I can see why the average farmer would plant GMO, that is 90% of the market share and about all you can buy most places. A few vendors will offer a non GMO or two for their customers who want a choice but those choices are limited. Then you have companies like the new Genesys Seeds starting this year in Illinois and Spectrum Seed in Indiana. All they offer is non GMO seed.
If you observe anything on your farm, you either like GMO or you don't. It made farming the easiest thing since sliced bread the first few years. All you had to do was pick out a trait to combat the pest you were fighting. I watched closely and the traits did not provide the needed control for the dollar invested. I had lots of tests but GMO rarely won its consideration for a place on my farm and even then it was questionable.
Suddenly tech fees went up and yields didn't. Weed resiistance built up. Wait a minute, do I really need GMO?
Then I saw wierd things start to happen. Plants did not emerge evenly. I found stunted corn with tassles. Plant milk started oozing out of black lesions on the shank of the stalk. Corn started turning pink before it died which meant the plant sugars were not flowing properly. Corn was diagnosed with Goss's Wilt when it may or may not have it. Pest resistance went through the roof. How can GMO make us more money when it is sick?
I started to write this some days ago then this post popped up this morning. The farmer asked a simple question about finding glyphosate in his manure. I asked the simple question what if you found that level in non GMO hog feed corn in Iowa? It was found in January and is symptom of our problem.
"That's when the fight started." I have been thinking, if I can't farm without GMO, am I really a farmer or just a contract grower? Think about that. There is some good discussion in the thread but it's mostly about name calling and misunderstanding.
I don't think farmers understand. The picture is my corn in 2007, non GMO of course. See how the sugars can't get to the ear? I didn't know what I was looking at that year but in 2009 I started searching and now you can find lots more of my findings in the last 3 years of HyMark High Spots.
Ed Winkle
0 comments:
Post a Comment