market for corn, the source of the number-one
U.S. sweetener, high-fructose corn syrup.) But back in August,
Monsanto suffered yet another of a continuing line of setbacks,
when a federal judge effectively nixed the USDA’s approval of GM
sugar beets. The agency had failed to adequately assess the
environmental impact of planting the high-tech seeds, the judge
ruled. On Monday, a USDA economist released a report (via
Bloomberg) estimating that the ban on GM sugar beet seeds would
cut U.S. total suga