> On the first and second issue, it is clear on the Pioneer Iowa
> corn hybrid page that some of the non-engineered base genetic
> hybrids are not offered in 1999-2000.
The industry was taken by surprise by the anti-GMO sentiment. I think that
in some cases the expectation was that farmers would not want the non-GMO
hybrid, if they could get the GMO version (which we tend to regard as
better, in general). So sometimes companies didn't plan to offer the
non-GMO variety, at least not in any quantity. We estimate demand 2 or 3
years in advance, to produce sufficent parent seed, so it will not be
surprising if the industry is short on some popular non-GMO hybrids.
> If there is an overall nationwide shortage of non-GMO varieties
> next year, we will also hear about this and there will be consequences
> and the seed companies will have to respond.
There is probably a lot of non-gmo seed around. It might be hard to
specifically get the non-gmo version of your favorite GMO hybrid in some
cases though.
> non-GMO genetics is also pretty obvious in most cases, since most GMO
> hybrid designations are simply tacked onto the non-GMO variety -- for
> example, DK471 -- the modifier "IMI" for imidazolinone herbicide
> tolerance
I don't think that (most ?) IMI corns are transgenic. I believe they were
developed by ordinary crossing and selection.
Dale
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