Сохранение сладкой кукурузы сладкой

Кто любит сладкую кукурузу так же сильно, как и мы?

Ошибки!

Практически каждый знает, как расстраиваться поездка в продуктовый магазин или на местный рынок., locating the bins of freshly-picked sweet corn, and shucking a few husks to check for quality. Then you see it, usually near the top of the cob: A tiny worm, munching on the kernels of sweet corn that you had hoped to eat for dinner.

It’s enough to make you lose your appetite.

К счастью, this annoyance soon may become a thing of the past–as long as we don’t let the enemies of agricultural technology have their way with our food.

Годами, farmers like me have raised genetically modified corn. Больше, чем 90 percent of all the corn grown in the United States is a GM product, much of it now bred to enjoy a natural resistance to pests and weeds. We depend on it to produce the food we eat every day.

The market for sweet corn, the kind of corn that we buy at grocery stores and eat at home — not the corn that feeds animals, makes sugar, or blends into biofuels–is a small sliver of the corn market. Although biotech sweet corn became widely available a number of years ago, only now has it started to gain momentum as a popular consumer item.

One early result was improved taste. When the husks come off corn, the sugar in the kernels starts to break down–so shucked corn should be eaten as soon as possible, to keep its flavor. If we can keep the husks on longer, we’ll savor our corn even more.

Над 20 много лет назад, when I began growing “sweet” corn, retail customers were looking for good flavor and the corn tasted good. “Sweet” is a matter of perspective however. It was not long until I was introduced to sugar enhanced corn. The sugar content in the sweet corn went from 8 процентов в 17 percent and the corn tasted ‘better’. сегодня, super sweet corn, с 30 percent sugar content, wows customers everywhere. These genetic enhancements defined the “sweet” in sweet corn and for close to 20 лет, this is what moms have been preparing for the dinner table.

Other benefits of GM sweet corn aren’t as obvious. One of the chief advantages of biotech crops today is that they allow farmers like me to use fewer chemicals to control insects, pests and weeds. This is a benefit that consumers will experience firsthand, even if they don’t quite realize it right away. Первоначально, they may not even notice the complete absence of worms from corn. Over time, it may dawn on them that they haven’t spotted any of these nasty critters in a long while. We may even reach a point where consumers don’t feel a need to shuck their corn before buying it, because they’ll come to expect full and healthy kernels on the inside. Talk about a win-win.

And there is more. Farmers burn less fuel because we have to run fewer tractors through our fields. Другими словами, biotechnology allows us to conserve gas–a savings we can pass on to consumers–and also reduces our carbon footprint. So GM corn is also a more sustainable food source that will help us minimize the impact of farming on the environment. Everybody should hail this advance in agricultural technology.

As with any innovative ‘solution’, there are often detractors. They may be driven by fear of the unknown or in support of a personal ideology. In a war of popular perceptions, confusion can carry the day, allowing fear, ignorance and outspoken activists to distort the truth and run roughshod over the interests of consumers. Ð’ таком случае, people like you and me who want to eat and serve affordable, tasty, nutritious corn to our family and friends.

Forty-plus years in retailing fresh produce has taught me that great taste, good quality and reliable supply will win over even the most ardent of naysayers, one ear at a time.

Джон Rigolizzo, младший. это пятый фермер поколения, поднимая свежие овощи и поле кукурузы в южной части Нью-Джерси. Семейная ферма производит продукцию для розничных и оптовых рынков.. Джон является добровольным членом совета директоров Truth About Trade. & Технологии (www.truthabouttrrade.org)