At the Seeds of Doubt conference recently, Jeffery Smith, e
xecutive director of the Institute for Responsible Technology and GMO expert, assured us that even though almost 90% of the corn grown and eaten in this country is GMO corn, popcorn comes from a different seed and has not been genetically modified.
So, while you should assume that your Doritos brand corn chips and those sweet corn cobs on sale at the grocery store are Genetically Modified even though they are not labeled as such, you’ll never have to worry about your popcorn being GMO. Makes you feel a little bit better about ordering that large tub at the movie theater!
Are you kidding? What research did you do to confirm that no popcorn is GMO? If you ask corn farmers, 100% of all corn is GMO, so where is the research? Since you are posting pseudo-science, let me give you a guide. See who owns the biggest popcorn producer(Orville) and see if they have any likelihood to create GMO.
Jason- Yes, I was surprised, too, when I heard this assurance about popcorn from Jeffrey Smith of the Institute for Responsible Technology during his presentation on GMOs at the Seeds of Doubt conference in Boulder last year. Since Mr. Smith has done a lot more research into GMOs than either you or I, I was inclined to believe him when he assured the audience that the seeds used for popcorn come from a different strain that is not genetically modified.
By the way, Orville’s is a food packager, not a genetic engineering laboratory like Monsanto. They do not “create” their own corn seeds.
Thanks for reading and contributing!
Hello. I grow popcorn on my Indiana farm. We contract acres with Weaver popcorn, and have been doing so for nearly 30 years. There are no GMO varieties of popcorn on the market at this time. I do grow Roundup Ready and Bt field corn, and I can grow it right next to my popcorn fields. Popcorn in dent sterile. This means that regular field corn cannot pollinate popcorn. Hope this helps!
Lol. It’s all Monsanto
[...] what blogger Elizabeth Yarnell has to say: At the Seeds of Doubt conference recently, Jeffery Smith, executive director of the Institute for [...]
Orville is not GMO. Traits are bred the old fashioned way by cross pollination between popcorn inbreds. I agree with Brian, popcorn is dent sterile, meaning that you can plant fence row to fence row with Dent Corn.
@ Elizabeth:
Oriville (ConAgra) and Pop Weaver are the primary popcorn companies in the U.S. They share a universial similarity: they both process popcorn and produce their own seed from their own genetics. There are other popcorn seed companies out there that do not process but only sell seed to processors. Hope this helps.
[...] if you are worried about popcorn being a GMO, according to the film Genetic Roulette, and other sources on the web quoting GMO expert Jeffery Smith, there is no GMO popcorn on the market. It comes from [...]
Actually, many corn farmers grow non-GMO corn, and they label it that way. There are dozens of heriloom varieties that are seriously delicious and nutricious! The Round-up Ready & and Bt field corn varieties are seriously unhealthy and are known to cause damage to red blood cells; but those kinds are only used in precessed foods; like corn syrup, starch, maltodextrin, and corn solids. When the GMO varieties crosspollinate; the next generation of corn is sterile, and therefore the heirloom lineages are not infected. There are zero GMO-varietes of popcorn available for farming.
There is also some nice US grown organic popcorn available (organic excludes GMO’s and is even more sustainable and healthy!), which we use in our product- Shawnee’s Greenthumb Popcorn – combined with spirulina, nutritional yeast and lots of other goodies- greenthumbpopcorn.com for more info!
I am popcorn geneticist, no GMO popcorn period.
This is all fascinating! I’m trying to deeply research corn being GMO and am glad to hear popcorn is not. Do you know if all other varities if corn are genetically modified? Like if I were to buy organic blue corn chips or tortillas? It seems kind of difficult to find definite information!
Lindsay, by definition “organic” corn chips are not made from GMO corn.
Watch the labels, folks. “100% organic” does not include GMO, but “organic” may or may not.