Groningen is a pleasant place, with an old university, but its claims to fame do not extend to much beyond the industrial processing of sugar-beet and a glorious 15th-century tower.

ECONOMIST: Contemporary dance

On rural roads, sugar-mill workers sit next to bags of beet sugar they have received in lieu of wages, hoping to barter their product for food or cash.

ECONOMIST: The East European shtetl

The herbicide-resistant alfalfa and sugar beet seeds under attack by activists are just the beginning of what will be necessary to feed a growing world: The U.N.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Sugar beet farming is a multimillion-dollar business in Oregon, Wyoming and Montana.

FORBES: Magazine Article

In 2010, the Center for Food Safety and some organic farmers who stood to gain by attacking conventional and GM crops convinced a court on procedural grounds there was no finding of environmental or health dangers to void the five-year-old approval of transgenic sugar beet seeds.

FORBES: Exposing the Anti-GMO Legal Machine: The Real Story Behind the So-Called Monsanto Protection Act

Some of the fringe activist groups opposed to genetic engineering have an anti-science, anti-technology, anti-business agenda, but given the environmental advantages of Roundup-ready seeds it's puzzling that a group like the Sierra Club, one of the co-plaintiffs in the alfalfa and sugar beet litigation, is working so hard to keep the seeds off the market.

FORBES: Commentary