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Post by aineo on Dec 6, 2014 7:57:17 GMT -5
I just ran across a page last night (http://elizabethyarnell.com/effortlesseating/2012/06/popcorn-is-never-a-gmo/) that is stating popcorn is never a GMO. While I have read before that popcorn is not currently genetically modified, I have always understood that popcorn (and other corns) will all easily pollinate with other corn, thereby potentially allowing it to cross with GMO corn. However, in the last comment on this page states, "Popcorn in (should be is) dent sterile. This means that regular field corn cannot pollinate popcorn.
I have looked around a bit this morning, and it seems that is sometimes true, but not always. I trust the folks on this board a whole lot more than I do anyone else out there - what are your thoughts.
Thankfully, it doesn't really matter for me, as I haven't seen corn growing anywhere around me, but it is still a curiosity.
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Post by philagardener on Dec 6, 2014 8:36:28 GMT -5
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Post by blackox on Dec 6, 2014 8:42:22 GMT -5
I would assume that growing a particularly diverse line of popcorn would increase your chances of GM contamination.
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Post by aineo on Dec 6, 2014 9:46:40 GMT -5
Thanks for the links philagardener. I read here often, but somehow missed those and didn't think to search.
Blackbox, I would suspect you are right, however, if the gene is dominant, then even diverse lines should evolve to contain it, right?
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Post by blueadzuki on Dec 6, 2014 10:32:08 GMT -5
In the short term yes, but there'd be ones that eventually got double recessive in you population and were "open". And the barrier isn't perfect. Sooner or later you'd get some seed that had both the GA-1 AND GMO contamination in their ancestry and they could act as "bridges" to bring the GMO stuff into the rest.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Dec 6, 2014 12:48:09 GMT -5
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Post by littleminnie on Dec 6, 2014 19:50:01 GMT -5
I just know so little about popcorn as compared to field and sweet corn so I never thought about this. I do know the Orville Redenbacher box says made with non GMO corn. I guess I didn't put 2 and 2 together to realize popcorn varieties were not GMO.
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Post by littleminnie on Dec 6, 2014 19:53:58 GMT -5
And as for me, I don't consider a minor cross pollination issue, or the possibility of one, as anything near the danger of an actual GMO crop. My hatred of GMOs isn't a body health issue but an earth and farming issue. An accidental kernel of GMO corn in an ear still doesn't have roundup sprayed on it or the economic impacts of Big Ag and its gene manipulation for profit without benefits.
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