Non-GMO Grains: A Farmer’s Perspective
I conducted a poll on my Instagram story last week (follow me there @fieldgoodlife) asking what topics you were interested in learning more about and non-GMO grains topped the list. I did not ask details about why this was interesting or what you wanted to learn, so I will give you my opinion from a farmers perspective on non-GMO grains.
Let’s start with the basics
What is GMO – genetically modified organism? I am not a plant breeder, nor do I have any training or ability in genetics. My experience is simply from a farmers’ viewpoint and knowledge of why we grow these types of plants. For centuries, humans have chosen the best plants to grow whether those were bred in a lab or picked from the garden because of a certain appearance or taste of a fruit. Those plants and or seeds were chosen to grow the next season and maybe the preferred characteristic continued or maybe not. So much of genetics is luck and an art. However, as the knowledge increased so has the plant breeding technology and dynamics.
The first GMO plant used for production agriculture I am aware of was soybeans with resistance to glyphosate, brand name Round Up. Scientists found a strain of Agrobacterium that would survive glyphosate. I am sure it is much more complicated than this but the way I understand it is the scientist found an enzyme that the bacterium produced which did not interact with glyphosate and they inserted it into the DNA of soybean cells. After what I am sure was a lot of work growing the plants and conducting much testing, farmers had Round Up Ready soybeans to grow. I know this is waaayyy simplified so if you are a breeder or scientist that does this type of work, I hope I am not totally wrecking this process!
Why are GMO grains important to farmers?
I remember this technology being released and it literally changed the way we grew soybeans. It was revolutionary and sought after technology. We transitioned from fields that had many varieties of weeds that competed with the soybean plants to perfectly clean fields with only soybeans growing. The soybean plants did not have competition for sunlight or nutrients or water. The fields were beautiful, and landowners were proud to drive by their fields and brag about how great of a job their farmers were doing. The technology was expensive and over the next few decades other traits were introduced into soybeans and other crops that prevented many different pests. Resistance to herbicides is not the only type of modification. There are traits that make plants resistant to insects, viruses or even fruits from browning. These traits simplified our production systems and quite frankly made soybeans grown in the South an important rotation crop. Prior to that soybeans were just a crop to plant to fill the gap between rice and cotton crops.
Few products are actually GMO
The marketing of non-GMO products has hit a very high level. In my opinion this is proactively causing confusion within the marketplace and with consumers. The list of foods that have any GMO trait is relatively small. The most commonly heard about are soybeans and corn simply because they are produced on 160 million or more acres in the United States. One bit of confusion is corn. There are no types of popcorn that are genetically modified and very few sweet corn varieties. Meaning a can of corn or a bag of frozen corn is most likely not GMO. Except for canola and sugar beets, the other GMO foods are produced in small quantities are– zucchini and yellow squash, papaya, potatoes, and apples. That’s it! The bottle of orange juice that says non-GMO is certainly not because they do not exist. US grown rice is all non-GMO. One of the most controversial grains is wheat and it is all non-GMO. Because of gluten intolerance many people blame it on wheat being genetically modified but that is not the case.
Why do farmers grow non-GMO grains?
The simple answer is to fill the demand. Otherwise, there would not be any non-GMO grains grown for the market. And in fact, the percentage of the US crop of corn and soybeans that is non-GMO is extremely small. Approximately 5% of soybeans and 7% of corn. Those acres are grown for a premium in addition to the regular market price for either commodity. It is very difficult to grow these crops in today’s ag world. The available herbicides that can be used in a non-GMO crop are getting smaller and smaller with no products coming into the market. Weed resistance to many of these very old chemistries is a problem which farmers who try to grow non-GMO crops face each season. There is great risk of potential drift from other herbicides that will destroy the non-GMO plants and thus kill a farmer’s crop. Depending on the size it could be financially devastating. Herbicide drift is not covered by any insurance that a farmer can buy. Bottom line is it is very difficult to grow non-GMO crops today and if you truly want them to be available there will be a larger price tag associated with those products.
Do labels matter to you?
When you shop, do you specifically look for non-GMO products? Were you aware that there were only a few products that were genetically modified? Did you know that non-GMO and organic are not the same? Organic is non-GMO, but non-GMO is not always organic. If labels matter to you be proactive in your understanding of what the labels mean and the full story behind the labeling. Not to get on another tangent but the label “cage free” chicken eggs probably doesn’t mean what you think it does!
COMMENTS
I would love to try to answer your other questions about this topic or others that may interest you. Please leave comments for me or send me an email at fiedlgoodlife@gmail.com I would love some questions to get the conversation going and give me ideas for future posts.