Farmer and rancher delegates to the Nebraska Farm Bureau Convention adopted a special resolution directed at retaining farmers' access to sugar beet seed enhanced through biotechnology.

"Sugar beet production is vitally important to Nebraska, and 95% of the crop is planted with biotech-enhanced seed," says Keith Olsen, Nebraska Farm Bureau president. "Biotechnology that has been proven safe and effective for production and consumption needs to be available to growers."

Sugar beet production contributes more than $130 million each year to the Nebraska Panhandle economy through payrolls, property taxes and other impacts.

Recent court decisions and environmental group litigation have created uncertainty on whether biotech enhanced seeds for sugar beet farmers will be available in 2011 and beyond, Olsen said.

In a Nov. 30 ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey White of San Francisco ordered the destruction of Roundup Ready sugar beet seedlings, or stecklings, currently being grown to supply seed for planting the 2012 sugar beet crop. USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service had authorized planting in September. During the first week of December, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a temporary stay blocking White's order to destroy the stecklings.

Biotech-enhanced seeds such as Roundup Ready sugar beets have increased yields, expanded the use of soil-saving tillage practices, reduced the need for pesticides, lowered fuel consumption and reduced the labor of mechanical cultivation and weeding, Olsen says.

"Advances in technology such as Roundup Ready sugar beets are critical for the future success of agriculture," he adds. "And if farmers are to meet the continually expanding global demand for food, fuel and fiber that comes with expanding world population, we need this important tool."

The Farm Bureau delegates urged the American Farm Bureau to work diligently to assure continued access to biotechnology sugar beet seed.