The fundamental
risk with the GMO protocol applied to a commodity food crop such as corn is
simply that the margins are too narrow to provide market security. Monsanto is now discovering just this. Unlike a clear yield improvement in a
particular crop such as cotton we have a touted cost control measure and
generally matching yields, neither of which appears sustainable.
As well all of
agriculture is now beginning to transition away from these industrial protocols
toward extremely sophisticated sustainable organic methods while sustaining
actual yields. This is all bad news for
Monsanto.
In practice if
we sit by the river, we will see the body of Monsanto and GMO corn passing by.
Farmers
Abandoning GMO Seeds and the Reason Will Surprise You
January 23rd, 2014
by Daniel Jennings
A growing number of farmers are abandoning
genetically modified seeds, but it’s not because they are ideologically opposed
to the industry.
Simply put, they say non-GMO crops are more
productive and profitable.
Modern Farmer magazine discovered that there is
a movement among farmers abandoning genetically modified organisms (GMO) because of simple economics.
“We get the same or better yields, and we save money
up front,” crop consultant and farmer Aaron Bloom said of non-GMO seeds. Bloom
has been experimenting with non-GMO seeds for five years and he has discovered
that non-GMO is more profitable.
The re-converts to non-GMO seeds are not hippies but conservative Midwestern
farmers who are making a business decision, Modern Farmer discovered.
They are switching back to natural seed because it is more profitable — not
because of any ideology.
“Five years ago the [GMO seeds] worked,” said farmer
Christ Huegerich, who along with his father planted GMO seeds. “I didn’t have
corn rootworm because of the Bt gene, and I used less pesticide. Now, the worms
are adjusting, and the weeds are resistant. Mother Nature adapts.”
Farmers can get paid more for conventional corn than
GMO corn. Plus, Huegerich discovered, convention corn can produce more per
acre. Modern Farmer reported that two years ago, Huegerich planted
320 acres of conventional corn and 1,700 with GMO corn. The conventional fields
“yielded 15 to 30 more bushels per acre than the GMO fields, with a profit
margin of up to $100 more per acre.” Last year, he planted convention corn in
750 acres.
“I get a fifty-cent-per-bushel premium,” Huegerich
said of the non-GMO corn he grows in Breda, Iowa.
Herbicide use increased by 26 percent between 2001
and 2010 because of the spread of herbicide-resistant weeds. Huegerich said he
used herbicides on GMO corn and conventional corn, even though theoretically he
shouldn’t have to use it on his genetically modified crop.
The group Farm & Water Watch reported that 61.2
million acres of cropland in the US are plagued by weeds that are resistant to
the popular glyphosate herbicides.
Why Non-GMO Seeds Are More Profitable
The Modern Farmer article, called The
Post GMO-Economy, makes an excellent case for farmers dumping GMO. Some of
the interesting facts the magazine uncovered include:
The cost of growing one acre of non-GMO corn was $680.95, the cost of growing an acre of
GMO corn was $761.80 according to Aaron Bloom. That means it costs $80.85 more
an acre to raise GMO corn.
GMO seeds can cost up to $150 a bag more than
regular seeds.
The market for non-GMO foods has grown from $1.3
billion in 2011 to $3.1 billion in 2013, partially because some Asian and
European countries don’t want GMO seeds.
Grain dealer Clarkson Grain pays farmers an extra $2
a bushel for non-GMO soybeans and an additional $1 a bushel for non-GMO corn.
The market for non-GMO seed is growing. Sales at
Spectrum Seed Solutions, which sells non-GMO seed, have doubled every year for
the last four years. Sales at another company that markets non-GMO seeds,
eMerge Genetics of West Des Moines, Iowa, have increased by 30 percent a year
for five years.
Spectrum Seed Solutions president Scott Odle thinks
that non-GMO corn could be 20 percent of the market in five years.
Bloom, the farm consultant, said planting convention
corn can save farmers an average of $81 per acre per season. That’s a
difference of $81,000 for a farm of 1,000 acres.
It looks like the past might be the future for
farmers as more and more growers abandon GMO. The free market could very well
spell the end of GMO seeds.
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