Author Topic: A Farmers perspective on grain  (Read 1088 times)

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Offline Shadow

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A Farmers perspective on grain
« on: August 12, 2011, 01:09:08 PM »
Taken from petconnection.com   some names have been omitted for privacy.
This was written in 2007 and it sure is an eye opener.

"As I read your posts that you are upset for the government for not revealing the source of the contaminated grain product in the pet food is because they probably do not know. This country does not have any mandatory country of origin labeling laws. I am a farmer in eastern Iowa that grows corn, soybeans, oats and some wheat. Although there have been some new traceability laws passed in the last few years farmers in the US are exempt from them. When I deliver a load of grain to a processor I am never asked where the grain is from. Most of the grain I produce goes into the human food supply and is processed in Cedar Rapids Iowa by Quaker Oats, ADM and Cargill. All of these large processors do have a policy on Grain grading for quality of the grain based on federal standards. But nowhere in the grading process is it ever asked if the grain was treated with any pesticide or other chemicals. The only test for this is by smell by the guy that runs the sample. On the rare occasion that I over treat a load of grain with an insecticide for bugs and get rejected for smell I just take it to the next processor down the road and hope that guy has a cold that day. The same holds true for aflatoxin tests. This is a test that is randomly done on grain samples. Some places are more stringent than others but it is still a random test. The bottom line on this is that I can usually drive around the block and get in line again and won’t be checked the next time through. The worst case is that I will have to drive to another processor to get rid of it.
Another area that the American public has been mislead is in the area of genetically engineered crops I can assure you that most of the grain supply in the US (especially Corn) has some level of GE contamination. Remember Starlink, it is still out there. A large portion of the corn crop and almost all of the soybean crop in the US is genetically modified. Once GM corn pollen is released into the environment it is very hard to contain. I have personally seen corn pollen drift over one half a mile and contaminate crops that were being grown as non GMO or organic. As Monsanto has convinced most regulators that pollen drift is a natural event (even if the pollen is genetically modified) and if my crop is contaminated by someone else’s pollen it is an uninsurable loss. I’ll be dammed if I am going to take a loss for someone else’s pollen that contaminated my crop. I will do whatever it takes to get the grain marketed. This is actually very easy in this country because all (and I mean All) processors run under the don’t ask don’t tell policy when it comes to GM grain. What I mean by this is that while all processors do have a specific policy on what GM grain that they will accept they don’t enforce it. Actually they can’t enforce it, the corn crop is so contaminated with GM material that there is no way I can guarantee zero GM in my crop any more. If the corn processors (including the organics) in the US were to enforce a zero tolerance on GM crop they would not get any corn to process. And as long as no one asks me to sign off or prove what is in my load of corn I am not going to. If you don’t believe me on how easy it is to get this in the food supply just come ride in the truck with me and I’ll show you. My phone is 319 XXX XXXX.
If the American people are really concerned about their food supply (including pets) now is the time to lobby for country of origin label laws. There is a new federal farm bill being drafted in congress right now and there is still time to get some COOL language in the bill. Call Senator Tom Harkin from Iowa today and let him know how you feel."

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Offline Lola

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Re: A Farmers perspective on grain
« Reply #1 on: August 19, 2011, 08:08:01 PM »
Interesting...not totally surprised though.
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