Brian Scott
Farmer
Expert Bio
Brian Scott is a farmer in northwest Indiana with his dad and grandpa on 2,300 acres of land, where they raise corn, soybeans, popcorn, and wheat. Scott is a Purdue Ag Alumni with a Bachelor’s degree in Soil and Crop Management, and his current passion is precision agriculture. His family employs biotechnology, and because it is a hot topic, he advocates for it openly. Through his blog and guest articles on other sites such as CNN’s Eatocracy, he writes about technology use agreements farmers choose to sign and debunks myths about how farmers are “slaves” to big corporations.
Studies, Articles and Answers
Showing 10 out of 18 results
Question
A: I’m a corn and soybean farmer from Indiana with experience raising biotech crops. I like to say that transgenic traits don’t directly increase yield. Not yet, anyway. There are currently no traits that have the effect of saying, “Okay, corn plant. Your potential was 200 bu/A, but now, with this gene, it will be 225 bu/A.” Biotech doesn’t work that way. The yield potential of a particular variety is pretty much all in the breeding of the plant. For corn, a substantial part of the steady yield gains year after year for several decades now has come [...]
Business Practices GMOs & FarmersQuestion
A: First off, I should say I disagree with the premise of the question. Nonhuman entities don’t breed plants and animals for agricultural production. Humans do―plant breeders, scientists, farmers...and the list goes on. Does anyone really think if they walk into an agricultural facility that the only things to be found inside will be dollar bills and lawyers? GMO, conventional or organic plant breeding and research have decades of research and trials behind a product that growers can readily purchase. To the point of whether we can do better than nature, which has sp [...]
Business Practices GMOs & FarmersQuestion
A: Great question! This is an issue we deal with on our farm. Sometimes corn kernels that dropped before harvest or managed to escape the combine during harvest will sprout the following season. These seeds show up as volunteer or rogue plants in our soybean fields. Not all of our corn is glyphosate tolerant so this is not a concern in some fields. On our farm all of our soybeans are Roundup Ready and obviously any small amount of Round Ready corn left over from the previous season that sprouts won't be killed by a glyphosate application. One solution is to spray the corn with something else. Th [...]
Business Practices GMOs & FarmersQuestion
A: Extreme heat, especially without overnight relief, and low soil moisture during pollination are very stressful to corn plants in particular. In 2012, an extreme drought enveloped more than 70 percent of the United States including my own farm, but the crop losses were less than feared due in large part to new traits and improved seeds. The most obvious benefit were seeds that allowed crops to use water more efficiently so they could maintain decent yields with less water. Most of these seeds were developed using breeding, but there was a limited amount of a genetically modified dr [...]
GMO Basics How GMOs Are MadeQuestion
A: This is an excellent and timely question. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has just recently deregulated Dow AgroSciences’ Enlist traits for corn and soybeans. The Enlist system consists of crops with herbicide tolerance for both glyphosate and 2,4-D. Cotton will also get this treatment. Enlist Duo herbicide will accompany the crops as a premixed formulation of the two herbicides with a reformulated 2,4-D Dow calls 2,4-D Choline with Colex-D technology. This formulation greatly reduces the signature odor of conventional 2,4-D and risk of off target mo [...]
GMO Basics How GMOs Are MadeQuestion
Q: Gmos are not healthy and we dont want them on our food. Can you find something else ?
A: That's a very good question for me as a farmer who raises GM crops. If the market creates so much demand for something other than the GM corn and soybeans that I'm growing, then I'm sure farmers like me will choose to grow something else. But if you believe foods made with these crops aren't safe, then you have plenty of other options. Certified organic products are out there and are labeled so consumers can know they are buying foods raised under a certain set of rules for production. Voluntary non-GMO labels can be found as well. If people want to avoid GMO foods, then they can seek out the [...]
Question
A: None of the seed companies force farmers like me to buy any particular product. Salespeople might push the latest and greatest, but since every farm operates a little bit differently from the next one, seed choice is very important. All the companies that sell GMO seed also have many non-GMO varieties available. I can buy any seed from any vendor I choose from one year to the next. Just because I bought Monsanto, Pioneer or Syngenta seeds one year doesn’t mean I have to buy seed from any one of them the following year. Farmers do sign technology use agreements in relation to patented products [...]
A: In the video below Jacque Matsen, Public Affairs Manager at DuPont Pioneer, discusses the variety of seed options available to farmers. [...]
Business PracticesQuestion
Q: Can you tell me more about the sustainablity of GE farming practices?
A: When it comes to keeping our operation sustainable GE crops can play an important role. Herbicide resistance traits aren't a requirement for no-till farming, but we find the ability to select from a wider range of herbicides in a given crop allows for more flexibility in our weed management program as we transition our farm into more no-till acres. It's nice to have options like this at hand when tillage is no longer a method used for weed control. Two of the best benefits of eliminating tillage are reduced erosion from water and wind, and better water infiltration.&nbs [...]
Question
A: On our farm we used GMO crops for two reasons: We use Bt traits in our corn to control below ground pests that like to eat corn roots, and to protect the plant above ground as well. The second reason is to expand the range of tools available to us for weed control via herbicide tolerance traits. Allow me to explain further. With Bt corn traits our crop is protected from infestations of particular corn pests. These pests must munch on a corn plant to be affected. One great benefit of this technology is that if an economically damaging level of corn rootwo [...]
A: On our farm we used GMO crops for two reasons: We use Bt traits in our corn to control below ground pests that like to eat corn roots, and to protect the plant above ground as well. The second reason is to expand the range of tools available to us for weed control via herbicide tolerance traits. Allow me to explain further. With Bt corn traits our crop is protected from infestations of particular corn pests. These pests must munch on a corn plant to be affected. One great benefit of this technology is that if an economically damaging level of corn rootwo [...]
Modern Agriculture OtherQuestion
A: On our farm we used GMO crops for two reasons: We use Bt traits in our corn to control below ground pests that like to eat corn roots, and to protect the plant above ground as well. The second reason is to expand the range of tools available to us for weed control via herbicide tolerance traits. Allow me to explain further. With Bt corn traits our crop is protected from infestations of particular corn pests. These pests must munch on a corn plant to be affected. One great benefit of this technology is that if an economically damaging level of corn rootwo [...]
A: On our farm we used GMO crops for two reasons: We use Bt traits in our corn to control below ground pests that like to eat corn roots, and to protect the plant above ground as well. The second reason is to expand the range of tools available to us for weed control via herbicide tolerance traits. Allow me to explain further. With Bt corn traits our crop is protected from infestations of particular corn pests. These pests must munch on a corn plant to be affected. One great benefit of this technology is that if an economically damaging level of corn rootwo [...]
Modern Agriculture Other