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Genetically modified mystery Editor's note: At the end of this story is a link to last year's CropChoice original story about Laura Krouse. -- RS
(Friday, Aug. 15, 2003 -- CropChoice news) -- Jerry Perkins, Des Moines Register, 08/10/03: Mount Vernon, Ia. - Laura Krouse is stumped.
She does not know how her old-fashioned, open-pollinated corn picked up
traces of newfangled, genetically modified corn two years ago, or why
her corn tested clean of the GMO genes a year ago.
All she knows is that it is critical for her business - Abbe Hills Open
Pollinated Seed Corn - that the corn be free of the genes from
genetically altered corn.
"I want to be certified organic by 2005, when every organic farmer has
to plant certified organic seed," Krouse said. "But if I test positive
for genetically modified corn, what's going to happen? Most of my
customers will stop buying from me, and I'd have to go look for a
different kind of customer."
Krouse's Abbe Hills seed corn is favored by organic farmers and
livestock producers who do not want her corn if it has been contaminated
by corn that has had its genetic makeup altered to make it resistant to
herbicides or to make it toxic to pests, like corn borers.
The question of cross-pollination in corn has become a big issue for
corn growers, consumers and others who want to keep corn varieties
separate and distinct.
Last year, questions were raised about possible contamination of
cornfields by test plots of specialty corn varieties that had been
altered genetically to produce pharmaceuticals, vaccines and industrial
products. Cornfields in Iowa and Nebraska that were suspected of being
contaminated by the so-called "pharma-corn" test plots were destroyed.
Last week, the federal government tightened its restrictions on growing
corn for industrial purposes by requiring, among other things, that
"pharma" crops be grown in isolation so they cannot cross-pollinate
nearby cornfields.
This year, Krouse has her seed corn planted in a five-acre plot in the
middle of her 70-acre farm northwest of this eastern Iowa community.
She is hoping the one-eighth of a mile between her corn and her
neighbors" genetically modified corn will be enough to keep her crop
clean this year.
"I'm trying a couple of strategies," said Krouse. "First, I'm trying to
isolate the corn by distance. Second, I'm timing the planting of the
crop so that tasseling occurs later in my corn than the neighboring corn."
It is the tassel, the male part of the corn plant, that throws its
pollen into the air to inseminate the silk, the female part of the corn,
that emerges at the end of the cob. When a grain of pollen lands on a
silk, kernels form on the cob with a mixture of genes from the male and
female parts of the corn.
Experts disagree on how far corn pollen can carry, but all agree that
cross-pollination in corn plants is a subject that needs more research,
especially now that new types of corn are being developed for specific
uses that may not be suitable for mixing with other types of corn.
Kendall Lamkey, a plant breeder at Iowa State University, said
organic-corn growers like Laura Krouse face a tough problem. The genes
of genetically modified corn have already become mixed into the general
corn gene pool because of cross-pollination, he said.
"GMO genes are already widespread," he said.
Mark Westgate, an ISU plant physiologist, said cross-pollination is much
more of a problem for corn than it is for soybeans.
Soybeans self-pollinate much more than corn because of their physiology,
he said. That means soybeans do not spread their genetic material as far
as corn does.
"Corn is supposed to cross-pollinate," Westgate said. "Cross pollination
makes corn plants more vigorous and produces more and better seed."
Corn pollen is viable for two hours or more after it is cast off by the
tassel. In that two hours or so, the pollen can be carried a mile or
more by the wind into a neighboring field where its genes are not wanted.
"Six hundred feet of isolation doesn't mean a thing if the wind is
blowing your way at 20 miles an hour," said Westgate.
Lamkey said Krouse's corn is in danger.
"She can't control what her neighbors do, so she's only got a couple of
options and they aren't enough," Lamkey said. "Organic corn in Iowa is
going to be really hard to do because of the pollen issue."
Organic farmers prefer her corn
Laura Krouse bought 70 acres in 1988 and the seed business that went
with it.
The seed business had been started by the Neal family in 1903, when Burt
Neal bought kernels from the world champion ear of corn at the World
Corn Exposition in Chicago.
Krouse's Abbe Hills Open Pollinated Seed Corn is one of only a few
companies that sell open-pollinated seed corn in the United States. Less
than 1 percent of the corn planted in the U.S. is open pollinated.
Hybrid seed supplanted open-pollinated seed corn in the United States 70
years ago and has spread over most of the developed world since the end
of World War II.
Hybrid seed corn typically yields more and is more uniform in height,
ear placement and other traits that make it better for machine harvesting.
Hybrid seed cannot be saved and planted again without losing as much as
a third of its yield. Open-pollinated corn can, however.
Most of Krouse's customers are organic farmers who want to grow corn
that has not been genetically modified. Livestock producers, especially
organic dairies, like the higher protein and oil content that many
open-pollinated corn varieties contain.
Open-pollinated corn usually produces plants with weaker stalks than
hybrids do. That makes open-pollinated corn better for use as silage,
but it also is more likely to fall over in high winds, a trait known as lodging.
New rules issued:
The federal government last week tightened the restrictions on growing
corn and other crops that are genetically engineered to make industrial
products. The rules will require biotech companies to get federal
permits for cultivation and handling of industrial crops. Similar rules
already are in place for gene-altered crops that have been developed for
making vaccines and other pharmaceuticals.
Source: http://www.dmregister.com/business/stories/c4789013/21933370.html
See CropChoice story about Laura Krouse: http://www.cropchoice.com/leadstry.asp?recid=1092
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