[Peakoil] US starts growing fuel-only corn

[W & C Steensby]

That's the headline on this week's edition of The Guardian Weekly (19-25 August 2011, vol 185 no 10). (You can read some of the report online at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/aug/15/gm-corn-development-food-fuel )

Fuel-only corn is corn (maize) genetically modified to maximise its ethanol output. The brand is Enogen, developed by the Swiss pesticide firm, Syngenta.

The report continues: "Aid organisations warned the new GM corn could worsen a global food crisis, the food industry has expressed its opposition, and farmers growing corn for human consumption are concerned about cross-contamination." (para 2). Looks like the pro-GM for food crowd are to go through what GM opponents have been going through for years. Hoist on their own petard.

It goes on: "The same traits that make the modfied corn so attractive to the ethanol industry — the swift breakdown of the starches — would be a disaster for the food industry, turning corn chips into shapeless lumps and stripping the thickening properties from corn starch." (para 6).

The debate continues, with the ethanol industry looking every bit as determined to grow this kind of GM corn as the industrial food system is to grow its kind.

Now we have two kinds of GM corn to deal with. If Enogen gets loose in the field, it has the potential to make unknowable amounts of corn for food almost inedible. Syngenta of course says that it has "appropriate safeguards to stop cross-pollination." (p2). Do these include stopping the wind from blowing?

I can only wonder what schemes will emerge when until crude oil becomes really expensive.

Regards,
Walter Steensby