( - promoted by odum)
Many Central Vermont residents have noticed the change this year in how large acreages of field corn are being grown along the Winooski River between Plainfield and East Montpelier. For the first time (see Update below on this point), we saw large fields of dying grass with new blades of corn growing up right in their midst.
This can mean only one thing: the largest local growers are now using corn varieties that are genetically engineered (GE, also known as GMO, for 'genetically modified organism') to withstand large doses of broad-spectrum herbicides, which will normally kill most plants. Only conifer trees and a few particular varieties of flowering plants are naturally resistant to herbicides like Monsanto's Roundup. The only way corn can possibly grow in fields of recently herbicide-killed grass is if it contains the same company's so-called "Roundup Ready" package of artificially inserted genes from bacteria and petunias. One or two other companies market GE corn varieties engineered to resist their own proprietary herbicide (e.g., Bayer's "Liberty Link), but Monsanto's "Roundup Ready" varieties are by far the most prevalent.
Many people have been under the impression that Fairmont Farms and other large growers have been growing GE corn all along, by virtue of the roadsigns advertising particular corn seed varieties. Those signs alone really don't say much at all, other than that the corn is all of a specific variety. Advertised varieties are not necessarily GE. On the other hand, the corresponding roadsigns in southern Quebec, for example, nearly all designate specific GE traits, such as "RR" ("Roundup Ready"), "LL" ("Liberty Link"), and "BT" (for insecticidal genes obtained from Bacillus thuringiensis bacteria).
Last week, Free Speech Radio News (6 pm on WGDR in Plainfield) carried a story from Argentina describing a new study from the country's top medical school, which showed that Roundup-family herbicides (based on the active ingredient, glyphosate) are lethal to amphibians at lower doses than was previously documented. You can listen or download this story at http://www.fsrn.org/audio/mons... (or simple go to the page for Thursday, June 18th from fsrn.org). In South America, GE soybeans have overtaken vast acreages of what used to be pasture land. Here in Vermont, the main commercial crop continues to be corn for feeding to dairy cows. Acceptance of genetically engineered corn varieties here has significantly trailed national trends, but may now be catching up. Nationwide, over 2/3 of US field corn is genetically engineered, along with more than 90% of the soybeans.
"Roundup-Ready" herbicide tolerant corn is being sold to Vermont farmers as a way to practice "no-till" agriculture, with implicit environmental benefits. Indeed, some rotations of corn with other crops can be implemented with neither tilling nor herbicides. But this particular variety of herbicide-dependent "no till," while it may grant farmers a significant convenience factor and enable them to plant ever-larger acreages with less labor, can in no way be described as environmentally friendly.
In the early years of this decade, voters in 85 Vermont towns passed resolutions opposing genetically engineered food and crops in Vermont. In 2005, Gov. Douglas vetoed a rather cautiously worded bill that was aimed to put some legal clout behind this commitment. Now that we're seeing more visible fields of GMOs arise here in Central Vermont, what will be the public response?
UPDATE: In some email conversations following my initial posting of this to some personal contacts, some agreed this was new this year, but one person, a regular commuter alongside some of the fields of interest, said she'd seen the same phenomenon in previous years. Readers, what have you observed? |
