Sugar Beet Legal Battle

I’ve heard said just about everything you need to know can be learned by watching Star Trek. Case in point, even alien Mr. Spock was aware that “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”  Of course he hadn’t heard of the sugar beet debate. All too often it seems in the “real” world we will indeed trample the needs and rights of the many in order not to offend the few. Even though roughly ninety-five percent of the U.S. sugar beet crop consists of biotech beets and more than half of U.S. sugar production comes from these beets radical opponents of genetically modified sugar beets are asking federal judges to suspend any and all planting, cultivating, and processing of biotech beet crops until a government environmental assessment can be completed. Such an action would result in practically total devastation of the sugar beet industry, save for a few organic table beet growers who have implemented this whole ordeal. It has been five years since the USDA approved the planting of biotech beets, two years since the filing of the lawsuit against their use. Taking into account the slow moving machine that is the judicial system it looks like we should all be braced to pay exorbitant prices for sugar, when and if we’ll be able to find it.