12-21 FB Weeding Beets

 Good news for those of you who are out of work. I may have found a job for you in agriculture in the spring. I’m DS

You may or may not have heard about the ruckus going on in the world of sugar beets but here it is in a nutshell. Sugar beet growers have been raising genetically modified beets for some time because the beets can be sprayed with an herbicide that kills the weeds around them but does not affect the beets themselves. Well there’s been some legal action that may prevent the planting of these genetically altered beets which means that conventional beets may have to be planted. That, in turn, means labor…as in weeding. Here’s local sugar beet producer Sid Freeman to tell you that there’s money that can be made. “We always pay more than minimum wage to have those folks out there in those fields.” Sid won’t try and sugar coat the truth about sugar beet weeding. He says it’s hard, honest work.