Should you be afraid of GMO sweet corn? My family isn't.

We planted our sweet corn patch yesterday.  We generally plant about an acre and a half so we have plenty to share with our friends and neighbors.  For the past couple of years we have been planting Roundup Ready, BT sweet corn.  Let me tell you up front it is the sweetest corn we have ever had. 

 It's amazing how the technology keeps the corn worm and insect free!  There's quite a bit of misinformation floating around the internet being promoted by so called "food experts" about GMO technology in the crops we grow.  I even have people on a regular basis tell me as a family farmer I have no idea what I am talking about on the subject of GM technology.  People are convinced we are paid by Monsanto to promote technology on our farm.  Some even think we are coerced into using Biotech from the evil company Monsanto on our farm.    

When you google, GMO, images of people in full protective gear standing in a corn field or an image of a full PPE person handling chemicals appear.  That's a far cry from a five year old little boy holding a bag of GMO seed corn!  If a picture is worth a thousand words what does a picture of my little boy say about the man in the full protective gear?  It says PROPAGANDA to any rational person.   The irony in the propaganda pictures is the GM technology actually reduces the amount of chemicals applied to the crop.  We will spray this sweet corn with roundup a couple of times before the fruit (the ears) are made.  We won't have to apply any insecticide during the growing season because the corn defends itself naturally from the pests that like the taste of sweet corn.

American corn farmers have benefited from advancements in breeding and biotechnology, allowing us to grow plants with a beneficial built-in Bt protein found in Bacillus Thuringiensis (Bt) that protects the corn from many damaging insects.  The Bt protein was discovered in a naturally occurring bacteria that is often used by ORGANIC FARMERS to control certain pests.  You heard that correctly, the biotechnology in our corn field was developed from a bacteria that ORGANIC farmers SPRAY on their crops to KILL pests!  I don't know about you, but I would rather have the corn with the built in defense mechanism than corn that had the ears sprayed with bacteria while being grown organically.

When built into the plant, the Bt protein provides protection from certain insect pests that allows us as farmers to reduce pesticide applications as much as 85%.  With fewer trips across the field to apply insecticide we also reduce our carbon footprint by using fewer amounts of fossil fuels.     

But what about the farmer "dousing" the crop with Roundup herbicide?  If a quart of Roundup spread out over an area the size of a football field when mixed in 10 gallons of water for a fine spray mist application is "dousing" I would have to question your measurement skills.

How does Roundup work and does it affect consumers when eating food from crops that were sprayed with Roundup?

Roundup  is a non specific herbicide, meaning it kills most anything it is applied to.  Roundup Ready corn contains a modified EPSPS gene from corn.  When a corn plant expresses EPSPS and is treated with Roundup (glyphosate) it isn't affected.  These ESPS enzymes continue to provide the corn plant with aromatic acid.  Glyphosate (Roundup) stops this enzyme  EPSPS which is critical in the pathway for bio-synthesis of aromatic acids in plants (weeds) that are not resistant.  This leads to no growth in the weeds and they die.  Roundup isn't harmful to aquatic animals, birds, mammals or humans because we don't have aromatic amino acid bio-synthesis pathways.  Simply put our bodies cannot break down the material and active ingredients in Roundup.  IF there was a residue it passes through your body unabsorbed as is the case with many things we ingest.  Therefore Roundup has low human health and environmental risks.  Corn is never sprayed after the ears are there so there will not be any residue on sweet corn or field corn.

I will finish out this post with a few interesting facts and figures about  GMO and Biotech crops.  

Approximately 17.3 million farmers grew multiple biotech crops on 420 million acres in 28 countries in 2012.

Since farmers first began growing biotech crops in 1994, people around the world have eaten trillions of meals and snacks containing ingredients from genetically modified crops with no proven accepted scientific evidence of harm to humans or animals.

Locally, biotech crops have led to an increase in no-till farming and have had serious positive affects on our environment.  We have reduced erosion and protected surface and ground water.  Fewer to no trips across our fields for tillage reduce our carbon footprint greatly as we reduce the fuel consumption for growing crops. 

 No-Till farming sequesters carbon in the soil and combats global warming.   

Next generation biotech crops WILL further serve resource-limited areas of the world with answers to drought and famine.        

Hopefully, this information will clear the air a bit about how we raise corn on our family farm. We are all smiles about the prospect of a safe, wholesome, delicious and abundant sweet corn harvest this year.  Stop by for a visit and a free sample this summer!