Video

Transcript

hey it’s dr. Bergin in this video we’re

gonna talk about a new topic

GMO basically I have a client here who

was a farmer who actually knows a lot

about it because in his farm he actually

did soy and corn GMO so I’m glad that

you’re here and I just have some

questions like you’ve done it so we

you’ve been in the area and you’re

looking to transition into organic

farming and you know a lot about it so

the first question is are there a lot of

farmers in the Midwest because you’re

from Illinois kind of doing GMO yeah

definitely

I would say probably admire it and I’ll

be conservative but at least 75% it’s

probably higher than that Wow the vast

majority and don’t mind the microphone

because their other mic it’s broken so

we’re going to go back and forth okay

good

and then so what’s the like the

motivation I know it’s probably I’m not

saying laziness but it’s a product is it

a little bit more work to do organic

yeah definitely more work you can cover

a larger area a higher volume of acres

doing the commercial and so there there

is more work involved is more of a

mechanical approach with the organics

Wow now GMO is genetically modified

organisms where they will take a plant

and they’ll take some other they can

take a verse from something or an animal

gene and splicing together I’m not sure

exactly what they do if the corn or the

soy but I do know that when they modify

it it becomes resistant to an herbicide

so corn is now resistant and they also

modify it for another reason too I think

it almost acts as a certain pesticide

doesn’t it corn yeah definitely as far

as I’m aware there’s a corn borer and

root worm which the species actually has

to beat on the plant but when it does

eat the plant it kills it kills the

inside

but there’s no harm to humans now I’m

just kidding

so what about if you use two genetically

modified corn you’re able to use roundup

ready or that spray and that ask is a

weed killer and so the plant thrives

better right and that’s what they do

they spray it yeah

but what about the soil itself like tell

me a little bit about do you put a lot

of minerals in what kind of minerals do

you put back on the soil we focus solely

on in being K so nitrogen potassium and

phosphorus but that’s pretty much the

limitation there Wow

so we don’t really so because I’ve never

farmed but they don’t really put all the

minerals back in right like all the

trace minerals you have like ninety for

minnows they don’t put those back in Wow

so like iodine you’re just gonna I mean

like people eat that food there’s gonna

be deficient iodine zinc selenium boron

manganese all these things that’s

amazing so they just so that’s why you

you need you know you need to enhance

like people say well you don’t really

need vitamins well you’re gonna have to

enhance something so the other question

I have is so they’re doing all the soil

out of the viewpoint that our world is

starving right and tell us just an

inside scoop of what you’re seeing what

they’re really using the corn for so as

far as my research is going I found that

the vast majority of corn is used in

either ethanol production or livestock

production like in the large confinement

type operation so basically using it to

feed animals yeah yeah or ethanol is

there what’s your viewpoint in ethanol

uh I don’t I don’t know all the ins

mounta but uh basically from what I

understand it it takes so much more

energy to produce a lot less energy as

an end product with

the the fuels and something else that’s

also an issue in my mind is that we use

an annual plant so we have to plant it

every year to get these fuels when

there’s a lot of other perennials that

have been proven they produce way more

ethanol per unit of a product but also

like per acre as well what’s the

perennial and annual so an annual has to

be planted every year its life cycles a

year long and a perennial comes back

every year like stea grass in your yard

comes back yeah

Wow so so now what about being

subsidized tell me about what what

happens to have this corn subsidized

yeah the corn and soybeans both are they

have programs and I can’t tell you the

ins and outs I’ve participated in them

but I was in a partnership with brothers

and I didn’t actually take care of that

part but yeah there is there is

subsidies to to raise both corn and

soybeans okay and then what what about

soy is that also used to feed the

livestock is that what these are for to

my knowledge that yeah there is quite a

bit there I in my research I found that

they use it a lot in fillers in human

consumption so we don’t actually see

that on the labels as far as I can tell

but uh yeah so I a lot of it is is also

animal consumption it’s kids all over

the it’s all it’s basically an almost

every food like in in this certain

aisles in the grocery store and then you

as they don’t label it of course because

they don’t want you to know that is GMO

but everyone knows it’s GMO right it’s

cheap isn’t it yeah to my understanding

that that’s a big reason why they use it

for a filler is because we have so much

of it which makes me question are we

over producing because they’re trying to

find places to put all this stuff it’s

kind of a racket and then they had this

thing called high fructose corn syrup

which is not even sweet it’s actually a

and you just drink your soda you know

amazing okay so now what about with

roundup-ready or whatever the chemicals

that you spray is how often do you do

you have to spray the ground first and

then the plant or how does it work

so with the roundup specifically you’ll

spread spray the plant so it’s a contact

killer

okay so ideally they’ll only want to

spray one time so that you want to make

two trips and across the field and keep

your cost down but there’s quite a bit

of issues in our area with resistance to

that chemical because of its overuse and

maybe not a responsible use but there’s

weeds now that it won’t even kill and

they’ve built up a resistance completely

to it because you have the soil which is

this has this micro floor this all this

bacteria that’s supposed to be there I’m

sure that’s probably killed so you’re

gonna get all these just like in your

body if you have any box you’re gonna

East infections and fungal infections I

could imagine you’re gonna get that with

this corn and soy how about the seats

like you have to buy the seeds and you

can you keep using them and use your own

seeds and plant it over and over how

does it work no logic would tell you

that you can say back season and plan on

the next year but so you sign what they

call a technology agreement and so at

that point you cannot say back any of

the seed that you produce from the

original see so yeah you buy you buy

seed every year Wow interesting you have

a nice little connection with that does

GMO produce more crop than organic or

non-gmo that’s a good question so

basically in my research with some red

flags popping up on in questioning what

I’m doing and the reasons and and the

effects we have ended up raising some

more non-gmo crops which to my

understanding is a lot more human

consumption

versus animals and ethanol but the Yi as

far as the yields go we have seen the

same yields if not better and compared

to non GMO so no I in our experience

there’s definitely not an advantage in

yield Wow it’s just interesting you yeah

well just makes you start thinking

things completely differently and the

other question that I have is that so we

have a combination of the soil the soil

this gets destroyed and then yeah the

farmer that’s kind of almost like

they’re stuck in a I guess a little bit

of a rut right where they they’re in

this machine that they’re basically

having to kind of a little bit forced to

promote that and then let me can you

tell me a little bit about that yeah no

it I think it it definitely seems like a

like a hamster wheel in a sense so you

you know you can’t you can’t say back

seed with which makes no sense and and

it’s become widely accepted and

surprisingly enough but you know you

can’t you can’t save back seeds you you

sell to your local to your local

elevator and and I guess there’s more of

a middleman but as far as where the

product goes like you don’t sell to the

end-user so you don’t really have that

control as far as selling you know you

really feel like it’s yours because your

son you’re signing up you’re signing a

weight control I guess that cuz you

can’t even you can’t replant the product

you can’t save back well I just see this

as stuck between a rock and a hard place

because it’s like you don’t have the

freedom to plant and so who you want to

you’re like just the middleman

so you don’t really see what’s going on

so wow that’s interesting well thank you

very much for that data all right cool