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The Sugarbeet Biotech Story

How the sugarbeet industry became the first crop in this century to adopt biotechnology

By Duane Grant

It’s a long, long way from Idaho to North Dakota! So what is an Idaho farmer doing writing a column for the Prairie Grains magazine? It’s a fair question, but I hope my northern prairie peers find this article useful because we have many things in common. We both produce a wider range of crops in a harsher environment than our more southerly cousins, and are more dependent on research and technology to ti

Sugarbeets ready for Harvest on the Grant farm near Rupert, Idaho.  The beets on the left are Roundup Ready, while the beets on the right are conventional.

p the scale in our favor. I am a wheat, barley, sugarbeet, alfalfa, corn, and potato farmer. I believe that technology is what gives me the edge against competitors with lower per-unit input costs, enabling me to remain competitive in a global market. This story is about how the sugarbeet industry gained access to the most powerful technology ever introduced to agriculture, biotechnology. I will discuss how the transformation happened, and what biotechnology will mean to the sugar industry. Since there are numerous crops grown in the prairie area that still don’t have access to biotechnology, perhaps my story will be useful to others.

Sugarbeets are a minor crop, grown on only 1.4 million acres of U.S. farmland. When compared with major crops such as corn (at 85+ million acres annually) or wheat (at 45+ million acres annually), sugarbeets simply don’t have the market value to attract much of an investment from crop protection product manufacturers. Much like other minor crops, sugarbeet growers have a very limited number of weed control products to choose from, with most of the chemistries registered for use on sugarbeets dating back to the 60s and 70s. The effectiveness of this limited weed control arsenal has declined over the past 40 years, and growers have been experiencing more frequent and greater yield losses due to weeds. However, profitability has been high enough that growers could tolerate occasions of ineffective herbicidal weed control, and large hand hoeing crews have traditionally been used to control escaped weeds in beet fields. Nevertheless, Alan Dexter, NDSU sugarbeet specialist, demonstrated through grower surveys in 2004 that weed control had become the single largest problem for sugarbeet farms in the Red River Valley.

By 2002, sugar industry grower leaders had recognized that the perfect storm of continued poor weed control, lower sugar prices and labor shortages could potentially render sugarbeets unable to compete against other cropping choices, and ultimately threaten the existence of the U.S. sugarbeet industry. Sugarcane growers also recognized the potential benefits of biotechnology, and joined together with beet industry to form the Sugar Industry Biotech Council (SIBC). Including representatives from all sectors of the beet, cane, seed, and technology industries in the U.S. and Canada, the SIBC served as a repository and clearing house of information for its members. Thus informed, members were able to individually adopt policy constructive to commercialization. The growers were able to demonstrate a broad and firm commitment to biotechnology, assuring technology providers of a receptive grower marketplace. Technology providers subsequently assured seed companies of their commitment to provide global technical and regulatory support, enabling seed companies to invest in incorporating Roundup Ready herbicide resistance into their leading varieties. Enabled by the flow of information through the SIBC, regulatory and marketing milestones were reached to allow the planting of field scale demonstrations in 2006.

Following regulatory approval for cultivation, food and feed use within the U.S. and Canada, sugarbeet growers within the U.S. planted and refined about 240 acres of sugarbeets in 2006. I planted 60 acres on my farm, and was the first in the world to harvest commercial biotech sugarbeets. The biotech beets in all cases preformed very well, meeting or exceeding conventional varieties in both gross yield and extractable sugar. The technology also enabled reduced pre-plant tillage, eliminated some or all cultivation, and reducing the overall environmental impact of producing sugarbeets. The resulting sugar was sold at non-discounted prices into the commercial U.S. market to informed buyers. Building on this success, growers within the U.S. planted about 1,500 hectares of biotech sugarbeets in 2007, which are also being refined and sold into the U.S. market.

Today, sugarbeet growers in all regions of the U.S. have had the opportunity to see first hand the productiveness of the Roundup Ready system, and industry observers expect wide spread planting of Roundup Ready sugarbeet varieties in 2008, subject only to the availability of properly adapted seed varieties for each geographic location.

The question has been asked, “How has sugar from biotech beets been able to move so freely into the market place?” The answer is quite simple. The sugar is the same.

Prior to the sales of the first pound of sugar derived from biotech beets, the SIBC wanted to demonstrate the unequivocal safety and functional parity of the product. Working with the world respected laboratory Eurofins, the SIBC contracted for the analysis of 40 different sugar samples collected from around the globe. The results of the testing demonstrated that, down to a molecular level, sugar from cane, biotech beet and conventional beet are the same. The sugar is the same.

The North American consumer market has long shown acceptance of foods derived from biotech plants. Indeed, food ingredients derived from biotech soybeans, corn, and other crops have been sold within the North American market for over 11 years with little to no opposition. Sugar producers are simply the latest suppliers to this market to capture the advantages offered by biotechnology.

Looking Ahead
Herbicide tolerance, or Roundup Ready, is simply the first of what are expected to be many biotech innovations within the sugar industry. Already, seed and technology companies are competing to be the next to introduce a new production solution or a new market to the industry. Sugarbeet and cane varieties better adapted to harsh environments are on the near horizon, holding out promise of a more efficient use of our scarce water resources. Production solutions to such long-standing problems as viral and fungal pathogens are being rapidly advanced. And new markets in the form of energy, bio-plastics, and other co-products or substitution products are being researched.

Our philosophy in the sugarbeet industry would work for the wheat industry. First, I would suggest wheat growers take advantage of the valuable technology out there. Second, biotechnology in the wheat industry should be grower driven. You must have an overwhelming support of the growers in order for biotechnology crops to happen. Leadership is the important third factor. The leaders must agree and focus on this vision and they must be 100% in agreement in order to move forward. That played a big role in the biotech sugarbeet movement.

Biotechnology is indeed a platform technology, with each success laying the foundation for future advancements. Dave Berg, CEO of the American Crystal Sugar Cooperative, captured the sentiment of the U.S. sugar industry when he stated “Here at American Crystal, we believe biotechnology is the current wave that will help feed the world.”

Feed, and I might add, perhaps fuel the world. It is an exciting time for agriculture, and I could not be more pleased that I and other sugar beet growers will at long last have access to the power of biotechnology.

Shouldn’t the wheat growers in the Northern Plains have the same opportunity?

Duane Grant is a sugarbeet and wheat producer/leader from Rupert, Idaho. He has served both the wheat and sugarbeet industries in many ways, including working to advance biotech in each crop. You can learn more about the Sugar Industry Biotech Council at
www.sugarindustrybiotechcouncil.org.