{"id":4004,"date":"2015-12-04T02:05:20","date_gmt":"2015-12-04T02:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/?p=4004"},"modified":"2015-12-08T00:31:02","modified_gmt":"2015-12-08T06:31:02","slug":"local-farmer-not-growing-gmo-corn-got-hurt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pantryparatus.com\/articles\/local-farmer-not-growing-gmo-corn-got-hurt\/","title":{"rendered":"How your local farmer NOT growing GMO corn got hurt"},"content":{"rendered":"
80 million.<\/strong><\/p>\n That is the number of corn acres in the United States.<\/strong><\/p>\n 85%<\/strong><\/p>\n That’s how much of it is GMO.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you are a farmer,<\/strong> please leave a comment with any corrections or opinions you may have to shed light on this subject. I write any of this at all in an attempt to help the non-farmers in the crowd understand the world in which you live. \u00a0The rest of us<\/strong> are just average Americans, maybe growing a garden or two. We know about GMO slipping into our food stream\u2014perhaps that\u2019s even a motivation as to why some of us even garden at all. I would like this to be a conversation.<\/p>\n We know that corn is present in nearly everything Americans eat from the grocery store; that doesn\u2019t mean, though, that much of our 80 million acres goes to that purpose. Actually, less than 20% of it does. Most of it is used for animal feed, both in the U.S. and abroad. Somewhere between 11-15% <\/a>of our homegrown corn is exported, but that is a moody market and the numbers are very unstable.<\/p>\n This is where I introduce the antagonist to the story\u2014or is it? China has entered our story before, <\/a>and what they eat is often hideous; what they import to the U.S. is downright scary. But if a person is to believe our own agricultural press, we see that China is the temperamental character in this story, since they stopped importing all corn (haven\u2019t since 2013) from the United States because of the presence of a specific, unapproved GMO corn variety. This has meant major losses to some of our family farms, because they rely heavily upon the import market to keep market prices stable.\u00a0 In fact, it may be said that it isn’t China that is moody but the corn pricing system <\/a>altogether–such a major monocrop is naturally vulnerable to shifts in market.\u00a0 And honestly, it isn’t just China that is pulling out of the GMO game.\u00a0 All of Europe is looking at the U.S. farming economy with a distrustful eye these days.<\/p>\n It isn\u2019t just our family farms growing GMO crops. The farmers hardest hit are the ones not growing GMO corn.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Basically, it’s this: some farmers choose to grow GMO, and many more are attempting to separate themselves <\/a>from it altogether.\u00a0 But regardless of what they grow, they are all competing for the same market share.<\/p>\n America knew that China had not approved this specific GMO corn, but the corn shipments were laced with it, which is when the full America corn ban happened, which multiple shipments being turned away.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n Corn from thousands of small farms<\/a> are all consolidated when passing through regional terminals, similar to how a single milk truck travels farm-to-farm.\u00a0 There are different strains of GMO corn from different manufacturers, some of which were approved by China.\u00a0 The problem with Syngenta’s strain (Agrisure Viptera) is that it was not approved by China, even though it had been approved in the United States.\u00a0 Some argue that Syngenta should never have allowed a strain not approved in a foreign country to be on the loose in our own.\u00a0<\/strong> It was approved in America, and they were selling it to American farmers.\u00a0 I have difficulty understanding how a judge would find them guilty in such a case, but then again, I’m not a lawyer.<\/p>\n The lawsuit is against a specific Big Ag company named Syngenta, which was the manufacturer of the modified strain found throughout those shipments.\u00a0 Cargill is a major force behind the lawsuit,<\/a> because they are the largest exporter and have suffered a financial loss as a result.\u00a0 I personally find it ironic (conflict of interest, perhaps), knowing that Cargill is also a manufacturer of GMO corn varieties<\/a>.\u00a0 They are propelling these lawsuits forward against their competitor, stating that individual farmers have had much loss due to the unapproved corn variety reaching Chinese exports.\u00a0\u00a0 The farmers are being recruited by several major law-firms, which stand to gain nearly 40% of the individual wins that such a case would yield.<\/p>\n The specific strain of GMO corn that led to this mess has since been approved by China.<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong> However, the damage has been done.<\/p>\nThe Role of Exports in Corn Farming<\/h3>\n
GMO Corn Exports: The Dramatic History<\/h3>\n
GMO Corn Exports: The Lawsuit & The Nefarious Companies Behind Them<\/h3>\n
GMO Corn Exports Halted: What This Means for Family Farms<\/h3>\n