I am sitting here shoulders a little slumped forward. I cannot tell if their position is due to readiness to type and respond to your post or if it is the heaviness effect of the topic on me. Funny how the neurons work. Your story, Mike, evoked grieving for my late papi. His father and most of his brothers were in the Customs Brokering business. My dad's job was "classifier" (before computers) and his role was to classify everything that was coming and going through the Mexican -USA border. "A woman's pant with two pocket, four pockets or no pockets" is one example of how specific the classification had to be. The import fees were based on the classification. He was not an emotive person at all and perhaps that is why this memory is seared in my heart. One day, he came home and announced it was the saddest day of his life. He had for the first time "classified" United States-grown white corn to be imported into Mexico. Mexico, he clarified, had been selling its white corn keeping the "courser" yellow corn for the Mexican people. He further emphasized his outrage by informing us that yellow corn is for feeding pigs. Besides "Thanks" for all your stories, Mike", this is all I have to say. I definitely need a comforting cup of coffee now.
I hope you had that cup of coffee, Elva, and that it did the job it was hired to do. Thanks for sharing the memories of your papi. And I hope that Mexico does a better job today keeping its non-pig-food corn for themselves.
Personally, I try not to buy or consume GMO foods, and specifically GMO corn and have started to avoid corn all together because it makes me feel bad. I am headed to mexico soon and want to see if mexican corn does the same. I would hate to see mexico have to buy GMO corn, but rather like to see US produce more non-GMO to sell to mexico if that is how it needs to go. Also what happened to supply and demand? Is the trade agreement making it so consumers are out of the picture in our needs and preferences?
My understanding is that US growers refuse to transition to non-GMO crops. The economic advantages of GMO I guess are just too overwhelming. Oh well. I hope your Mexican corn experiment goes well!!
I'm not a GMO expert by any means, or all means, or no means at all, but the line that jumped out at me was about how some GMO stuff is about profit and I'm reminded of stories I've read how certain seeds when grown produce sterile seeds because then the farmer needs to buy more sacks from Giant Corp, Inc. And how some farmers have been sued because winds carried pieces of plants from other fields that contained trademarked products so now even Mother Nature needs a lawyer. What a mess, and profit is the name.
I saw if Mexico doesn't want GMO corn from the states, good for them. Thanks for the updates, Mike.
Yes, good point, Victor. I didn't get into how Giant Corp, Inc likes to encumber its seeds with patents and sterility, thereby ensuring year-over-year profits from the poor farmers who must constantly re-purchase those seeds. This is certainly one of the evil sides of bioengineered crops. What a mess.
I am sitting here shoulders a little slumped forward. I cannot tell if their position is due to readiness to type and respond to your post or if it is the heaviness effect of the topic on me. Funny how the neurons work. Your story, Mike, evoked grieving for my late papi. His father and most of his brothers were in the Customs Brokering business. My dad's job was "classifier" (before computers) and his role was to classify everything that was coming and going through the Mexican -USA border. "A woman's pant with two pocket, four pockets or no pockets" is one example of how specific the classification had to be. The import fees were based on the classification. He was not an emotive person at all and perhaps that is why this memory is seared in my heart. One day, he came home and announced it was the saddest day of his life. He had for the first time "classified" United States-grown white corn to be imported into Mexico. Mexico, he clarified, had been selling its white corn keeping the "courser" yellow corn for the Mexican people. He further emphasized his outrage by informing us that yellow corn is for feeding pigs. Besides "Thanks" for all your stories, Mike", this is all I have to say. I definitely need a comforting cup of coffee now.
I hope you had that cup of coffee, Elva, and that it did the job it was hired to do. Thanks for sharing the memories of your papi. And I hope that Mexico does a better job today keeping its non-pig-food corn for themselves.
Personally, I try not to buy or consume GMO foods, and specifically GMO corn and have started to avoid corn all together because it makes me feel bad. I am headed to mexico soon and want to see if mexican corn does the same. I would hate to see mexico have to buy GMO corn, but rather like to see US produce more non-GMO to sell to mexico if that is how it needs to go. Also what happened to supply and demand? Is the trade agreement making it so consumers are out of the picture in our needs and preferences?
My understanding is that US growers refuse to transition to non-GMO crops. The economic advantages of GMO I guess are just too overwhelming. Oh well. I hope your Mexican corn experiment goes well!!
I'm not a GMO expert by any means, or all means, or no means at all, but the line that jumped out at me was about how some GMO stuff is about profit and I'm reminded of stories I've read how certain seeds when grown produce sterile seeds because then the farmer needs to buy more sacks from Giant Corp, Inc. And how some farmers have been sued because winds carried pieces of plants from other fields that contained trademarked products so now even Mother Nature needs a lawyer. What a mess, and profit is the name.
I saw if Mexico doesn't want GMO corn from the states, good for them. Thanks for the updates, Mike.
Yes, good point, Victor. I didn't get into how Giant Corp, Inc likes to encumber its seeds with patents and sterility, thereby ensuring year-over-year profits from the poor farmers who must constantly re-purchase those seeds. This is certainly one of the evil sides of bioengineered crops. What a mess.