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  • From: Steve Gilman <stevegilman AT verizon.net>
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Now......GMO sweet corn
  • Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2011 11:58:01 -0400

The biggest question here is now that it is genetically engineered into crops on millions of acres -- what will happen to Bt? Derived from a soil organism, Bt is a safe, non-human specific toxic (at least we thought so) "national treasure". Farmers have successfully and effectively  been using Bt -- sprays -- for over 40 years now with no major signs of pest insect resistance. That's because it has a short duration field life -- Spray Bt breaks down in sunlight in 3 to 5 days and there's minimal selection pressure to breed up resistant pests.

Genetically engineered (GE) Bt is a whole different organism. Genetically engineered into the corn genome it is expressed full time at a much higher dose in every part of the plant-- from rhizome to stalk to corn to pollen. The selection pressure is enormous -- the survivors have the fields to themselves -- free to feed and breed with no competition. Originally farmers were supposed to plant nearby acreage in non-GMO crops as "refugia" to prevent resistance -- but that proved too expensive and time-consuming.

So now there's "superbugs" joining the  "superweeds":

And there goes Bt to GMO resistance -- one of the most valuable tools in all farmers' toolkits -- all in 5 years or so...

Steve
On Sep 19, 2011, at 9:49 PM, market-farming-request AT lists.ibiblio.org wrote:

Message: 3
Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2011 22:10:00 +0000
From: "Wiediger, Alison" <alison.wiediger AT hart.kyschools.us>
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Now......GMO sweet corn
To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <C4C5098C-4FB8-4898-B8F5-3E13130B4521 AT hart.kyschools.us">C4C5098C-4FB8-4898-B8F5-3E13130B4521 AT hart.kyschools.us>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

I would not argue one is better or worse,  but I do believe it should be labeled so the customer can choose.  Most at our market would choose GMO over worms, or even sprayed over worms, but not all, and labeling allows that choice.

Alison

Sent from my iPad

On Sep 19, 2011, at 4:36 PM, "Bill Bradshaw" <billbradshaw AT hughes.net<mailto:billbradshaw AT hughes.net>> wrote:

Sprayed or GMO, is one any better than the other? I don't like either one, but I don't like worms either. Bill in Texas
----- Original Message -----
From: Wiediger, Alison<mailto:alison.wiediger AT hart.kyschools.us>
To: 'Market Farming'<mailto:market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, September 19, 2011 2:35 PM
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Now......GMO sweet corn

There was a vendor at our market selling Bt sweet corn last year.  He labeled it as "unsprayed", but sure did not label it as GMO!

Alison Wiediger, Au Naturel Farm




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