Big Candy Breaks Up With GMO Sugar Beets, Leaves GM Producers in Lurch

By Brandon Turbeville

Despite a world-wide economic depression, U.S. consumers appear to be fighting back against the power of Big Agri and GMO food corporations. After seizing control of virtually all the means of production of sugar beets, GM food corporations might be getting dealt a blow that resembles a self-imposed checkmate.

Ever since around eight years ago, almost all the sugar beet farmers in the United States started growing GMO sugar beets. These GM beets are genetically modified to tolerate Roundup, aka glyphosate, obviously Monsanto and other Big Ag companies were quite pleased with the status quo. But in the past two years, with an increase in awareness about the dangers of GMOs, consumers have begun to demand another option for their sugar goods, seek out sweets that do not contain GMOs and pressure manufacturers to discontinue using the GMO sugar beets.

Big Ag is not accustomed to changing their behavior based on a consumer. In fact, Big Ag’s motto seems to be “Eat GMOs or starve.” But because of the change in the consumer appetite, manufacturers have, at the very least, seen dollar signs in regards to the non-GMO sugar beet market.

For instance, Hershey’s, one of the largest sugar users in the country, has begun transitioning from GMO sugar beets to sugar cane – a plant that is not currently genetically modified.

Deborah Arcoleo, director of product transparency at the Hershey Company said:

We started reformulating Hershey’s Kisses, Hershey’s milk chocolate, and Hershey’s milk chocolate with almonds, to move from beet sugar to cane sugar, and that’s complete. Now we’re looking to do that across the rest of our portfolio, to the extent that we can.

Other companies have followed suit. As a result, Big Ag is starting to feel the pain at the cash box. Essentially, manufacturers looking for sugar, are fleeing GMO sugar beets into the arms of cane sugar. In fact, that increased demand for cane sugar has resulted in a cane sugar shortage with many candy companies now asking the USDA to allow for more imports of cane sugar. The transition is so massive that even a number of farmers, currently growing GMO beets are now considering moving to the non-GMO version.

Part of the reason for the transition, is the increase in customer demand for non-GMO products and the desire for companies to attract buyers from that market by placing the non-GMO label on their products.

This article (Big Candy Breaks Up With GMO Sugar Beets, Leaves GM Producers in Lurch) can be republished under a Creative Commons license with  attribution to Brandon Turbeville and Natural Blaze.com.

Brandon Turbeville – article archive here – is an author out of Florence, South Carolina. He is the author of six books, Codex Alimentarius — The End of Health Freedom, 7 Real Conspiracies,Five Sense SolutionsandDispatches From a Dissident, volume 1 and volume 2, The Road to Damascus: The Anglo-American Assault on Syria, andThe Difference it Makes: 36 Reasons Why Hillary Clinton Should Never Be President. Turbeville has published over 600 articles dealing on a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, government corruption, and civil liberties. Brandon Turbeville’s podcast Truth on The Tracks can be found every Monday night 9 pm EST at UCYTV. He is available for radio and TV interviews. Please contact activistpost (at) gmail.com.