Suit seeks to prevent GM contamination of organic seeds

An Oregon-based organic seedsman is party to a suit to stop the production of Roundup Ready sugar beets. Frank Morton worries that sugar beet pollen can cross-fertilize and contaminate table beet and Swiss chard plants, both of which he grows for seed. Each sugar beet flower contains thousands of pollen granules, and researchers have found the windblown pollen miles in the air and miles away from its home field.

Morton's beef is with sugar beet seeds that scientists with agricultural giant Monsanto have tweaked to resist Roundup, the company's most popular weed killer.

Oregon doesn't grow many sugar beets, which supply half of the nation's sugar. But it turns out the Willamette Valley is nearly the sole supplier of U.S. sugar beet seeds.

In the past two years, the humble commodity crop has quietly become the valley's first to incorporate genetic engineering wholesale. Full story: Oregon Live