| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| brightmeadow |
Posted - Aug 01 2007 : 5:24:16 PM
I've been reading a lot lately about GMOs - genetically modified organisms.
And then yesterday, driving down the road, I NOTICED this sign - it's probably been there all year, probably, but I was oblivious.
Does anyone know what these signs mean, other than the obvious, that the crop planted is the variety on the sign? For example, my questions are, does the farmer get paid advertising to put that sign up, or is it a warning to other farmers that they have planted a certain type of seed so they need to watch for cross-pollination?
You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands - You shall be happy and it shall be well with you. -Psalm 128.2
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| 14 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| brightmeadow |
Posted - Aug 07 2007 : 6:40:47 PM
Sorry I haven't gotten back to this thread for a few days! Yes, the sign does advertise "Croplan Genetics" which made me wonder if this is a GMO variety. I just watched "the Future of Food" - all 7 parts - on YouTube and it is really scary. I used to subscribe to The Ohio Farmer which is directed at mostly corn, soybean and wheat farmers and has lots of paid advertising by the seed companies - and using GMO's just seems to be taken for granted any more. I wondered if the farmers were REQUIRED to post signs saying the crop was GMO or not. It's certainly not required to be labelled in our food. The best we can hope for right now is to look for voluntary labels that say "non-GMO".
You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands - You shall be happy and it shall be well with you. -Psalm 128.2
Visit my blog at http://brightmeadowfarms.blogspot.com ,web site store at http://www.watkinsonline.com/fish or my homepage at http://home.earthlink.net/~brightmeadow |
| willowtreecreek |
Posted - Aug 07 2007 : 12:44:14 PM
Sounds to me like that it jsut a sign saying what the product is.
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| Huckelberrywine |
Posted - Aug 07 2007 : 11:51:23 AM
Okay, so what about the crop signs that just say "garbanzo beans" or "wheat"? I've driven by a lot of those, and there are no numbers, no other printing of any kind. Just labels, usually blue with white block letters. I wondered if it was just so people driving by could learn to identify the crops? Some sort of local university program?
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| Love-in-a-Mist |
Posted - Aug 07 2007 : 08:14:21 AM
No offense taken MaryAnn. I married into this farm and don't have any say over crops. My own gardens and flowers are as organic and heirloom as I can get them. We did have some people from Hawaii, buy 20 acres that was an uncles land originally. We have grass seed on it and the new neighbors leased it to us as long as we kept it organic.
The organic grass looked horrible compared to our other stuff. Not a very good argument to convince old farmers to switch over.
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| mikesgirl |
Posted - Aug 06 2007 : 09:01:48 AM
Thanks! Dh and I have been steering clear of GM products - the whole idea kind of freaks him out. |
| willowtreecreek |
Posted - Aug 06 2007 : 08:55:06 AM
It says Croplan and has the code number of the GM product planted in that field.
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| mikesgirl |
Posted - Aug 05 2007 : 10:51:06 PM
What does the sign say - even when I blow the picture up I can't read it. |
| willowtreecreek |
Posted - Aug 02 2007 : 10:30:38 AM
I live in Arkansas and we have a big local company called Armour that supplies Soy Beans seed to a lot of farmers in the area. Armour is doing a lot of research on crop growth in certain conditions. Around here once your crop reaches a certain height and quality you may put a sign near your field. The farmer will then get some type of discount or certain amount of free seed in the following season. This does two things 1. gives the farmer free seed and 2 give Armour free advertising in a way but they get to control who puts up the signs and when. Most likely the Croplan sign in your photo belongs to a program similar to this one. It was probably only put there recently because the whole point is to advertise when the crop is at its peak and looks its best.
FYI - Armour is a genetically modified product. You can go to my blog to see how I feel about genetically modified crops!
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| Runbikegrrl |
Posted - Aug 02 2007 : 06:22:44 AM
If you use GMO it is mandatory that you label your crop as such. Not to offend any non-organic farmers here but GMO corn is a real problem. Corn is a cross-pollinating crop in which most pollination results from pollen dispersed by wind and gravity. Managing is a pain in the arse. Pollen drift has now become an important consideration in the production of non-GMO corn to preserve heritage and "normal" crops. Gmo is also deadly to butterfly populations and has been link in many studies to cancer and disease in people who consume it....and trust me it is sneaking into every product we eat GMO corn oil...in corn chips...everything
"So many interests so little time!"
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| windypines |
Posted - Aug 02 2007 : 04:36:25 AM
When my dad milked, we had a sign in front of our place, with our name and the name of the dariy we shipped milk too. It was a free sign, free advertising for the dairy. The signs by the corn fields, could be for field trials, or just for advertising what brand of corn was planted. Michele |
| Shirlaroo |
Posted - Aug 02 2007 : 12:12:19 AM
I don't know either. But I have seen the same signs here in Australia on sugar cane crops.
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| ktknits |
Posted - Aug 01 2007 : 7:34:26 PM
I don't know, but we just got back from Wisconsin where you drive by a house with cows outside and they have a "Land of Lakes" sign or a "Frigo Cheese" sign or some other dairy sign. We were wondering the same thing. The corn signs I can see because they identify the type of corn planted in a particular field, but the dairy signs outside the front of the house stumped me unless it was purely advertising.
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| Love-in-a-Mist |
Posted - Aug 01 2007 : 7:17:32 PM
We don't put up any signs, but some people do just for the benefit of letting people know what's growing. We have contracts with canneries and I never heard of such advertising. But, you never know.
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| Marybeth |
Posted - Aug 01 2007 : 6:40:35 PM
When I worked in the Nursery industry we used similar signs on rows of plantings to identify field trials. Maybe? MB
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