After seven years of keeping sugar from genetically modified
sugar beets out of their food, Kellogg, Hershey’s and the
Wyoming based American Crystal Sugarwill use sugar made from
genetically modified (GM) beets. The decision marks a turnaround
for Crystal Sugar, the nation’s largest sugar producer, which
declared in May of this year that it had no plans to use GM
sugar beets, and indicated that herbicide-resistant varieties
developed using biotechnology would not “be sold, given away,
distributed, or planted in year 2007.” But according to a recent
article in the glyphosate based herbicide Roundup is widely used
to kill weeds, but is strong enough to kill crops. A genetically
modified beet is resistant to Roundup, allowing farmers to kill
the weeds and keep the beets. But the health risks of glyphosate
are poorly understood. Some studies have connected glyphosate
exposure to cancer, organ damage in animals, human reproduction
and fetal development. Glyphosate has also created super-weeds,
resistant to the he