Question
I have heard from multiple sources that almost 40% of Canadian sweet corn is grown from seed that has been genetically modified.
Other sources seem to indicate that number is around 0.001%.
Who is correct? Is there a little or a lot?
Either way, the data is going to end a killer twitter debate! We're thrilled to have a source for hard fact!
Submitted by: Caithrin
Answer
Expert response from Carly Scaduto
Technology Communications Lead, Bayer Crop Science
Monday, 09/09/2013 13:18
Glad that we can help. It looks like the answer is actually somewhere in the middle and can be different depending on how you look at it. Two companies currently sell GM sweet corn: Monsanto and Syngenta. And our best estimate is that in 2013, both Canadian and U.S. farmers chose to plant our companies’ insect-protected GM sweet-corn hybrids on a little less than 25 percente of the sweet-corn acres planted for fresh markets in both countries. However, if you take into account all of the sweet-corn acres planted (including acres for frozen, canned or processed sweet corn), the total percentage drops to approximately 10 percent in both countries.