Conventional corn increase

Transition to non-GMOs continues even without big premiums for the grain.

Conventional (non-GMO) seed planting is on the rise, even as grain price premiums fade away. Tight margins and profit-making opportunities are driving the trend. Scott Apple started his transition to conventional corn when commodity prices were still at an all-time high, and he didn't do it to capture premiums. His 1,900 acres are all planted to conventional seed and sold into local markets.

"It was a cost reduction decision," recalls Apple, who farms near Bowling Green, Ohio. "I didn't need the traits. Rootworm isn't a significant problem, and other insects aren't usually a problem. If they are, there are plenty of options to clean them up."

Wild Atlantic salmon spawned in the fresh waters of the Connecticut River migrate to and from as far away as Greenland during their lifetime. At least, that’s what they are supposed to do.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Clarke has approved a settlement that allows local farmers to temporarily grow genetically modified alfalfa, but they must submit their field locations to attorneys representing GMO opponents.

Farms and producers around some Minnesota crops could be crippled if more food companies begin to remove genetically modified crops from their products.

We could be planting genetically enhanced varieties of wheat by now and been through the complaining and gnashing of teeth from food companies and importers. Monsanto’s decision to stop almost 10 years ago was driven by pushback from U.S. producers fearing domestic and foreign buyers would not use it or accept products made from a transgenic food grain.

Something was different about a lot of the Hershey’s kisses in your stocking this year: The popular chocolates no longer contain sugar made in Minnesota.

For decades, the Hershey Co. has used sugar made from both sugar beets and sugar cane, but it decided earlier this year to stop buying beet sugar because it comes from genetically modified, or GM, seeds that some consumers don’t like.

Hershey, with 2014 sales of $7.4 billion and more than 80 brands of candy sold around the world, was a huge customer for beet sugar farmers, and its decision was significant enough to be noted earlier this month at two annual shareholder meetings of sugar beet cooperatives.

David Berg, president and CEO of American Crystal Sugar in Moorhead, Minn., the nation’s largest sugar beet co-op, told members gathered in Fargo, N.D., that the anti-GM movement is one of the industry’s biggest challenges. And Kurt Wickstrom, president and CEO of Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative in Wahpeton, N.D., said that anti-GM groups are a real threat whose claims need to be countered.

Hershey communications director Jeff Beckman confirmed that the kisses and many other products stocked on shelves since Halloween no longer contain beet sugar. The company also is transitioning away from artificial to natural ingredients, he said.

“More than three-quarters of the sugar we are using today is cane sugar,” which is not genetically modified, he said, “and as we get into 2016, our expectation is to be at or near 100 percent.”

Scientist Jonathan Lundgren believes the USDA retaliated against him because of his research on neonicotinoid insecticides and potential effects on bees and butterflies.

Neonicotinoids are among the most widely used pesticides. Some research shows they harm bees and butterflies, but the chemical industry disputes much of the research.

Lundgren, who works at a USDA research facility in Brookings, S.D., filed a federal whistleblower complaint in October.

Since the discussion on genetically modified salmon started this November, GM salmon was approved by FDA but labeled by Congress, with the chance of being completely taken off the market being very likely. Some senators have even claimed that this fish couldn’t even be called salmon due to its genetic modification.

YUROK COUNTRY – On December 10, 2015, after several months of committee drafting and opportunity for public comment, the Yurok Tribal Council unanimously voted to enact the Yurok Tribe Genetically Engineered Organism (“GEO”) Ordinance.

The Tribal GEO Ordinance prohibits the propagation, raising, growing, spawning, incubating, or releasing genetically engineered organisms (such as growing GMO crops or releasing genetically engineered salmon) within the Tribe’s territory and declares the Yurok Reservation to be a GMO-free zone. While other Tribes, such as the Dine’ (Navajo) Nation, have declared GMO-free zones by resolution, this ordinance appears to be the first of its kind in the nation.

The battle over labeling foods with genetically modified ingredients is heating up in Congress, and U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., is speaking out.