GMO experience questions

[sandc]

I am working on a paper for one of my college classes and would like to ask a few questions of people on here. I am not asking for discussion, just looking for answers to a few questions. I would prefer answers to be pm'd to me.

1. What state are you in? What kind of crops do you grow?
2. Do you grow GMO crops of any kind? Have you grown GMO crops in
the past, and if so for how many years?
3. Have you had GMO crops grown on a property adjacent to yours? If
so, what type of crop and were you growing a similar non-GMO crop?
4. If you had GMO crops grown on property adjacent to yours, were your
crops affected? If so, how much of your crop was affected?
5. What measures did you put into place to rid your property of GMO
crops? What measures to keep from having another occurence?

Please do not turn this political or emotional. I am only looking for factual first hand information. Thank you.

[Johnny Dolittle]

Concerning question (4). The only way to know if your neighbors crops have contaminated yours would be to either spray suspected plants with Roundup type herbicide or send plant tissue samples to a lab to test for the transferred protein or possibly have the genome of your plant mapped or at least partially mapped to see if it possesses the foreign gene.

Also in a court of law it might be difficult to prove that it was the neighbors crop that contaminated yours except if you can prove that only plants in close proximity to the neighbors ... were contaminated. There is always the possibility that you purchased seed that was GMO contaminated.

I am wondering what degree are you hoping to attain ? Just curious ... and what kind of course is requiring this project?

[rambler]

1 MN, field corn, soybeans, oats, alfalfa, hay, small garden.

2 yes, corn and soybeans. I didn't join in right away, perhaps 7 years after rup crops came out I started with corn, then soybeans.

3 yes, those 7 years or so I was growing conventional crops, neighbors had rup crops. And at times some of my crops are not rup next to my own non-rup crops. I've not had any difficulty or issues with it over the years. I've had all combinations of rup corn and rup soybeans within 30 inches of non-rup corn, soybeans, alfalfa, oats, and hay. Both my own combinations and mine next to neighbors.

4 have not noticed any problems from the dis similar crop types, myself and my neighbors and the coop have done well spraying. Pollen drift is fairly small and a natural thing, so does not matter much - noon issue on hybrid corn, and soybeans don't travel far.

5 when I grow non gmo soybeans I harvest a buffer of 4 to 8 rows to keep them from crossing. Otherwise no issue for my needs.

Paul

[Ross]

FWIW Sandc has validated the post more than it need be, to the moderators and has our full support. Please note the request to use the PM system here at the OP's request. Keep in mind we WILL heavily moderate GMO threads, so stay on topic and stay civil!