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Learn more about the debate on genetically modified corn versus organic corn, and find out how to buy the best corn.
Risking a rear-end collision, I braked and swerved into the gravel pullout of a roadside produce stand in our town. Deep-green ears of sweet corn were stacked like cordwood, the first of the year. I picked one up and peeled back the husk, sniffing the fresh, vegetal scent and salivating at the plump, pearly kernels.
“Is this local?” I asked the skinny, sunburned fellow who was pulling ears from a burlap bag. He averted his eyes. “Nope,” he mumbled, “my cousin grew it over in Monkton.” Monkton is the neighboring town, about three miles away.
I wanted to know more about that corn my grandparents grew up on. So I went to visit Kevin Smith, who runs Sycamore Farms in upstate New York. To say that the buff 31-year-old’s corn-growing roots run deep is an understatement; his father and grandfather before him made their livelihoods from fields of sweet corn. And it’s not just any sweet corn. From the 237 acres that he tends an hour and a half north of New York City, Smith grows sweet corn for some of the most demanding palates in the country, including high-end Manhattan restaurants like Gramercy Tavern. Smith eschews the newest ultrasweet types of corn, instead growing varieties like Providence, Revelation and Delectable, which strike a perfect compromise, staying sweet longer but still packing plenty of real corn flavor. “I love everything about sweet corn,” he says. “It’s almost like nature’s fast food. It comes in a neat little package. You just snap it off the stalk. There’s nothing better.” Smith often shucks a cob and eats it raw in the field for breakfast.
But a few years ago, Smith noticed a decrease in sales at his stand in Manhattan’s Union Square Greenmarket. “I think my customers were lumping all corn into the same bucket,” he says. “Field corn, sweet corn, GMO, high-fructose corn syrup… some people just gave up eating it.”
There’s a lot of confusion over corn. It’s gotten a bad reputation due to what’s happened with field corn, which is distinctly different from sweet corn. Harvested when its kernels are hard and dry, field corn is a commodity crop used in the manufacture of products like livestock feed, ethanol, high-fructose corn syrup, corn oil, liquor and all manner of processed foods: cookies, mayonnaise, margarine… Introduced in the mid-1990s, genetically modified (GMO) seeds now produce nearly 90 percent of the field corn in the United States (along with more than 90 percent of the soy and canola). Unlike hybridized plants, which are created through cross-pollination, genetically modified plants have strands of DNA added to achieve desired characteristics.
Unlike with field corn, growers of sweet corn have been slow to plant GMO seeds. At approximately 700,000 acres, sweet corn occupies less than one-hundredth of the amount of acreage devoted to field corn in the U.S. Most is canned or frozen. The corn we eat fresh is grown on only 250,000 acres. Last year only 3 to 4 percent of the sweet corn raised in the United States came from the genetically modified sweet corn seeds Syngenta, a global agribusiness company, introduced 15 years ago. Monsanto hopes to change all that.
This summer for the first time, farmers are planting Monsanto’s newly approved, genetically modified Performance sweet-corn seeds. Monsanto is aiming its marketing muscle at iconic corn on the cob. “Our sweet corn is a fresh-market product that will be sold on the ear.” said Carly Scaduto, vegetable communications manager at Monsanto. She wouldn’t divulge how much will be planted this year.
I asked farmer Kevin Smith about his take on GMO sweet corn. “I won’t grow it,” he said flatly. “If you want to avoid it, one way is to ask the farmers you buy from if they plant GMO corn.” (Syngenta’s Attribute and Monsanto’s Performance are the two varieties sold in North America.) Another way: choose USDA organic corn. GMO crops are forbidden under organic standards.
Also, many farmers' markets (including New York’s Greenmarket and San Francisco’s Ferry Plaza) ban the intentional use of GMOs, so check to see if your market has a similar policy. In the U.S., genetically modified foods are not required to be labeled, but legislation is being considered in California and more than 20 other states that would require GMO labeling. (To learn more, visit nongmoproject.org.)
Barry Estabrook’s book Tomatoland delves into problems with modern agriculture.
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