I don't know of any GM sweet corn on the garden market. Some hybrid field corn has some genetic traits added to resist insects. If you raise your op "self saved seed" sweet corn next to a field of altered field corn, you might get a few kernels of mix though you might be able to spot them and remove them. If you buy new seed every year, I don't see any problem at this time.

Some companies make the safe seed pledge that sell both ops and hybrids.

No, none of the sweet corns you can purchase are genetically modified in the biotech/splice in that gene kind of way. They are all genetically modified by humans, in the old-fashioned, de-tassel this block and then pollinate with the tassels from that block over there kind of way. Otherwise, you'd just be growing teosinte, the wild corn ancestor from Mexico.

At this point, only field corns have GM varieties, and the seed is expensive and sold only in large lots, so you aren't likely to run into it.

Thanks, folks. My Montsanto anxiety level is down a bit now...

Let me try that again. Monsanto...

It is becoming a rather serious myth amongst gardeners that none of the sweet corns available are genetically modified. I'm not sure how we have come to think that GMO's only exist in the realm of commodity crops.

Note that the second corn listed on the link below is a sweet corn. That Attribute sweet corn was listed on that webpage over 3 years ago and there isn't just one - there are many varieties on the market.

It would be a simple process to buy "attribute insect protection" Bt sweet corn varieties. A couple hundred dollars and a pledge to the seed company to:

1. Kill pests for which the crop has no transgenic protection.
2. Scout for pests that the transgenic protection should kill and report any unexpected crop damage from them.
3. Mow, plow or disc the field after harvest.
4. Do not plant the GM crop in the same field in back to back growing seasons.

So, I won't be saving any of the corn for seed. I'll need to rotate my crops and report resistant pest damage. There's nothing to it.

Well, I'm also not going to be growing it.

Steve

Here is a link that might be useful: Agricultural Biotech Products on the Market

"Syngenta Seeds has developed insect resistant sweet corn varieties, which have been commercially available in the United States since 1998."

Here is a link that might be useful: Sygneta's own words on the subject

Steve

So there IS a list! Thanks for that.

Yes, that BT-11 modified corn makes me very nervous. And the canola. If these crops are being grown in the US for commercial markets, that means they could easily reach us if we buy canned or frozen corn or use canola oil in cooking. Or second-hand if we purchase meats of animals fed on the corn. And how would we know what we're eating?

I dunno, if this gene kills corn earworms because it poisons them, why would it not have an adverse affect on animals or humans who ate foodstuffs containing it?

Or this? Syngenta Seeds has been producing and selling several corn hybrids since 1997 that have been modified to provide built-in protection against certain insect pests. (YieldGard® is a registered trademark of the Monsanto Company.)

The genetic modifications aren't exactly "protection against certain insect pests" but rather "killers of certain insect pests".

Not enough testing, not enough time. And none of these problems even touches on the transgenic potential of these modified plants.

I saw some photos of "tomato farmers" in Spain, and all the plants were grown in mesh-covered greenhouses that allow air, rain, and sunshine through. Spain grows 22% of Europe's tomatoes. As far as I know, this way of growing them protects them against insect infestations.

But who knows? Maybe in a couple of decades we'll ALL have to raise our vegetables in covered greenhouses with attached beehives for pollination, just to avoid the problems of transgenic pollution by GM crops. Some of Mexico's unique local corn varieties have already been infected, though nobody knows how for sure.

Just two aspects of GM foods that I'd like to see much more caution about.

England does not allow GM crops of any kind. America grows GM rape seed (the source of canola oil). Wild rape in England has been checked genetically and some plants are showing that they have been cross-pollinated (contaminated) by GM crops.

Yes, folks, the pollen from GM crops (which the scientists swore on a stack of Bibles AND their dear old mother's grave would NOT travel more than 1/8 mile) has been swept up by the winds and is in the atmosphere.

Many farmers (esp the little ones) have been growing corn (and other crops) for many years, and make a point of saving their best seed every year and planting it the next year. But some of their corn (etc) has been contaminated by GM corn grown upwind, and Monsanto and others if their ilk are suing these farmers for "stealing" their GM corn.

Factory-farmed livestock have shown that they don't like the GM feeds and, given a choice, flat out refuse to eat it. Unfortunately, they aren't usually given a choice and are forced to eat it. Then they feed them to us.

In the U.S. and Canada, there have been quite a few farms reporting that hogs fed GM feed aren't conceiving as they should. Some are sort of conceiving, but "give birth" to sacks of water. Taken off the GM crops and returned to standard feed, they revert to natural conception and births.

You were planning on having grandchildren? What's "Tough!" in Monsantoese?

Countries in the European Union, Asia and Africa are balking at GM crops, but the U.S. is shoving it down their throats, like it or not. Just like they're doing to us.

If you folks don't subscribe to the AcresUSA magazine, perhaps you should. The January issue has an excellent interview with Dr. Michael Hudson (of Harper's Magazine) on our government's way of economics and their method or controlling the world with the food supply. It's wonderful, fascinating, and easy to understand, very basic. And very scary. It's currently online at the AcresUSA website, just go to their home page.

Sue

Anney, GM squash is an even easier purchase - costs way, way under $100.

If we are concerned about pollen traveling - squash crops grown for seed must be separated by a mile or more for certification, if I remember correctly. What are left of our bees like to move the pollen around.

Oh BTW, I hope you notice that the links are not to some crazy tree-hugger, organic union, whatever publications. Biotech seems to be very slowly willing to get farther out there with their information. The linked article on trials was 1st published in 1995.

Meanwhile, most of us are still fretting about cows in the meadows and butterflies. The horse has been out of the barn for a few years now. Time to stop peaking thru the crack and imagining it's still there snorting and stamping in the dark.

Steve's digits

Here is a link that might be useful: Field Evaluation of Transgenic Squash

Steve

I've seen some people wondering if the BT crops are what are decimating bee populations. Here's one discussion. Walter Haefeker, the German beekeeping official, speculates that "besides a number of other factors," the fact that genetically modified, insect-resistant plants are now used in 40 percent of cornfields in the United States could be playing a role. The figure is much lower in Germany - only 0.06 percent - and most of that occurs in the eastern states of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Brandenburg. Haefeker recently sent a researcher at the CCD Working Group some data from a bee study that he has long felt shows a possible connection between genetic engineering and diseases in bees.

The study in question is a small research project conducted at the University of Jena from 2001 to 2004. The researchers examined the effects of pollen from a genetically modified maize variant called "Bt corn" on bees. A gene from a soil bacterium had been inserted into the corn that enabled the plant to produce an agent that is toxic to insect pests. The study concluded that there was no evidence of a "toxic effect of Bt corn on healthy honeybee populations." But when, by sheer chance, the bees used in the experiments were infested with a parasite, something eerie happened. According to the Jena study, a "significantly stronger decline in the number of bees" occurred among the insects that had been fed a highly concentrated Bt poison feed.

According to Hans-Hinrich Kaatz, a professor at the University of Halle in eastern Germany and the director of the study, the bacterial toxin in the genetically modified corn may have "altered the surface of the bee's intestines, sufficiently weakening the bees to allow the parasites to gain entry - or perhaps it was the other way around. We don't know."

Of course, the concentration of the toxin was ten times higher in the experiments than in normal Bt corn pollen. In addition, the bee feed was administered over a relatively lengthy six-week period.

Kaatz would have preferred to continue studying the phenomenon but lacked the necessary funding. "Those who have the money are not interested in this sort of research," says the professor, "and those who are interested don't have the money."

Here is a link that might be useful: Are GM Crops Killing Bees?

I am not aware of any sweet corns (or other seeds) currently being sold for the home garden that are transgenic to confer pest or herbicide resistance. There could be, but the insect and herbicide resistance traits are not as well suited for the home garden. These traits are most useful in commercial production where larger fields are involved. In addition, consumer acceptance of garden seeds with transgenic properties was considered somewhat questionable.

I believe the majority of field corn, soybeans, canola, and cotton are now grown with transgenic herbicide or pest resistance traits. As the technology gets more familiar, seed research is moving to speed advances in other plant characteristics such as flavor, shelf life, digestibility, nutrient content, yield, drought tolerance, etc. with substantial benefits to all involved.

I am not opposed to speeding up development of beneficial traits, but transgenic traits do need to be reviewed to insure they aren't causing unintended consequences which pose more danger than the technologies they replace.

One last shot--bt corn is pilloried by some as being dangerous, yet if you are an "organic" grower, spraying bt on your crops is an approved pest control practice. Blind opposition and scare tactics to new technologies is not the answer. Virtually all the food we eat is genetically modified over what it was thousands of year ago through a technique called plant breeding, and without that modification, many if not most of us would not be around.
Given enough time, conventional breeding could probably develop all these "awful" transgenic traits anyway.

Is hybrid corn 'genetically modified'?

No. First, all corn is a hybrid developed by man. It started out as a grass - teosinte (sp?) - that was first naturally hybridized (by the Mayans if I recall correctly but don't bet on that ;).

The hybrid seed corn varieties sold in packets and as bulk seed for home gardening is a hybrid - most a stabilized one - but is NOT genetically modified or GM'd as that label is used normally.

Hybridizing and genetic modification are not the same thing.
So let's not inadvertently slap what has become, rightly or wrongly, a negative label on this great vegetable garden staple. It will only serve to scare the uninformed.

Thanks.

Dave

If hybrid corn for home gardeners is not genetically modified, I'm still worried about the 40% of American corn crops grown that ARE GMed and are transgenic, thus possibly contaminating other crops, hybrid or not. As more and more commercial growers plant the insect-killing crops, the percentage will rise and threaten non-GM crops unless the government enforces strict limits.

beeone

One potential problem with having so much corn with a BT gene built into it being grown is that we just don't know yet what effect such insect-kills will have on other insects that come into contact with these crops, particularly if the transgenic movement to other crops is not absolutely controllable. It can only be approximate. That information about bees worries me. If BT does secondarily kill bees with parasites, there needs to be enough "natural time" for colony replacement of bees through natural selection so that large areas of the world are not "bee-less" for an extended period of time. That would be devastating for food crops.

Hindsight is always absolutely clear and usually doesn't change a thing, but I'll say it anyway. The testing of GM crops should be done on an isolated island with varying wind-patterns large enough to separate GM and non-GM crops by the recommended distances and then see what happens after ten years.

Human hybridizing has never spliced a gene not present in the parents into the hybrid plant, so we cannot say that genetically modifying plants this way is really equivalent to what we call hybridizing plants. For the sake of argument, it's the difference between inserting a dog-panting gene into a cat through gene modification and hybridizing a lion and a tiger.

Severe hybrids tend to be sterile like mules and seedless watermelons. Crosses of closely related species, varieties, and processes tend to be able to reproduce. I consider Cain in the Bible to be man's first hybrid development!!