From: wytze <geno@zap.a2000.nl>
To: biotech_activists@iatp.org
> ----------------------------- GENET-news -----------------------------
>
> TITLE: GMO blues set stage for white corn comeback
> SOURCE: Country Guide, Canada, by Tom Button
> edited and sent by Agnet, Canada
> DATE: February 1, 2000
>
> -------------------- archive: http://www.gene.ch/ --------------------
>
> GMO blues set stage for white corn comeback
>
> In 1940 the U.S. grew 2 billion bushels of corn, and, according to
> this story, one billion was yellow and one billion was white. Now,
> thanks to the biotech controversy, white coxa is poised to re-emerge
> from obscurity. A research group that's investigating white corn
> potential was cited as saying it spells a great opportunity for
> Ontario corn growers, and that even without any anti-GMO windfall,
> white earns a food-quality premium that averages 50 [?] to 75 [?, ">"
> in original message, GENET] per bushel. Coupled with last summer's
> Kent County yields of about 180 bu./ac., that could make white
> contracts as valuable to corn growers as identity-preserved white-
> hilum contracts are in the soybean business.
>
> Art Schaafsma, a Ridgetown College researcher heading up the project,
> was quoted as saying, "All white hybrids are non-GMO." And kernel
> color is affected by pollen source. To produce a white kernel, a
> white silk has to be fertilized by a white pollen. If stray pollen
> drifts into a white corn field from a neighboring yellow corn crop -
> whether GMO or not any hybrid kernels will also be yellow. Schaafsma
> was quoted as saying, "We could kick them out with the same optical
> sorting equipment we use for beans. Customers could look at a sample
> and if it was pure white, they'd know they were buying pure non-GMO.
> It's a much, much better system than having to convince them with
> affidavits and DNA analysis."
>
> The story says that Schaafsma worked with 7 southwest Ontario growers
> who planted 15 acres apiece in 1999. The goal was to produce enough
> white corn for milling trials in Frito Lay and King Milling plants,
> with the hope that Ontario-grown product could replace the 3.5
> million bushels of food-grade white corn that the province imports
> every year.
>
> Those milling tests will be completed later this winter, and
> Schaafsma and Frito Lay sources are, the story adds, confident the
> results will be strong enough to warrant small-scale contracting this
> spring. The Kent and Essex County farmers grew 2 Pioneer hybrids,
> 34P93 and 3443W, and a 3200-heat-unit Garst hybrid 8527. Strongest
> yields came from the 3300-heat-unit 34P93, which equaled yellow corns
> in the tests.
>
> Schaafsma was further quoted as stressing, "let's be clear about
> this. It may look like corn. Walking through a field, in fact, you
> wouldn't be able to tell the difference. But it isn't corn. It's a
> different commodity." Ridgetown College economist Brian Doidge who is
> investigating the market potential of white corn, was cited as saying
> that chemically, the biggest difference is that white kernels lack
> the carotene pigment that gives yellow corn its color, and that in
> Africa, two-thirds of corn is white, but the U.S. and Canada switched
> to yellow decades ago because consumers here prefer the deeper color
> it gives to beef and pork fat, and egg yolks.
>
> Major uses include Mexican-style foods such as tortillas, plus the
> booming market in related snack chips. Doidge was quoted as saying
> that, "What's got us really excited is the potential for a visually
> distinguishable non-GMO corn. Depending on how the GMO debate shakes
> out, the potential could be enormous." Nobody, Doidge adds, has a
> level of experience with identity-preserved production that can
> compete with Ontario's, thanks mainly to the province's success in
> food-grade soybean and edible-bean marketing.
>
> Chuck Cunnyngham, Pioneer Hi-Bred research manager for mid-tolate
> season food-grade corn, was cited as saying major corn millers
> including Bunge Lauhoff are touting white corn for expansion because
> of its non-GMO status, but from a breeder's perspective, however, it
> will be difficult to ramp up white production, especially in northern-
> tier states and Canada, adding, "We've been trying for the past 15
> years to get earlier white hybrids." In that time, breeders have cut
> the earliest commercial whites from 120 days down to 112, the
> maturity of 34P93. When they tried to make faster progress, the
> whites had poor color and milling quality, and typically lagged 10%
> to 15% behind yellows in yield.
>
> The reason progress is so slow is that the white trait is recessive,
> so must be worked into both inbreds. To incorporate earlier genetics,
> breeders must therefore cross whites with early yellows, then breed
> out all the yellow characteristics while maintaining the white trait.
>
> Cunnyngham and Schaafsma see another hurdle, too. White corns are
> heavy, with test weights in the 63 lb./bu. range, and they're
> extremely hard and almost as vitreous as durum wheat. Most millers
> tell growers which hybrids they'll accept. Generally, the harder the
> kernel, the more the millers like it. Where it's a headache for
> growers, though, is at the dryer. American contracts often specify
> that white hybrids be left to dry in the field until they reach 18%
> moisture, Cunnyngham points out. "You can't harvest them at 25% and
> put them through a dryer."
>
> In Ontario Schaafsma found that out firsthand, as did the growers.
> Even when harvested at 22% and put through a dryer with a plenum
> temperature in the low 90s F, the 1999 crop was badly stress-cracked.
>
> |*********************************************|
> | GENET |
> | European NGO Network on Genetic Engineering |
> | |
> | Hartmut MEYER (Mr) |
> | Reinhaeuser Landstr. 51 |
> | D - 37083 Goettingen |
> | Germany |
> | |
> | phone: +49-551-7700027 |
> | fax: +49-551-7701672 |
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