Central Oregon could see increase in sugar beet seed production
By Peter Sachs / The Bulletin WASHINGTON - Soon, sugar beets may not just be refined into sugar for eating.
As several witnesses and U.S. senators discussed at a hearing Wednesday, sugar beets also could be a source of renewable fuel.
"It may well be feasible, as the Brazilians are proving on a large scale, to manufacture ethanol from sugar beets, from sugar cane," U.S. Department of Agriculture official J.B. Penn told the Senate Agriculture Committee on Wednesday.
About 5,000 farmers across the nation grow sugar beets, root vegetables that are refined into different types of sugar for food. Between those growers and the 1,000 sugar cane producers, America's sugar industry produces about 8 million tons of sugar a year, Penn said.
Few growers in Oregon are harvesting the sugar beet plants these days, though as recently as five years ago, there were 13,000 acres in production, based on data from the American Sugar Alliance, an industry group.
Central Oregon's sugar beet growing days may have passed, but given the right mind-set nationwide, the region could see a bump in seed production depending on what type of ethanol catches on at the pump.
Oregon's slice of the sugar beet market is small but significant, supplying nearly all of the seeds used to grow sugar beets in the United States. And that's the niche of several Central Oregon farmers.
Kip Light is one of three growers in Jefferson County that started planting sugar beet seeds three years ago, after Central Oregon failed to stay competitive growing sugar beets.
"We're just kind of getting started here," said Light, who has about 25 acres in production this year. The experiment is being coordinated by Holly Hybrids, a Wyoming company that produces a variety of sugar beet seeds.
The sugar beet industry is closely regulated by the government to keep prices in check and to balance international supplies.
In Washington, the agriculture committee is considering what changes should be made to the 2002 farm bill and whether crops other than corn also could be used to produce energy.
But growers in Oregon are still on the fence about what kind of role their sugar beets and seeds could play in production of fuel such as ethanol, which is being blended with gasoline in many states.
George Burt, who owns Eugene-based West Coast Beet Seed Co., said that any future demand for ethanol that could be met by sugar beets would be tied closely to the price of fuel. Corn-based ethanol has thus far proved less expensive, he said.
In Jefferson County, Light and two other growers have about 75 acres of seeds set for harvest, about twice as much as last year. That is a tiny fraction compared with the several thousand acres of sugar beet seeds produced in the Willamette Valley, but there is plenty of room to grow.
"I think down the road we'll develop more there," said Gordon Fellows, a Stockton, Calif.-based seed production manager at Holly Hybrids.