By: Silver629 & Desert Gypsy
Sugar, or rather sugar beets are a major agricultural cash crop. Sugar is in almost everything we eat or drink today. Half of the white sugar sold in the Unites States comes from sugar beets. Like most people, I thought that most of the sugar manufactured in the United States came from sugar cane. However, this is not the case. In fact, the general public knows very little about farming practices surrounding the raising of sugar crops, specifically sugar beet crops. Besides being sweet GMO’s, sugar beets receive generous applications of pesticides, fungicides, and chemical fertilizers.
First, sugar beet seed is treated with fungicides. Fungicides are chemical compounds or biological organisms that kill Fungi and prevent its growth. Prior to planting, the soil is also treated with fumigants: Any biological organism present at that time, including mice, ground squirrels, and gophers are effectively destroyed. Applications of these products are repeated during the growing season.
These chemicals are not safe. Documentation is available verifying the harmful effects of fungicides. USF biologist Taegan McMahon has published two papers with associate professor Jason Rohr about the dangers of some chemicals in fungicides, specifically chlorothalonil. It can and has affected ecosystems in dangerous ways. A study conducted in 2012 in an issue of the journal Ecology Letters. This study had set up freshwater ecosystems similar to the normal Florida pond. They exposed the pond with an average chlorothalonil concentration. The initial reaction began with the reduction of the algae floating on top of the simulated pond. Most life was exposed and died which included; amphibians, snails and plants. Amphibian life died with hours of exposure to these harmful chemicals. In many farming communities, Irrigation runoff from sugar beet fields and other row crop fields ends up in a system of drainage canals that dump into native rivers and streams.
Farmers are allowed to spray as much fungicide and other chemicals as they wish without impunity. It is normal today to observe large scale chemical storage areas on farms. Long gone is the idealistic imagery of a natural farming ecosystem, such as pastures, corn stalks waving in the breeze, and peacefully grazing cows. And as if that’s not bad enough, now let’s add genetically modified organisms (GMO) to the mix. Monsanto is the largest supplier of GMO products in the world. I chose the word product instead of food, because that is what they are. Monsanto’s clever marketing has people thinking GMO’s are food. They are not, but rather sub products made in a lab and not by nature. Monsanto is also pushing a food shortage and chemical resistance fear agenda in order to increase market power and agricultural dominance. Since 2010, Monsanto controls 95% of the sugar beet agriculture in the United States, gains made largely through government lobbying and manipulation.
On a final note, unless the sugar you purchase is labeled organic, it’s most likely GMO. With all the toxic chemicals used in farming and the manufacture of sugar, along with the recent USDA decision regarding deregulation of GMO sugar beets, one has to wonder what exactly we are ingesting. One has to ask, “What’s really lurking within those sweet crystals?”
Sources
http://grist.org/industrial-agriculture/feds-to-farmers-grow-gmo-beets-or-face-a-sugar-shortage/
http://grist.org/article/food-2010-10-19-food-monsantos-losing-bet-on-gm-sugar-beets/
http://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/post/usf-study-commonly-used-fungicide-dangerous-ecosystems
http://farmassist.com/Prodrender/index.aspx?ProdID=1079&ProdNM=Inspire%20XT
