How have genetically modified foods/seeds affected Massachusetts agricultural practices?
“Not a whole lot except for the [Roundup ready] corn grown mostly for feed; sweet corn, I guess. It’s cutting the amount of and cost of pesticides needed. There have been some complaints by the organic community that wind is taking this stuff over and affecting their corn and other vegetables. I don’t know how much is true or conjecture. We are 13th in the nation in terms of producing organic produce, so there has been some tension between the organic boys and the other boys.” Will your office mediate? “At this point, department of agriculture does not need to step in. If it reached the point that our organic produce was tainted and could not be certified, we would have to step in. We have not heard any complaints of that nature. Our farms are relatively small, relatively spread apart. The GMO corn growers are generally not near the other producers. My guess is that if there is any drift, it’s fairly minimal.” Have there been, or do you foresee, any issues arising in Massachusetts agri
