GE Sugar Beets Destroyed

Oregon agriculture has been in the national spot light recently with discovery of GE wheat in May and then most recently the destruction of genetically engineered sugar beets. Over a two-day time period in early June nearly 7,000 GE sugar beet plants were pulled out of the ground on two plots of ground in Jackson County Oregon. These plots are on private farmland leased and managed by Syngenta.

While at the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association Centinnial Celebration, I spoke with Oregon Department of Agriculture Director Katy Coba about the destruction. Following the FBI’s news release last Thursday, Director Coba explained

Coba: “We then subsequently issued a release indicating our concern that this had happened. Basically I don’t believe that vandalizing and destroy crops is an appropriate way to deal with what is clearly differences of opinions of what should and can be grown down there but actually resorting to economic damage is not the way we resolve these things in Oregon agriculture. I would hope that in the future that we don’t have these kind of incidences.”

She added that anyone with information regarding these crimes to report it to the FBI. The FBI considers this crime to be economic sabotage.

The group Oregonians for Food and Shelter is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to the identification, arrest, and conviction of the person and people involved. And the Oregon Farm Bureau also offers a reward of up to $1,000.