Wednesday, August 14, 2013
In a text-message and email conversation with a dear friend  this morning, we are discussing the quality and health of the corn crop. He sent me pictures of corn from central Illinois and Iowa that show ears with a long ‘nose’. That means that the pollination did not occur on the outer tip of the ear, and that there will be some cob showing (no grains) when the ears mature.  He is concerned that this condition will reduce potential yields in those places.   He asked if the same situation was occurring here.   A brief examination of the corn here behind the office shows good pollination… the ears are not the longest we’ve ever seen, but they are ‘filled out’ nicely. One interesting thing about this conversation is that this fellow is located in Geneva, Switzerland! Isn’t modern technology great?  We shared our pictures and conversation across the globe in an instant!
Here are some of the pictures we shared.
This is the photo from central Illinois… by way of Geneva, Switzerland
Here is the corn behind the office this morning.
Here is a typical ear. It is filled out nicely… not the longest by any means, but a nice size… and as Ross says, ‘there’s a lot of ’em’
Does it get any nicer-looking than this?
The fellow in Geneva is one of our French sons. We became acquainted when he was a grad student at Purdue. When he graduated, he took a position with a firm that is a world leader in grain merchandising. He started his career in St. Louis, but soon advanced to  White Plains, New York. Now he’s working in Geneva. We are very blessed to keep our connection to him and his young family.
Good morning Dennis, Loved learning about the corn wish Ray was here to read your Blogs what fun you two would have.
I also read an article about corn in a women¹s magazine ³Elle² and they were talking about all the engineering (?) that is going on with corn to make it larger, more yellow, etc. Do not remember the exact technical initials, but also said it was causing a lot of serious allergies in some people.
Do you know anything about this? Love and congrats to baby Ella the first year goes by fast. Now it just gets better and better. Renee
On 8/14/13 10:15 AM, “Carnahan & Sons, Inc.” wrote:
> casifarm posted: “Wednesday, August 14, 2013 In a text-message and email > conversation with Maxime Caffe this morning, we are discussing the quality > and health of the corn crop. He sent me pictures of corn from central > Illinois and Iowa that shows ears with a long ‘nos” >
Hi Renee… thanks for your continued interest in our farm website… and I too wish Ray were here… we loved him so…
About the Elle magazine article, there are other points of view. We measure the worth of some event or technology based on a simple risk-benefit ratio. The risks genuinely associated with GMO (genetically modified organism) use have shown so far to all but the most high-strung activists to be infinitesimally small. You can read another view of the Elle story at:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonentine/2013/08/14/elle-magazines-bungled-gmo-controversy-deepens/2/
and
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/08/can_gmo_corn_cause_allergies_don_t_believe_elle_s_scary_story.html
We have used GMO corn and soybeans for over a decade. It has revolutionized our methods of production, lowering costs and improving yields, especially in corn. It is sort of like an enhanced and/or more focused way of selective breeding or cross breeding that has been going on since genetics have been understood. Because we have to live directly in the environment we create and utilize around us, it is critically important that we are convinced that our methods do no harm… to our customers or ourselves. We have no reason to fear the enhanced modifications introduced into the cytoplasm of the crops we produce. In fact, it has some effect to improve the environment… because our use of pesticides is drastically reduced. Yes, we adopted this technology driven by economic factors, but we find no reason to abandon it use.
In the EU, it seems that they prohibit GMO use, but it can be argued that it is more for a barrier to imported grain than for concerns about food safety. In fact, from the many French farmers whom we know, they are skeptical about the EU ban on technology… they wish they could use it on their farms!
Perhaps this is more information that you wanted, but I am convinced that the more you objectively learn about GMO use, you will be able to understand how vital an ingredient it is to the goal of producing enough food and fiber for a growing and hungry world population. I hope we can talk about this more when we are together next time.
We are all okay here, looking forward to harvest in 4-5 weeks. Preparations for that are taking place now. Ella’s party is Saturday, and we are eager to celebrate with her!
All the best to you,
Much love
Dennis