Greetings!   

    With last week's news dominated by Congressional cliff hanger debt limit vote followed by credit downgrades and stock market crashes, it was easy to miss the announcement of the latest genetically modified food to be released by Monsanto:  Sweet Corn.

     It's true that Monsanto and other companies have been selling GMO corn seeds for years now, many of them engineered to produce the same caterpillar-killing toxin as the new Sweet Corn.  And it is true that this toxin, called Bacillus Thurengenisis (Bt), is approved for use in organic farming when it is sprayed onto the outside of crop plants (where it biodegrades in less than 2 days).

    But until now, all of the commercially available GMO crop varieties have been for commodity crops used for processing, primarily soy beans turned into oil and corn used for sweeteners and cattle feed.   Many, if not most, consumers are entirely unaware that they are eating any number of foods each day that were produced using GMOs.

   Opponents of GMO food have been working at the grassroots level to organize campaigns to pass state laws requiring labeling of foods made with GMO ingredients, and there are ballot initiatives planned or approved for a dozen states.  A labeling campaign has been Monsanto's worst fear, as the company knows full well that most consumers would choose non-GMO foods if given the choice.  This might be the reason that the company has shied away from introducing GMO vegetable varieties, despite the fact that it owns the largest vegetable seed company in the world.

    But the release of GMO sweet corn might be the first component of a new strategy where Monsanto tries to win over consumers.  GMO corn will be free of that bane of organic sweet corn, the corn earworm that makes so many people  go "YUCK" when they see it and walk away.  Federal law, which bans organic growers from using GMO crops, makes it impossible for anyone to grow the new corn and call it organic.  But that doesn't mean Monsanto can't advertise the new variety with a confusing message like "This corn has been genetically modified to produce a naturally occurring pesticide that is used by organic farmers worldwide."  And it certainly won't stop the company from promoting the GMO corn as a way for consumers to help farmers use less pesticides.  

   When they first introduced GMO crops 15 years ago, Monsanto  bought off our government and university researchers to ensure that their products would be approved and allowed to be fed to consumers without their knowledge.  Now, having used Americans as guinea pigs for a new technology for over ten years now, they may be ready to come right out and say it "You've been eating this stuff in your cornflakes and Cokes for ten years and it hasn't hurt you.  Now it's in your sweet corn, too!" 

Pablito