Seed Company Leaders Provide Insights on What's in the Pipeline

    To date, the buzz about biotechnology within the sugarbeet sector has focused largely on Roundup Ready® sugarbeets.  First grown commercially in 2007 in north central Wyoming, Roundup Ready beet acreage skyrocketed the following year.  For the past four years, Roundup Ready varieties have been planted on around 95% of total U.S. (and Canadian) sugarbeet acreage as growers have embraced the benefits for their individual farming operations.

  A Profile of the Fargo, N.D.-Based USDA-ARS Sugarbeet Research Team 

    Unlike sugarbeet growers, who harvest the fruits of their labors every year, those who conduct basic research on this crop may not witness the commercial payoff from their work for a decade, two decades — or even longer.  While we all need a certain amount of patience and persistence in our jobs, no one relies on such traits more than public scientists like Larry Campbell, Karen Fugate and Melvin Bolton.