SD Corn

A new study out of the Stanford University School of Medicine shows little to no difference in terms of health and nutrition when comparing conventional and organic foods. While organic foods may be more expensive, it has nothing to do with them being better for you but instead has more to do with the farming practices and market demand.

In fact that demand has grown rapidly in the last 15 years as sales of organic food have increased from $3.6B to $24.4B according to the Stanford research. A sure sign that food is becoming a hot topic among individuals and families who are seeking to become more informed about what they eat. The problem is that there is a lot of misinformation out there demonizing conventional food and praising organics while using scare tactics instead of science.

Speaking of hot topics, food sustainability is a major concern as our global population continues to grow by 200,000 each day. How and what are we going to feed everyone?

In terms of sustainability, modern techniques of growing fruits and vegetables and raising livestock are simply producing more when compared to organic practices. Through modern improvements in seed technology, plants now require fewer pesticides and water. Improved genetics in livestock allow those animals to grow faster, with less feed and on less land. Conventional farmers are not only yielding more, but they’re practices are benefitting the environment.

To back that up, the University of Oxford released information this week stating that organic farms are indeed not better for the environment.

This discussion is a difficult one because food, nutrition and health can be very emotional issues. The positive side of this issue is that Americans are extremely fortunate in that they have so many choices when it comes to what they eat.

Whether it be organic or conventional, the freedom to choose is yours.

Corn Comments Podcast with Jim Woster.

Farmers continue to produce more corn on less land, with less energy and less erosion. They care for the land not only becasue it’s the right thing to do but because its the same land they raise their family on.

“It’s time that our farmers and ranchers are recognized for the everyday activities they do to improve and protect the environment. Farmers have a direct daily interface with the earth. They are literally getting their hands dirty caring for livestock, tending the soil and growing their crops. Our ability to feed and fuel the world’s population is in the hands of those who live on the land.”

- Lisa Richardson, SD Corn Executive Director

Learn more at http://www.TrueEnvironmentalists.com/

Don’t forget about the 26th SDCGA Annual Meeting coming up on January 7th, 2012 at the Sioux Falls Convention Center. Register by clicking here or calling the office at 605-334-0100.

Opinions vary greatly on the chemical atrazine, a herbicide used by thousands of farmers to control noxious weeds that steal moisture and nutrients from their crops. In that mix of opinion, one thing holds true, science. More than 6,000 scientific studies have proven atrazine to be safe and beneficial to both humans and the environment, a trend that continues with the latest research from Syngenta.

In their new study released yesterday, the data demonstrates that atrazine helps increase corn yields, saves consumers money and reduces soil erosion.

Increased productivity is on the minds of everyone in agriculture as we ask, how will we be able to feed the world in the future? Utilizing the best technology seems to be the answer and one example would be the use of atrazine which has increased corn production by 600 million bushels each year in the United States, raising yields by seven bushels per acre.

Atrazine allows farmers to practice no-till methods because the herbicide is able to control damaging weeds without the need to break up the soil. This helps protect the land from soil erosion and also requires less fuel usage which in turn means fewer carbon emissions. The studies’ data showed that reduced erosion due to the use of atrazine totaled 85 million metric tons, or enough to fill 3 million dump trucks. The research also revealed that the reduced emissions totaled around 280,000 metric tons of CO2 each year.

America truly does have the greatest food system in the entire world. No matter what the “foodies” may say, it’s a fact that our country produces the safest, least expensive, most nutritious and abundant food supply on the planet. The report revealed that U.S. consumers save billions of dollars annually due to the increase in production and decrease in producer costs.

Once again, safe tested and proven American innovation like atrazine continues to move agriculture forward benefitting consumers’ pocket books, producers and the environment.

Negative reports about atrazine, the most common pesticide application in United States, maybe seem redundant, but yet another was released this week. Dr. Tyrone Hayes, who has been discredited by the EPA multiple times, released another report claiming that exposure to the pesticide, atrazine, caused male frogs to transform into females.

 Prior research by Dr. Hayes has come under scientific scrutiny and criticism by directors of the Environmental Protection Agency for lacking basic scientific standards and lack of transparency. Alex Avery, Director of Research and Education at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Global Food Issues, criticized the new research by University of California Berkeley professor.

“Dr. Hayes is an admitted anti-atrazine activist…and has spent more than a decade allied with eco-activists peddling scare stories due to alleged health effects from atrazine,” Avery stated.  ”Aside from his own often-conflicting lab studies, other researchers have not seen the effects Hayes claims to have found. Replication is the gold-standard of science and Hayes’ work has failed this test miserably.”

The most recent study has many shortcomings including its inconsistency with prior findings by the author, including the use of only one dose level and the failure to use a positive control, a basic requirement with this type of study.

The EPA’s independent Scientific Advisory Panel “believed strongly that all of the field studies reviewed had serious flaws that limit their usefulness…” and “these problems render interpretation of results problematic if not impossible.”

Even with Hayes’ report holding no merit, agriculture still seems to take a hit from the mass media with over a thousand blogs, websites and other news outlets reporting on the story.

Atrazine has been used by farmers safely for over 50 years and has had no effect on amphibians, fish, birds or any other form of wildlife. Atrazine allows farmers to use conservation tillage systems preventing soil erosion and saving them around $28/acre on average. During the last 20 years, atrazine has improved corn yields 5-11%.

Over 6,000 studies have been done on the pesticide alone and every time it has come back safe. Most recently, the State of Minnesota conducted a thorough review of atrazine and in January announced, “The review finds that atrazine regulations protect human health and the environment in Minnesota.”

Increased yields, savings in time, reduced runoff, precise application of nutrients and seeds are all ingredients of precision agriculture, which is setting up farmers for future success. With the price of inputs on the rise and margins thin, a farmer’s productivity has never been more important.

Precision ag dates back to the 1970’s when laser controlled graders and scrapers were used in broad-acre operations for cotton and wheat farming. Unitl only 15 years ago was the first GPS constellation NAVSTAR made available for non-military use. Initially, accuracy was only within a number feet but now is within the inch. Today’s technology allows farmers to operate a variety of machines with little-to-no user interaction. Most systems provide all steering for the operator by picking up coordinates from GPS satellites.

Saving Time

Having your large equipment making precise turns, rows and applications will save your operation time. Most notably in planting, spraying and tillage work.

Reducing Cost

A reduction in the amount of seed, pesticides, fertilizer and fuel can be a big money saver. With the equipment mostly steering and operating on its own, extra experienced help is not a necessity.

Environmental Stewardship

There are a number of benefits coming from precision ag which reduce the producer’s environmental impact. Pollution and runoff are reduced by applying fewer chemicals; in fact some systems are so sophisticated that it will automatically apply more or less product as needed. Certain systems have the capability to alarm the producer of having proper wind and temperature conditions. The soil also benefits by having minimal disturbance.

The Future

The future of precision ag will continue to focus on improving its user friendly interface allowing more producers to adapt.
Telematics will soon allow producers to monitor machinery conditions including location, fuel consumption, speed, direction and potential maintenance all from their phone. Information on everything from planting to harvest will be available instantly.

Even further into the future there is talk about remote control capability. It sounds crazy, but you could someday plant from home.

As ag technology moves forward, farmers will become more and more reliant on precise statistical information allowing their operation to increase in efficiency while delivering productive yields.

In a world growing by 200,000 people per day, farmers have plenty of mouths to feed. Biotechnology is allowing farmers to provide by producing more with less. Biotechnology crops have done everything from providing better nutrition, resistance to pest and crop disease and drought tolerance with future plans of flood tolerate crops.

Biotechnology is simply the genetic enhancement of agriculture and is possibly one of the oldest human activities. Decades of documented evidence show that agriculture biotechnology is a safe and beneficial technology that contributes to both environmental and economic sustainability.

Most importantly, biotechnology has enabled farmers to double their corn yields in the last 20 years. Biotechnology has also allowed farmers to use less irrigation, energy and land while releasing less green house gas emissions.

Land use per bushel of corn is down 37%

Irrigation per bushel has decreased 27%

Energy use per bushel has decreased 37%

Greenhouse gas emissions have decreased 30%

Biotechnology has also allowed for an increase in the practice of no-till farming allowing left-over crop mulch to cover the ground between growing seasons protecting the soil, decreasing runoff and erosion.

Due to no-till practices, the amount of pesticides applied to crop land has decreased by 790 million pounds annually.

A recent feat in biotechnology was the mapping of the genome sequence of corn which will lead to a speedier development in improved corn varieties.

Working to improve agricultural technology isn’t a choice, but a must in order to meet the future food and fuel needs, while improving the quality of life for future generations.