Continue to vote with your dollar “Non-GMO is More
Profitable.”
This is the rising sentiment among farmers of the US as
a confluence of factors urges them to become pro-organic. From falling GMO
grain prices to a rising tide of public distrust of genetically modified
ingredients, failing GMO traits, higher GMO seed prices, and the premium
prices that people willingly pay for quality food over toxic junk, the conventional farmer is changing his
tune when it comes to Big Ag practices.
Even if profit is the cornerstone on which this
change is based, it is still telling. After all,
experts project over $35
billion in sales for organic,
non-GMO foods in 2015, and as GMO corn, soy and other GM grain prices rise,
along with the costs to grow them (associated with more pesticide and herbicide
use to control super weeds, for example) farmers are looking past the GMO
propaganda which promised higher yields and more cash for farmers who grew
their poison crops.
This phenomenon is explained clearly in “The Genetic Engineering of Food and the
Failure of Science” (full text available for download here) published in The International Journal of Sociology
of Agriculture and Food.
Gilbert Hostetler, president of Illinois-based Prairie
Hybrids commented: “Our non-GMO seed sales are significantly higher than
last year.”
Mac Ehrhardt, president of Minnesota-based Albert Lea Seed
reports that he is selling more conventional (he describes conventional
corn as non-GMO) corn seed by the end of November than he did all of last
year. He says that farmers are turning
to non-GMO to cut costs and to earn more money for their non-GMO yields.
Ehrhardt says: “There
is a continued increased demand for non-GMO.”
His observations are corroborated by Wayne Hoener, vice
president of sales for eMerge, an Iowa-based seed company, as well as Tim
Daley, an agronomist at Stonebridge, Ltd., an Iowa-based buyer of non-GMO
soybeans who are also seeing a marked demand for non-GMO seed by farmers.
Daley says: “Some
companies have seen a 50 percent
increase in sales of non GMO
seed, and some have said they’ve sold more non-GMO seed this year than
in the last five.”
Oddly, Morrie Bryant, senior marketing manager at Pioneer
Hi-Bred, which sells non-GMO corn and soybean seeds but sells more GMO seeds
says he doesn’t see a big difference.
“On (non-GMO) corn, we’ve
got a slight increase on sales over last year,” he says. “Non-GMO has emerged
as the new niche. It’s about 4–5 percent of total corn production.”
If consumer demand for organic is
any indication, farmers would be smart to step up their organic seed purchasing,
and ditch Monsanto, Dow and Syngenta seeds completely.
Non-GMO Economics
Farmers find non-GMO seed appealing this year for several
reasons, but mostly economics. Grain prices are low with corn selling at
about $4 per bushel and soybeans aren’t goin g for much higher at around $10.
Conversely, a premium is being shelled out for non-GMO corn and soybeans.
“(Non-GMO) seed costs less,
and there are premiums for non-GMO corn and soybeans in some areas,”
Daley says.
“Some farmers don’t want to pay
technology fees (for GMO seeds) and non-GMO gives them a marketing opportunity,”
Bryant says.
Failing GMO Crops
Other farmers are considering the switch because they
are tired of super-weeds. One corn breeder who preferred to remain anonymous
for a recent interview stated:
“The insect and herbicide
traits are losing effectiveness with increased resistant rootworm and weed
species. Growers are tired of paying for input costs that are reduced in efficacy
and funding additional forms of crop protection.”
Iowa State University weed specialist Bob Hartzler seconds
that sentiment in an interview with Iowa Farmer Today.“You have people questioning the value of
the Roundup gene. How many are doing it (making the switch) because of that
concern, I don’t know.”
Non-GMO Outperform
GMO Seeds
Non-GMO seeds are also producing more competitive
yields. “The yield performance of
non-GMO hybrids is similar to or greater than traited (GMO) hybrids,” says
the corn breeder.
Is this why mega company, General Mills, purchased
organic food company Annie’s Homegrown for nearly $1 billion. And other
large food corporations are looking to swallow up smaller organic food
companies?
“There is continual
and accelerating growth in organic,” he says. “There has been more conversion to organic by farmers recently than
I’ve ever seen.”
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