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| I'm responding in good faith because these are the kinds of discussions that need to be had about the seed industry.
Based on the costs of running a breeding program, a testing program, production costs, processing costs, marketing, seed delivery, and customer service, it's actually not too much for a bag of corn seed. I can't afford to get into a price war just to have the lowest priced conventional seed and still provide the quality of product I expect in a bag of BASS seed corn. I also know these genetics bring unique characteristics to the marketplace. If BASS doesn't value their own genetics, no one else will.
Again, in good faith and hoping for an honest discussion, I ask what the underlying assumptions are that $215/bag (starting, before discounts) for untreated conventional corn is "insanely high." A lot of times these unconscious assumptions include (and I have actually heard all of these):
-Conventional corn does not yield as much as GMO traited corn
-NonGMO corn has a yield penalty, that's why there's a premium on nonGMO grain
-Corn doesn't grow as well without GMO traits (or straight up can't grow, I've heard that, too)
-The GMO hybrids are the newest genetics out there, and the conventional is what's left behind
-NonGMO corn can't handle X, Y or Z pest, so I need GMO traited corn
-The insect pressure is too high, only GMO corn can handle it (even said while I have insect-tolerant non-GMO corn growing nearby & handling the pressure better than the GMO treated corn)
I've spent the better part of 15 years working with both conventional genetics and GMO-traited genetics, both in the field and reviewing research yield results. I still come across my own unconscious biases mostly based on repeated marketing messages over years, and I do not judge anyone who has these internalized. We all have our own biases. I know that the above are not true blanket statements, and I also know I could set up a trial to prove all of those if I chose the genetics correctly. A LOT of the marketing over the last few decades has been on the benefits of the GMO traits and valuing those over the base corn genetics, and that's a hard hurdle to overcome. It's a lot easier for a company to say, "I have X GMO trait, and it's worth $Y amount more" and charge that much more than it is to say "My base genetics are worth $Z amount more" and charge for that.
I can say:
-Yield comes from the corn genetics, not the GMO trait(s).
-Not all conventional genetics are the same.
-Isoline testing of the same genetics of conventional vs the GMO traited versions have shown that in absence of the GMO target best, the conventional will yield the same or more than the GMO traited version.
-Most corn inbreds are still developed conventionally first with the GMO traits added in later through backcrossing, meaning that if you look at genetic gain and released new conventional products before the GMO traited version was released, the new conventional genetics would outyield the current GMO traited products...so a pretty good way to artificially make the GMO hybrids all look better than the conventional genetics is to not release the conventional until later. With the big companies still providing most of the corn genetics to the marketplace (into other, independent brands), this is a HUGE problem for getting better conventional genetics available to farmers.
-Most of the CRW GMO traits have shown some level of failing.
-Native insect tolerance DOES exist, and many of the Durayield BASS hybrids have some level of it (BASS doesn't charge more for it, either).
A lot of other things I have seen is regional pricing, where one region of the country will pay more for a bag of the same seed than another region. BASS doesn't do that. | |
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BASS Hybrids- High End Genetics w/o the price tag of GMO
