Sierra Club, Central Iowa Group
FEBRUARY 18, Wednesday
Organic Producer Impacted by GE Corn

Laura Krouse is a farmer and a teacher from Mt. Vernon, in eastern Iowa.
She raises a variety of open-pollinated corn, called Abbe Hills, that has
been grown continuously on her farm for 100 years.  The corn produces a
high-quality feed, and she sells its seed to livestock producers all over
the upper Midwest.  She farms organically, and she and her workers operate a
Community Supported Agriculture garden that produces food for about 80 Mt.
Vernon and Lisbon families for 20 weeks each year.  Laura is also a biology
teacher at Cornell College, and has served many years as a commissioner of
the Linn Soil and Water Conservation District.

In early 2002, the Abbe Hills corn that Laura intended to sell that year as
seed tested positive for the presence of a genetically engineered trait that
allows corn to resist certain insect pests.  The only way this trait could
have entered her population was by pollen blown from some other field where
the "Bt corn" was being grown.  Because many of her seed customers were
certified organic dairies, her business was damaged by this genetic
contamination.  In her talk, she will briefly explain the process of genetic
engineering, describe what happened on her farm, and discuss some of the
possible economic and environmental consequences of the use of this
technology.

Meetings of Central Iowa Sierra Group begin at 7:30 p.m. and are held at
Grace United Methodist Church,
37th and Cottage Grove in Des Moines.  If there are questions about the
program, please call Jane at 223-5047 or [log in to unmask]

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