Boulder County Commissioners Delay Decision on GM Sugar Beets

The Boulder County Board of Commissioners has reportedly delayed a decision about whether genetically modified (GM) sugar beets can be grown on open-space land. At a August 25, 2009, public hearing, six farmers who in December requested permission to grow the beets on county land apparently asked the commissioners to delay the decision. “I don’t think any of us thought for a second that this issue would have become as emotionally charged as it has today,” one of the farmers was quoted as saying.

In 2003, the commissioners voted to allow GM corn but stipulated that any new GM crop would need new permission. This spring, county staffers researched the pros and cons of GM sugar beets but during the recent meeting the commissioners asked the Parks and Open Space Department to create a broader policy that would address GM crops in general. “We do not want to be in a position of doing hand-to-hand combat” about every GM seed, one commissioner told reporters. The commissioners also want a comprehensive plan for the county’s 17,000 acres of cropland that could include goals for more organic acreage, rules for herbicide use and plans for keeping conventional family farming viable in an increasingly urban county. See Boulder Daily Camera, August 25, 2009.