Can a modern sugar beet be eaten like a raw or cooked vegetable? Would it taste good, or are there other flavors that are removed in sugar processing that would make it taste bad?
I don’t even like beet sugar, so I wouldn’t even try to eat a sugar beet. I don’t like plain beets either though. Maybe, a pickled type of sugar beet would taste good though? A bit of sour to help counter the sweet? They would have to be cooked though. I know people who love pickled beets, and regular beets, so that’s why I mention the idea.
However, it does seem that it would not be as tasty as the regular beets we grow specifically for direct consumption:
“The root can also be used as a vegetable. When cooked it is quite tender, but with some fibrous strands. It has a very sweet flavour that some people find too sweet. The raw root is rather tough, but makes a pleasant addition to salads when grated finely. Leaves - raw or cooked. A very acceptable spinach substitute. Some people dislike the raw leaves since they can leave an unpleasant taste in the mouth.”
Oh, yeah. It’s kinda ugly, too—check out the pics in Wikipedia for “Sugar beet”
Isn’t beet sugar just sugar? I thought sucrose from a beet was pretty much identical with sucrose from cane.
They *can * be eaten, but make sure they didn’t float up in a crate marked “Radioactive”! Otherwise, you’ll be running all over the island cleaning things at a higher than normal framerate. 
My mother likes to add sliced or chopped sugar beet to her salads (I find it too sweet and don’t like the texture).
I’ve seen them in the produce section of some stores “in season”. Definitely ugly things.
But then again, not everything in the produce section can be considered edible. Cf. broccoli.