( – 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?
It’s great to see this issue brought to GMD readers (who- interestingly enough- I’ve noticed aren’t all to on top of ag issues); as well, it’s nice to see it brought by a post by a published, internationally respected and noted author and scholar such as Brian. If only we’d all get as up-in-arms over issues like the rape and pillage of our land (and food supply) as we do about Jim Douglas and his PR team.
January I did a diary about the miracle new road slurry that VTRANS as using as a highway de-icer . “When the temperatures dip, “brew” masters can also add different chemicals to help melt the ice and now. The chemicals are agricultural by-products, so VTRANS said they are recycling what would otherwise go to waste. I spent a couple days emailing VTRANS and madly googling trying to find out what the stuff might contain only to find that it was most likely a proprietary secret of the company that distributed it .I found the same proprietary secret dead end when trying to find what might be in gas well hydro-fracturing mixture for another diary .I image someone would run up against the same situation trying to find what is exactly is being used on surrounding fields .
Two large cattle corn fields grow next to where I live.They are tilled every spring and when the corn plants are 8-10 inches tall a moonrover type spay vehicle drives up and down the rows spying what I imagine must be a round-up type weed killer .
…this was the wrong week to post this here. It’s been dead on this site for the last week. Traffic’s okay, just very little reader back-and-forth. Which is a bummer cuz I’m thrilled that Brian posted this diary and was interested to see the feedback. Its an issue that could otherwise pass completely under the radar.
on a related note, I received a link to a new site from the Pesticide Action Network that provides information about the pesticide residues found in our (non-organic) food
http://www.whatsonmyfood.org/
blog (Blurt) posted a short piece on this diary with a link
http://7d.blogs.com/blurt/2009…
A few weeks ago I had a conversation with compost impressario extraordinaire Karl Hammer about this story and learned a couple of interesting things, which I still need to confirm:
First, Karl confirms something I’ve heard from several others: that Fairmont has been indeed using herbicide-tolerant GE corn for some time. The reason the dying grass was more visible this year, he says, is that it’s the first time they planted a cover crop of annual grass (presumably wheat or rye) prior to their corn. In itself, this is a good thing. Is there a better way to plant corn over an annual grass than killing the grass with herbicides, which pollutes the river and requires the use of GE corn?
The good news is that ‘no-till’ corn growing doesn’t require herbicides at all. I knew that this had been proven by organic researchers at the Rodale Institute, in a setting where corn is rotated with other crops. But, according to Karl, it’s even possible on a field where corn is grown every year. The key is a very old-fashioned tool called a crimper, which literally crimps all the young blades of grass very quickly, causing the cover crop to die back on its own. Karl is talking with the Fairmont folks about experimenting with this very old technology as an alternative to the highly toxic herbicide/GMO combination. So this story may have a good ending. Friendly calls to Fairmont Farms to encourage this practice from folks who live near the fields in question probably wouldn’t hurt.