Tuesday, September 11, 2012

You Can't Have Your Corn and Eat it, Too.


As harvest gets underway, farmers are waiting to see how much damage this year’s drought has really done to their crops. We are not only hearing concern on the producer side of things, many consumers have also expressed concern regarding the higher corn prices and how it is going to affect their grocery store expenses.

With new drought resistant corn hybrids becoming available and expected to be more sought-after in years following this growing season, I am beginning to wonder: Are consumers more concerned with low yields driving the price of corn up or their qualms with GMO crops? If (heaven forbid) next year we have another drought, but farmers had all planted drought-resistant corn, would consumers be happy to see unwavering yields? Or would farmers get criticized for planting genetically modified organisms?

Of course, each consumer would have a different opinion on this matter, so I do not have the answers to these questions. But it’s an interesting thought. Some may say that farmers are caught in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation here, but I see a learning opportunity for those concerned with how their food is grown. This year’s drought and the resulting drought-resistant hybrids are a perfect example of why the agriculture industry has been and continues to use GMO crops. There aren’t scientists sitting in a lab somewhere conjuring up different ways to mess with your food just for the fun of it. These crops give farmers a fighting chance against the many factors we cannot control (i.e. weather, pests, disease, etc.) They help to make your food supply safe and abundant.

So, to those consumers who want high crop yields to keep our economy strong and our food prices affordable without the use of technology on our farming operations… think about what you are asking farmers to do. We can’t compete with the weather, we simply have to use the tools we are given to help our crops along the best we can. So the more tools we have available to our farmers, the better!

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