[Ngo-sanrm] ​Hershey dumps sugar beets because of GM concerns

Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources Management Working Group ngo-sanrm at ngocentre.org.vn
Wed Dec 30 12:40:15 ICT 2015


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Hershey dumps sugar beets because of GM concerns

*Hershey, with 2014 sales of $7.4 billion and more than 80 brands of candy
sold around the world, was a huge customer for beet sugar farmers*

EXCERPT: David Berg, president and CEO of American Crystal Sugar in
Moorhead, Minn., the nation’s largest sugar beet co-op, told members
gathered in Fargo, N.D., that the anti-GM movement is one of the industry’s
biggest challenges.
—
Hershey dumps sugar beets because of GM concerns

By Tom Meersman
Star Tribune, December 27, 2015
http://www.startribune.com/hershey-dumps-sugar-beets-because-of-gm-concerns/363498311/
<http://gmwatch.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=29cbc7e6c21e0a8fd2a82aeb8&id=193953ac56&e=416efb9114>

* Regional co-ops are worried about losing big candy customers

Something was different about a lot of the Hershey’s kisses in your
stocking this year: The popular chocolates no longer contain sugar made in
Minnesota.

For decades, the Hershey Co. has used sugar made from both sugar beets and
sugar cane, but it decided earlier this year to stop buying beet sugar
because it comes from genetically modified, or GM, seeds that some
consumers don’t like.

Hershey, with 2014 sales of $7.4 billion and more than 80 brands of candy
sold around the world, was a huge customer for beet sugar farmers, and its
decision was significant enough to be noted earlier this month at two
annual shareholder meetings of sugar beet cooperatives.

David Berg, president and CEO of American Crystal Sugar in Moorhead, Minn.,
the nation’s largest sugar beet co-op, told members gathered in Fargo,
N.D., that the anti-GM movement is one of the industry’s biggest
challenges. And Kurt Wickstrom, president and CEO of Minn-Dak Farmers
Cooperative in Wahpeton, N.D., said that anti-GM groups are a real threat
whose claims need to be countered.

Hershey communications director Jeff Beckman confirmed that the kisses and
many other products stocked on shelves since Halloween no longer contain
beet sugar. The company also is transitioning away from artificial to
natural ingredients, he said.

“More than three-quarters of the sugar we are using today is cane sugar,”
which is not genetically modified, he said, “and as we get into 2016, our
expectation is to be at or near 100 percent.”

No matter how or where the company sources the sugar, it’s still just going
to say “sugar” on the product ingredient labels, he said.

Beckman said the sourcing switch has nothing to do with the safety of beet
sugar, and the company’s website contains references to numerous scientific
groups that have concluded that GM sugar is safe to consume.

“This is really just a matter of listening to and being responsive to what
consumers want us to put into their products,” he said.

Minnesota is the top sugar beet producer in the nation, followed by Idaho
and North Dakota, and industry officials would not disclose how much of
their sugar is sold to candy companies. About 55 percent of domestic U.S.
sugar is produced from sugar beets, and nearly 100 percent of the beet
seeds are genetically modified to tolerate the herbicide glyphosate, the
active ingredient in Roundup.

Berg said in an interview that Hershey is the only national brand that has
dropped beet sugar, although other companies have been asking questions and
there has been a lot of chatter about GM sugar on social media.

“This could be a concern if it gets bigger and bigger, but at this point
that’s all very speculative,” Berg said.

Even if it reached the point that other companies followed Hershey, Berg
said, sugar beet growers can’t get non-GM seed anymore, and it would take
years to produce.

“The supply of seed that is not genetically modified is extremely outdated
and just not a viable option at all for raising sugar beets today,” he said.

Dean Bangsund, an economist at North Dakota State University, said the beet
sugar industry generates nearly $5 billion annually in total economic
activity in Minnesota and North Dakota, but it can’t afford to lose too
many customers.

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