GE High-Yield Corn Goes Seedless

It sounded weird to me too. Apparently, the seed corn sprouted and produced corn plants; the plants produced ears that even looked normal from the outside; but when the shucks were opened, the cobs inside had few or no seeds. It seems related to a far more common problem, that unhealthy corn plants tend to produce stunted ears that have kernels only on part of the cob and a withered end above that.

>>For one, corn seeds are not fertilized "in the lab". Corn plants are wind-pollinated and this occurs during the growing cycle. The only way something could have been "underfertilized in the lab" would be if the crop Monsanto grew to produce the seeds was underfertilized, in which case, why would that affect what seeds the crop DID produce? I am not sure.<<

Yes, I thought that sounded odd too. The only thing I can think of is that underfertilization might have somehow damaged the seeds in a way that plants sprouting from them would be unable to reproduce properly. But poor nutrient supply a) doesn't usually cause that kind of damage, and b) usually does cause other obvious signs such as off color, stunted growth, misshapen leaves/stems, etc.

>> I think the problem could have been a few things. Corn is pollinated when the pollen from the top of the plant (tassel) hits the silk strands at the end of the ear. If the corn doesn't produce enough silks at the end of an ear, or if they somehow develop improperly, then they won't fertilized and the corn ears will have fewer or no kernels.<<

A couple other possibilities: 1) Corn is wind-pollinated; if there is not enough air movement, or if pouring rain washes all the pollen out of the air, that can prevent seed from setting. This happens -- but it doesn't tend to produce empty ears. It produces ears with 1/4, 1/2, or 3/4 the normal amount of kernels. That's bad enough, but probably not the same as "few or no kernels." 2) The problem with gengineering is that traits don't match genes on a one-to-one basis. Tinkering with one thing can change something else you didn't mean to change ... like, say, the stickiness of the silk strands. If they aren't sticky, the pollen won't adhere. Some types of genetic damage can cause the silk texture to develop wrong.

>> The third thing that could have happened would be if the tassels did not start pollinating the ears at the proper time, when the silk was ready to be fertilized. In other words, everything worked properly, but the timing was off. If the problem was due to genetic modification, then this is my personal bet as to what happened since the story said that everything looked healthy until the corn ears were actually shucked. <<

That's plausible, and checkable if anyone kept close enough records or has some of the seed corn left unsprouted.

>> However, before people jump to conclusions, we should wait to make sure that Monsanto truly did cause the problem. <<

Agreed.

>> For example, the Monsanto modifications might have made the corn more resistant to insects, but also more susceptible to drought, which could have exacerbated a problem that would have occured anyway, but would not have been as severe if Monsanto corn had not been planted. <<

This is a very widespread complaint against not just Monsanto but all the uber-agrocompanies. They move into an area where farmers have spent hundreds or thousands of years developing cultivars adapted to local conditions. Then the company pressures people to buy seeds, instead of saving them, and buy chemical fertilizers and pesticides and herbicides to protect them. But the company's seeds are designed to do just one or two things super well, under optimized conditions -- and when sold in the real world, performance often suffers.

Happily some people are realizing this. It used to be hard to find antique/heritage/open-pollinated cultivars. Then you could find some in specialty catalogs. Now even the commercial garden catalogs usually have a few, and some garden centers carry plants -- I saw some today. So there's progress, at least where it's harder for the ubercorps to harass, sue, or kill people for saving seeds.