A federal court in California has decided to stop all new planting of genetically modified (GM) sugar beets in light of its September 2009 ruling that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) violated environmental law when it deregulated the crop without conducting an appropriate environmental assessment. Ctr. for Food Safety v. Vilsack, No. 08-00484 (N.D. Cal., decided August 13, 2010). Additional information about the court’s prior ruling appears in Issue 320 of this Update. While the court granted the plaintiffs’ request to vacate APHIS’s deregulation decision, it denied their motion for a permanent injunction. The court determined that vacatur was justified because APHIS’s errors were serious. “Moreover,” the court observed, “APHIS’s apparent position that it is merely a matter of time before they reinstate the same deregulation decision, or a modified version of this decision, and thus apparent perception that conducting the requisite comprehensive…
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has published a notice of its intent to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) on genetically modified (GM) sugar beets. The agency had previously deregulated sugar beets genetically modified for glyphosate resistance without preparing an EIS and was ordered in September 2009 by a federal court in California to prepare one after its action was challenged by organic seed and nonprofit organizations. The court concluded that the environmental assessment which APHIS prepared failed to consider a number of environmental and related economic impacts of the GM crops. Thus, APHIS is planning to prepare an EIS and requests public comment by June 28, 2010, on the potential issues and reasonable alternatives it intends to include. Among those issues identified in the notice are data on production levels of organic and conventional sugar beets and other crops by region, state…
A recent study has apparently found a “statistically significant association” between added dietary sugars and increased blood lipid levels in U.S. adults. Jean Welsh, et al., “Caloric Sweetener Consumption and Dyslipidemia Among US Adults,” Journal of the American Medical Association, April 2010. Researchers analyzed blood lipid levels and other nutritional data obtained from more than 6,000 men and women enrolled in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) between 1999 and 2006. Their results reportedly demonstrated that “increased added sugars are associated with important cardiovascular disease risk factors, including lower HDL-C [good cholesterol] levels, higher triglyceride levels, and higher ratios of triglycerides to HDL-C.” Compared with participants who received less than 5 percent of their daily caloric intake from added sugars, those who consumed the highest amount—46 teaspoons per day—were most at risk for developing heart disease. The authors contend that these findings “support the importance of dietary guidelines that…
A recent study involving both short- and long-term animal experiments has purportedly linked high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) to significant weight gain in rats. Miriam Bocarsly, et al., “High-fructose corn syrup causes characteristics of obesity in rats: Increased body weight, body fat and triglyceride levels,” Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior, March 2010. According to a March 23, 2010, Princeton University press release, researchers have “demonstrated that all sweeteners are not equal when it comes to weight gain: Rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same.” In the short-term experiment, the authors reported that “male rats given water sweetened with [HFCS] in addition to a standard diet of rat chow gained much more weight than male rats that received water sweetened with table sugar, or sucrose, in conjunction with the standard diet.” Moreover, the long-term…
A federal court in California has denied a request for preliminary injunction to halt the cultivation of genetically engineered (GE) sugar beets while the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) completes its court-ordered environmental impact statement (EIS) for the crop under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Ctr. for Food Safety v. Schafer, No. 08-00484 (N.D. Cal., decided March 16, 2010). Because the court already determined that APHIS improperly deregulated Monsanto’s Roundup Ready® sugar beet seed without preparing an EIS, the judge noted that the plaintiffs have established the initial element for obtaining injunctive relief, that is, a likelihood of succeeding on the merits. The judge also found that they have demonstrated the likelihood of irreparable harm, given evidence that the GE crop is capable of contaminating conventional and organic corps. Still, he refused to issue a preliminary injunction to immediately halt the sale, planting, cultivation, and harvesting…
A recent study has reportedly questioned the current availability of scientific literature establishing evidence for physical sugar addiction in humans. David Benton, “The plausibility of sugar addiction and its role in obesity and eating disorders,” Clinical Nutrition, January 2010. David Benton, a psychology professor with the University of Swansea in Wales, apparently reviewed previous research on the role of sugar addiction in obesity and eating disorders. Noting a lack of scientific consensus on the term “addiction,” he construed sugar addiction to involve physical craving, tolerance and withdrawal symptoms, meaning that “Fasting should increase food cravings, predominantly for sweet items; cravings should occur after an overnight fast; the obese should find sweetness particularly attractive; a high-sugar consumption should predispose to obesity.” Using this definition, Benton apparently found “no support from the human literature for the hypothesis that sucrose may be physically addictive or that addiction to sugar plays a role in…
Ocean Spray, which introduced its Choice® dried cranberries in March 2009, has called “inaccurate” National Consumer League (NCL) allegations that the product is falsely labeled because it contains more sugar than cranberry. The NCL also reportedly contended that Choice® sweetened dried cranberries, which are sold to food manufacturers for use in baked products, trail mix, granola bars, and cereals, are made from cranberry skins. NCL apparently had the product tested and is concerned whether enough cranberry is being used to confer the fruit’s purported health benefits. A company spokesperson was quoted as saying, “Our Choice product is made from Grade A superior frozen whole cranberries which are then sliced and sent through our patented process including infusion of sugar, citric acid and elderberry juice to infuse flavor and color specifically developed to meet our industrial consumers’ needs for their variety of recipes. Being made from whole cranberries, Choice retains many…
“Sugar is the most absurdly protected agricultural commodity in America,” according to health nutrition author and New York University Professor Marion Nestle, who answered reader questions about sugar policy during a September 20, 2009, online forum hosted by the San Francisco Chronicle’s website, SFGate.com. In explaining the so-called “sugar crisis,” Nestle stated that “Quotas allow U.S. producers to grow only specified amounts of sugar cane and sugar beets each year, for which the USDA [U.S. Department of Agriculture] guarantees a higher-than-market price.” She noted that these quotas and import tariffs have “ensured that Americans pay two or three times as much for sugar,” resulting in the “unnecessary transfer of $3 billion a year from 350 million Americans to a few thousand sugar growers and processors.” With these industry interests allegedly invested in “sugar protectionism,” Nestle reported that these policies might finally change partly “because the gap between domestic and world…
A federal court in California has determined that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) erred when it deregulated a genetically engineered (GE) sugar beet without preparing an environmental impact statement. Ctr. for Food Safety v. Vilsack, No. 08-00484 (N.D. Cal., decided September 21, 2009). Thus, the court granted the motion for summary judgment filed by the Center for Food Safety and other environmental interest groups and scheduled a hearing for October 30, 2009, to decide what remedies will be appropriate. A court in the same federal district ruled in 2007 that APHIS erred in deregulating GE alfalfa, and this court based its ruling on that decision, which resulted in an effective halt to the use of GE alfalfa. According to the court, which discussed at length how sugar beets are grown and how cross-pollination can occur with non-GE sugar beets and related Swiss chard and…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reportedly declined to send an objection letter to Arizona-based Wisdom Natural Brands™ concerning its request for generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status for its stevia sweetener, SweetLeaf®. Considered the gold standard in GRAS rulings, the lack of an FDA objection has confirmed earlier determinations by two independent scientific panels that reviewed SweetLeaf’s® GRAS status in March 2008. The company first lodged a notification of GRAS status with FDA for a “general purpose sweetener in various food categories” in March 2009. See FoodNavigator-USA.com, September 2, 2009. In a related matter, a Los Angeles Times article titled “Sweet stuffed: We eat lots (and lots of kinds) of sweeteners. What’s in them?” offers a primer of common and not-so-common sweeteners such as sucrose, glucose, fructose, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, lactose, honey, and agave syrup. “America’s sweet tooth is growing,” writes Wendy Hansen. “Like many other…
