The recent adverse judgment in the US, allowing sugar beet farmers using GM technology to go ahead and plant their seeds in utter disregard to the welfare of those farmers using conventional seeds, is fraught with grave consequences in that country. The funny excuse given by the court is that Americans would be "starved" off sugar if any restriction is placed on new planting! That too in a country where sugar availability increased by 70% within the last 100 years, touching an all time high of 62 kg per capita and one third the population is obese! Here is the logic used by the court in its judgment.
Essentially, the judge faulted the plaintiffs for waiting too long to bring the suit forward. At this point, he concluded, "If the court were to ban the planting and processing of the genetically engineered sugar beet root crop, there would not be enough conventional seed for a full crop this year. The economic impact of such a shortage would be dramatic and widespread. "That's the rub. Thousands of farmers who already put their seed in the ground for this season and are dependent on it for income would essentially be done in by a temporary injunction. At the same time, when the pollen from these GM seeds starts flitting around the Northwest countryside come May, organic and conventional farmers will be hard-pressed to find a way to prevent contamination and may, in turn, suffer economic harm. It's unfortunate that crop degradation can come in on the breeze while the judicial system moves at the pace of molasses. Because sugar beets account for half of the U.S.'s sugar supply, the whole situation got me thinking about sugar. Shouldn't this be a moot point? It seems that in the era of so-called obesity and diabetes epidemics, it might not hurt American consumers if half of our sugar supply was diminished. (Full disclosure: I'm eating Easter candy as I write this.) The USDA's recent publication, Tracking a Century of American Eating, reveals that availability of sweetener stood at 83.4 pounds per person in 1909. In 2008, the number had grown to 136.3 pounds".
A country like India or Brazil has a vital stake in keeping the international price steady and remunerative as they export substantial quantity of this commodity, earning valuable foreign exchange. Imagine a situation where the American sugar production is halved because of a ban on GM sugar beets. Obviously this could result in very significant increase in global prices and the developing countries sustaining their economy on sugar exports would have the benefit of getting attractive prices for their hard labor in raising the crop instead of depending on uncertain government subsidies for survival.
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