Farmers Refusing Biotech Feed Due to GM Failure, Increased Non-GM Hybrid Availability

[eridani]

http://www.nationofchange.org/2015/02/02/farmers-refusing-biotech-feed-due-gm-failure-increased-non-gm-hybrid-availability/

There is likely more to the story than any cereal shortage. As GM Watch has pointed out, the “animal feed cartel has close ties to the agribiotech industry and to the giant global commodity traders; they have a vested interest in trading GM feed and a virtual monopoly on imported agricultural seeds and feedstuffs.” Furthermore, much of the GM soy and maize grown in the US is tagged for export to Europe with the intended use as animal feed.

As more farmers get frustrated with the rising cost of feed, as well as biotech varieties’ link to insect-resistant pests and herbicide-resistant superweeds, they are looking for alternatives and finding them in non-GMO hybrids.

One Iowa farmer and crop and livestock advisor Howard Vlieger says:

“We are seeing more and more livestock operations recognize the benefit in animal health of switching to non-GMO feed. In swine the PRRS [porcine respiratory reproductive syndrome] and PED [porcine epidemic diarrhea] is mostly gone once they have completed one or two breeding cycles on the non-GMO feed. One operation that I advised to switch to non-GMO feed had a 85% reduction in injectable antibiotic use along with improved performance.

Vlieger also reports that bird mortality rates are drastically reduced when farmers switch to non-GM feed for their chickens, and dairy cows who don’t eat GM feed enjoy lower death rates and better milk production rates.

[GreatGazoo]

1. Transgenic produce seems to be losing market share.

McDonald's, Procter & Gamble, Frito Lay, Pepsi and Burger King all stopped using GM potatoes. Hardee's was considering it also.

Also

Monsanto got the USDA to deregulate five varieties of biotech potatoes that offered resistance to disease and insects, but none of them caught on.

http://www.capitalpress.com/Business/20141113/mcdonalds-not-interested-in-gmo-potatoes